Elizabeth Kucinich on Why It's Not Working Out

I caught up with the tall red-haired Elizabeth Kucinich this morning downtown Manchester. "It was very interesting last night," she said of the New Hampshire Democratic dinner, at which her husband Dennis spoke. "So you saw: standing ovation, whooping, cheering.... Lots of people came up, saying we love you, you're right about everything. And then I see them wearing pins for other candidates. And I said, not being a shy, retiring wife, 'Maybe we can exchange your pin for a Kucinich pin?'"

The obstacle to the Kucinich campaign, as she sees it, is the obsession with "electability."

"When you vote for the lesser of two evils, you get what you get," she said.

But they are fired-up over the story of Huckabee in Iowa. "The Huckabee case is important for the Democratic community to recognize. There was a large group of people who hadn't found their candidate.... Huckabee showed that we need the integrity of the vote.... We need to stop selling ourselves out in this country.

"If in January 2009 they've elected someone who doesn't represent them, then they have no right to complain about the government," she said.

Did the English-born chief campaign staffer see much difference in U.K. and U.S. politics? "Here it's more personality and bells and whistles--too much glitz, not enough politics. Maybe [there's] too much politics."

Now the Kucinich volunteers are going out door-knocking, as is pretty much everyone in town. Which means--is anyone home to be converted? One Obama supporter told me this morning that this week she'd been out canvassing and not a soul was to be found at home. Is New Hampshire already a state of decided voters?