[Sosfbay-discuss] Cynthia McKinney's Challenge to the war parties

[Drew Johnson]

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/campaignmatters?bid=45&pid=250721
CYNTHIA MCKINNEY'S CHALLENGE TO "THE WAR PARTIES"...
Cynthia McKinney, who appears to be in the process of reversing an earlier
decision to forego a 2008 presidential bid on the Green Party line, has in
recent days taken a number of steps toward mounting an anti-war run
against the Democratic and Republican nominees next year.

The former Democratic congresswoman from Georgia has got a new website up
-- www. runcynthiarun.org -- which seeks campaign contributions "so we can
get on with the business of getting Cynthia on fifty-one ballots and
reaching out to the voters of this nation who are ready for a Green
alternative to the wars being waged both at home and abroad by the War
Parties and their candidates."

And McKinney is celebrating the success of supporters in getting her name
placed on the ballot for the February 5 Green Party presidential primary
in Illinois.

McKinney, who in a September 10 a letter to the steering committee of the
Green Party of the United States indicated that she would not seek the
party's presidential nomination, began to reconsider that decision almost
immediately.

With steady encouragement from grassroots Greens, many of whom came to see
the maverick House member as a political hero during her time in
Washington, McKinney quit the Democratic Party in September and enrolled
as a Green in October.

On October 22, McKinney supporters filed paperwork with the Federal
Election Commission to establish an exploratory committee for a Green
Party presidential bid.

McKinney is signaling that a formal declaration could come late in
November. But she's already making appearances around the country for
local Green parties and their candidates -- including visits to South
Carolina, Maine and New York before last Tuesday's elections. And she is
certainly sounding like a candidate.

"We're going to have to do things we've never done before if we're to have
things we've never had before," she wrote in a thank-you to Illinois
supporters. "Democracy, authentic representation, human needs prioritized,
universal access to health care, bringing our troops home, making peace
with the world's nations, making peace with our home planet, making peace
in our own communities, funding schools over jails... Each of these alone
is something we've never known before. Anyone of them alone would be worth
doing things we've never done before. And all of them can be achieved when
we get engaged and make democracy our own."


Posted by John Nichols at 11/10/2007 @ 10:32am | Email This Post