Catching Up With A Loser: Dennis Kucinich

Join former United States Senate Pages Dylan and Ethan Ris as they bring you the dish on not just the presidential race but all the exciting triumphs and disgraces inside, outside, and below the Beltway!

Catching Up With A Loser! If the Pages have learned one thing in Washington, it's that politics can be a lot like high school. Take, for instance, the 2008 Democratic presidential primary. You had your major jocks — Barack Obama (basketball team), Bill Richardson (baseball team), John Edwards (synchronized swimming). And then you had your nerds — Hillary Clinton (student government), Chris Dodd (Glee Club), Tom Vilsack (tech theater).

But no one was a bigger nerd than this week's Presidential Loser: Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH)! The Congressman from Cleveland was the president of the A/V Club and the Latin Society rolled up into one — and the bullies on the campaign trail never let him forget it. Kucinich was picked on mercilessly for his uber-dork attributes, including:

* Diminutive height.

* Adamant veganism.

* Destruction of Cleveland as Boy Mayor in the 1970's.

It also did not help that Kucinich (though 61 years old) had still not hit puberty, and that his most prominent endorsement was from a J.R.R. Tolkien character. Still he pressed on, and with good reason. After all, his 2004 presidential run garnered him 67 delegates and a foxy new wife 31 years his junior!

But like so many other high schoolers, Kucinich hit the sophomore slump in his second run for the White House. Having ceded the "liberal populist" vote to John Edwards Version 2.0 and the "hilarious prank vote" to newcomer Mike Gravel, the Ohio Congressman had to drop out of the race on January 24, 2008. Kucinich is now back on the job in Washington, occupied with impeaching George W. Bush and protecting outer space for future generations of Star Wars collectibles!