MANCHESTER, N.H. (Jan. 5) — For Elizabeth Kucinich and Whitney Stewart Gravel, health care and the Iraq war gave chances to support their husbands Saturday.
“I am so happy I married a man who believes in universal healthcare,” said Elizabeth Kucinich, wife of Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich, a congressman from Ohio.
Whitney Gravel called for better care for troops coming home from Iraq. “We need to make sure our veterans are treated fairly,” said Whitney Gravel, wife of former Alaskan Sen. Mike Gravel. He is also running for the Democratic presidential nomination.
The two were the only spouses of candidates to show up at a forum Saturday night. The event was sponsored by Women Working Together to Make a Difference. All the spouses of both Republican and Democratic candidates had been invited. But the spouses of major front-runners declined the invitation.
Echoing her husband’s emphasis on health care for all Americans, Elizabeth Kucinich sharply criticized the private insurance system. “We need to force the insurance companies out of business because they are only in the business of making money. We need to break the hold these companies have at the moment and we can do this by not subsidizing them,” she said.
Kucinich won applause when she called the Iraq war “a war based on lies.” She urged the U.S. to make better use of diplomacy and international institutions. “That’s a way to prevent young men and women from entering illegal wars. We need to bring those troops home and change the level of thinking in Washington,” she said.
Whitney Gravel agreed. “ We need to stop using the war as an instrument of foreign policy,” Gravel said.
On health care, Gravel called for more competition among insurance companies and lower overhead costs. She urged more attention on the epidemic of obesity. “ Too many children are obese,” said Gravel, “and as a nation we need to tackle that problem.”
The event solidified a vote for Dennis Kucinich vote from Long Island resident Robert Pilnick, who was teetering between Illinois Sen. Barack Obama and New York Sen. Hillary Clinton. He praised Elizabeth Kucinich for what he saw as her sincerity.
“Everything she was saying, you believed it because she was passionate about it. She really had a grasp on the issues and she seems committed,” said Pilnick. “And that’s important because the presidency is really a partnership that involves the first lady.”
(Koren Temple, a magazine-newspaper-online journalism graduate student, is also covering the New Hampshire primary for Campaign&Elections magazine.)
-30-
