The Errant Æsthete

Dennis Kucinich wears the look of a man who’s just won the sweepstakes. He says a colleague from the House told him it didn’t matter how he did in the presidential race because he’d already won. He won Brit beauty Elizabeth to be his wife. He still can’t believe it and according to this treacly profile of the Kucinich love story in Wednesday’s Washington Post, neither can the dudes still ogling the flame-haired knockout. The story leads with Kucinich recounting a romantic dinner in Washington’s Dupont Circle during which a male passerby, upon seeing Elizabeth, stops dead in his tracks before charging into the restaurant and breathlessly asking her out while she was holding hands with lil’ D.

While some might be inclined to sheepishly sweep this emasculating little incident under the rug, Kucinich is using it instead as an anecdote that speaks to his, uh, electability. Kucinich recalls that after Elizabeth oh-so-gently informed the love-struck pedestrian that the she was married to the much older elfin gentleman whose wee hand she was swallowing with her own (”I hate breaking hearts!” she says), the Ohio congressman asked a colleague, “Now you know why I think I can be president?” He added, “If I can marry this incredibly brilliant, beautiful woman, I mean, why wouldn’t I think I can be president of the United States?” Good point! [Link]