As a matter of fact, there's a very good reason...

...for Dennis Kucinich to stay in the Presidential race. No, it's not because I think he can accumulate enough delegates to win the nomination. I know that the "unelectable" tag infuriates the Kucinich true-believers, but it is, in fact, the hard truth.

But if there's really a link to what Paul Wellstone called the "Democratic wing of the Democratic Party," the faction of true progressives that acts as the Party's conscience and keeps calling it home to its principles, it's Dennis Kucinich. He can't be nominated, and wouldn't be elected, because there's simply not enough time in a single Presidential campaign to educate enough voters on the important issues he raises, but those issues need to be raised, and raised again, through two or three or four or more election cycles, in order to make the progress that progressives keep talking about.

It's a long, hard process, and it requires sacrifice, and Dennis Kucinich is making that sacrifice this year. He deserves a lot more props for the effort than he gets.

One of the issues, maybe the most important one, that Kucinich is talking about is single payer health care. He's not alone - Carol Mosley Braun supports single payer, too, but he's the most effective national spokesman for the issue right now.

In an interview with Salon (and don't whine about the link. Watch the ad - or better yet, buy a sub - and read the interview) Kucinich points out exactly why his plan is better than any of the other candidate's plans (2nd place goes to Kerry for his proposal to take catastrophic care out of the private insurance pool).

" Now, Governor Dean has said that he wants everyone to have health insurance. We must look at that description. Health insurance. That means you can have health insurance, but you're still going to be stuck with an insurance company that's going to raise your premiums, increase your co-pays, increase your deductibles and shrink you area of coverage. Because insurance companies make money not providing healthcare."

Hang in there, Dennis. You're a good guy doing a good thing.