Dennis Kucinich
Toadstool Bookshop, Milford, N.H., Nov. 26, 2007

Peacenik Dennis Kucinich's new memoir, The Courage To Survive, is ranked No. 29,427 on Amazon.com as of this writing. Still, it takes me two tries to get within handshaking distance of the candidate during his New Hampshire book tour. In a poorly calculated move, I initially drove two hours round-trip to Portsmouth—a liberal seacoast city known for its museums and hip restaurants. Turns out that Kucinich is a rock star there. The baby and I watched him autograph books from outside the shop's front window.

In blue-collar Milford, a small town known for mining granite, there's not much pandemonium. Dahlia helps push attendance at the Toadstool book reading to a baker's dozen. Before melodramatically telling the audience that he used to live in a car, Kucinich seemed flattered to pose for a picture. Even though I'm politically right-of-center, consider me a reluctant fan.