…Bush made the remarks at a news conference earlier this month. He said: “I’ve told people that if you’re interested in avoiding World War III, it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing them (Iran) from having the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon.”
Kucinich said he doesn’t believe his comments about the president’s mental health are irresponsible, according to a story posted on the newspaper’s Web site. “You cannot be a president of the United States who’s wanton in his expression of violence,” Kucinich said. “There’s a lot of people who need care. He might be one of them. If there isn’t something wrong with him, then there’s something wrong with us. This, to me, is a very serious question.”‘ (AP via Yahoo! )
While I certainly think that assessment of mental health should be left to professionals, I think it is irresponsible not to raise concerns such as Kucinich does here. I have long held that the President’s publicly acknowledged obligation to the people to be in good enough health to govern (as reflected in having an annual checkup and making the findings public) should extend to her/his mental health. The results of an annual, if not more frequent, mental health evaluation should also be made public. Would Kucinich, or any other candidate, commit themselves to that as a campaign promise, in light of Dubya’s evident imbalance?
