All business: Kucinich's wife a straight talker

But even though Kucinich may look more like a movie star than a potential first lady, as she arrived at the state Capitol on Tuesday for an interview, it was apparent there's nothing glamorous about her husband Dennis' low-key campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination.

This Kucinich, a native of England, has no press people, handlers, consultants or over-eager aides coached in Washington-speak.

She's accompanied only by her mother and a local supporter, both of whom wait patiently out of sight while Kucinich, 29, plants herself at a rickety picnic table and engages in a 40-minute discussion about politics.

"The thing about Dennis and me is that you can ask us a straight question and we'll give you a straight answer, and I don't need 10 people around me," she says. "What you see is what you get."

Against the backdrop of Arizona's copper-domed Capitol may may seem like a random place for presidential politics to unfold. But then again, Kucinich isn't your textbook political wife. She's not big on small talk — once you get her started chatting about policy, though, she's on a roll.

A veteran Ohio congressman, Dennis Kucinich, 61, first ran for president in 2004. This year, his anti-war mantra is considerably more in line with public opinion than it was three years ago.

Elizabeth didn't even know who Dennis was until two years ago, but now she travels the country promoting her husband's "Strength through Peace" motto.

The Kuciniches want big changes in U.S. foreign and domestic policy: a pullout of all forces from Iraq, to be replaced with an international peace-keeping coalition; a repeal of the North American Free Trade Agreement; the institution of a universal health care program; and a border policy that puts third-world reform ahead of "militarization."

And as she journeys through Arizona to Mexico this week, meeting with supporters as she goes, Elizabeth is not afraid to criticize the new Democratic Congress, pointing to its unwillingness to support drastic change in Iraq.

"We actually saw a shift for support towards Iraq rather than a shift in the other direction, which is completely against where the American people were," she said. "We can't be masked by whether you belong to the Republican Party or whether you belong to the Democratic Party. We can see that both parties are not representing the mainstream voice of the American people."

American needs "two parties, not one," Elizabeth says.

"What is it if you have (Rudy) Giuliani and Hillary (Clinton) in the general election? Well, you have two people who are pro-war. Two people who aren't going to change the health-care system. Two who are going to keep trade the same. What's the choice?"

Kucinich, not yet an American citizen, says the United States has gone from being the world's hero to being seen as a "threatening force."

"I love America," she says. "When I grew up, America was really that place where the streets were lined with gold. It was a progressive country the world looked up to, and over a decade or two we saw that completely flip."

Elizabeth says she knew within moments of meeting Dennis that she would marry him. They were engaged on their second date and tied the knot three months later.

Voters don't appear as star-stuck. Even though Elizabeth claims Dennis is the mainstream candidate, her husband barely registers in national polling.

But with 73 percent of Americans dissatisfied with the direction of the country, if there was ever a chance a first lady with a tongue piercing like Elizabeth to reside in the White House, now might just be the time.

Did you know …

If Democrat Dennis Kucinich were elected president, his 29-year-old wife, Elizabeth, would be the first first lady in American history to not be a U.S. citizen.

Louisa Adams, wife of John Quincy Adams, is the only foreign-born first lady in history.

At 21 years old when she became first lady, Frances Folsom Cleveland, wife of Grover Cleveland, was the the youngest first lady in history.