If only Dennis Kucinich could repress his urge to fantasize in public about his upcoming inauguration as president of the United States, maybe people would take him a little more seriously – at least as a gadfly.

But Kucinich can’t help himself. The starry-eyed congressman from Cleveland who barely grazed the electorate’s consciousness when he ran for president in 2004 apparently wants to be taken seriously in 2008 – not merely as a longtime war critic who might influence his party’s position on Iraq, but as a genuine contender for the Democratic nomination.

At the recent winter meeting of the Democratic National Committee in Washington, D.C., where 10 presidential wannabes made their cases to party activists from around the country, Kucinich’s plight was so plain that even he couldn’t ignore it.

So many people in the ballroom of the Washington Hilton kept yammering after he was introduced that Kucinich had to stop and ask for his audience’s attention. This wasn’t a problem faced by Barack Obama, John Edwards or Hillary Clinton.

Kucinich proceeded to deliver a speech that underscored why so many in the audience had tuned him out before he even began. It was a speech that was peculiar in more than one way.

First, Kucinich referred repeatedly to his plans “as president,” even alluding at one point, with a totally straight face, to his inauguration in 2009.

Second, he spoke relatively briefly about the war in Iraq, the one issue where party activists think he could have some impact. Kucinich, after all, is the only Democratic candidate who voted against going to war in Iraq.

Third, unlike his rivals who tried to rally the crowd with talk about hot-button subjects like health care, Iraq and the struggles of American workers, Kucinich devoted the bulk of his speech to describing at length, in hushed tones, a trip that he and his wife, Elizabeth, took last year to southern Lebanon, where they witnessed scenes of destruction from the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.

His point, he said, was to relay a message from Lebanese villagers who want Americans to know that they want to live in peace.

This led him to tell the crowd about an idea his wife has come up with to create something called “the 9/10 Forum” – an effort to “bring together groups to rediscover who we were before 9/11.”

Kucinich, a longtime New Ager, did not explain how rediscovering a pre-9/11 world would bring peace to the Mideast, a region where peace was elusive long before 9/11. He did, however, offer that he believes Americans can create a better world “through a process known as appreciative inquiry.” He did not explain, for the unenlightened, what this process is.

Fourth, Kucinich seemed preoccupied with his wife. He welcomed her at the start as “a great humanitarian,” thanked her at the end and managed to refer to her six times in between.

This spousal devotion not only distinguished Kucinich, who was divorced twice before remarrying in 2005, from his fellow aspirants; it served to remind any Democrat who may have forgotten that Kucinich became notorious in the 2004 campaign for being so open to finding a new mate that he was willing to go on a blind date set up by a political Web site.

Despite all his quirks, Kucinich seemed to thoroughly enjoy his turn at the microphone. And perhaps that is the definition of happiness – enjoying yourself, regardless of how you come across to others.

Kucinich can happily spend the next year and a half using his platform as a presidential candidate to relay messages from Lebanon, broadcast the virtues of his wife and hold press conferences with Hollywood stars who share his passion for creating a Department of Peace.

He shouldn’t be too surprised, however, if Democrats continue chatting when they see him approach the stage.