Does Paulsen stand a ghost of a chance?

<p>Don't expect Dennis Kucinich to admit it. But maybe, just maybe, the straw that broke the back of his presidential primary campaign was the shame of being outpolled in some Michigan precincts by a dead guy.</p><p>Turn down the election noise and you may hear the hatching of a write-in campaign for Pat Paulsen, the droop-faced comic and ex-Sonoma County winemaker who was a perennial, half-serious candidate for president from 1968 until his death, at 69, in 1997.</p><p>Among Pat's more memorable campaign slogans: "I've Upped My Standards, Now Up Yours!" Pressed to confide what attracted him most to the job, he'd often reply, "The pension plan."</p><p>His widow, Noma Paulsen, and daughter, Terri, have posthumously revived his quest for the Oval Office after something about this current primary campaign prompted a host of voters to log onto paulsen.com and plead for Pat to make one more run.</p><p>In Michigan, where the late comedian, Smothers Brothers TV show writer and "Mayor of Asti" once lived, he actually did receive more Democratic votes in some precincts than Kucinich, a liberal congressman from Ohio.</p><p>From Lincoln Park, Mich., where a plaque in the council chambers honors the spot where Pat launched his '96 campaign, Mayor Frankie Vaslo said: "I'm not sure whether it was nostalgia or just a malaise with the useless ('08) primary, but the Paulsen campaign ran a hard race."</p><p>Old friend Tommy Smothers of Kenwood figures that every candidate has personal drawbacks, so Pat's being dead shouldn't automatically disqualify him. "When I look at the current selection of candidates," he said, "Pat Paulsen is the most qualified, regardless of his physical condition."</p><p>TAKES TWO: The hot question in and around Ukiah is what should happen on the 76 acres north of town that used to be the Masonite plant, long Ukiah's biggest employer.</p><p>Organizers of a forum last week at the School Street conference center had hoped for a debate. But reps of land owner Developers Diversified Realty, a megafirm that envisions a major shopping center on the property, declined to play along.</p><p>The DDR people explain that their plans for the Masonite site aren't yet complete enough to be discussed in public. They also have to know that, given the opposition stirred by local environmentalists and chain-store foes, to show up Tuesday night to argue for a shopping center would be like touting veal at a vegan fest.</p><p>THE PINE CONE LETS GO: I'll never forget my first Sonoma County breakfast at the Pine Cone Restau- rant, downtown Sebastopol's oldest business.</p><p>The eggs had arrived that morning in 1976 when glasses and plates and everything else in the late Ernie and Bea Julius' homey diner commenced shaking and rattling. What the . . .</p><p>Smack down the middle of Main Street rumbled a freight train. And I thought, hmm, I like this place.</p><p>The Pine Cone, which Ernie and Bea bought in 1952, has long outlived the downtown train. But if you'd like another breakfast or lunch there, you've got about two weeks.</p><p>Siblings and owners Dino Julius and Stacey Royce have agreed it's time for a change. They'll close the diner early next month, then rehab the building and lease it to a pair of local restaurateurs with a vision for a new culinary attraction.</p><p>Stacey, who grew up watching her folks become Sebastopol icons while tending the Pine Cone for up to 15 hours a day, said that after 56 years it's tough saying goodbye to the landmark's faithful patrons.</p><p>She entrusts them to the new guys -- Riley Benedetti of Willie Bird Turkey fame, and Dikendra Maskey, owner of the Nepalese restaurant Annapurna. Stacey adores the name they've chosen: the Pine Cone Café.</p><p>Chris Smith is at 521-5211 and chris.smith@pressdemocrat.com.</p>