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Dennis Kucinich to Drop '08 Presidential Bid
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ShareJanuary 24, 2008 4:16 PM
ABC News' Jennifer Duck Reports: Presidential dark horse Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, will announce at a news conference tomorrow in Cleveland that he is dropping out of the presidential race, ABC News has confirmed.
Since announcing his intention to seek the White House, Kucinich has trailed badly behind his Democratic rivals, raised little money, and was recently shut out of Democratic debates because of his long shot status.
Kucinich is expected to announce that he is foregoing his presidential aspirations to focus on his congressional seat, that may be in jeopardy.
"I want to continue to serve in Congress," Kucinich said, reports his hometown Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper which first reported Kucinich's plans to drop out.
Kucinich, who made an unsuccessful bid for the White House in 2004, has run on his longtime opposition to the war in Iraq, and advocated the creation of a federal "Department of Peace."
He garnered some media attention during the campaign when he questioned President George W. Bush's mental health and said he had seen a UFO.
"I did,''' Kucinich said at a Democratic debate in 2007. "It's unidentified. I saw something.''
In a discussion with editors of the Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper, Kucinich suggested Bush's comments about Iran and World War III suggest he needs "care."
"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."
News about the former Cleveland mayor's candidacy was overshadowed by news about his much younger second-wife, Elizabeth Kucinich, who he married in August, 2005.
Elizabeth Kucinich, a native of England, is thirty years younger than her husband.
After losing badly in the New Hampshire primary, Kucinich demanded a recount because of electronic voting machine problems in the Myrtle Beach area. He spent $27,000, won a 40 percent recount, but it earned him all of 32 changed votes, with Sen. Barack Obama drawing 18 votes closer to Sen. Hillary Clinton, the N.H. primary winner.
At age 31, Kucinich was in the national spotlight in when he became "the Boy Mayor" of Cleveland and the youngest person ever elected to lead a major American city in 1977.
The former Cleveland mayor has been an Ohio congressman since 1997, but is facing challenges from local politicians who charge that Kucinich's quest for the White House, and his failed effort to impeach Vice President Cheney have left the people of his district neglected.
In an "urgent personal appeal" Wednesday to his campaign supporters sent out by e-mail and released on YouTube, Kucinich said, "Right now I'm under attack by corporate interests, most of them from the city of Cleveland, who have an agenda that has nothing to do with the people of my community, nor with most people in this country."
"And so what I'm asking you to do is to help me stay in Congress, so that I can continue to represent the people of my community, the state of Ohio and the United States of America," he said.
January 24, 2008 in Huckabee, Mike, Tancredo, Tom | Permalink | User Comments (25)
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As a Democrat from Ohio (and formerly Cleveland) I've followed Kucinich for years. He's a joke. He panders to every consituency he thinks will give him a vote, and some fall for it because he tells them what they want to hear whetehr it's rational or not. The main reason he's dropping out of the race is because he is about ready to lose his House seat back home in Cleveland. The voters are all over him there about neglecting his U.S. Rep. duties to them and making a mockery of himself, Cleveland and Ohio in yet another miserably failed attempt to run for President (seen any UFOs lately?). He needs to retire from politics for good and it sounds like his constituents may just well put him in retirement. But maybe, he'll just get beamed up!
Posted by: JerryinOhio | Jan 25, 2008 9:40:43 AM
I AGREE 100% with EVERY one of these Kucinich advocate's comments here!!!!! IF NOTHING ELSE, THIS SHOULD BE RECORDED IN HISTORY, AS THEE BIGGEST SCAM ON THE AMERICAN PEOPLE EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: krubino | Jan 25, 2008 9:42:50 AM
Kim . . yes, I sure am from Ohio . . born, raised and lived here my entire life. In fact, I was just in Cleveland last weekend and the natives are restless about Dennis up there as are the rest of us in Ohio. He never should have gotten elected to the House anyway. Actually, one of the reasons he got elected in 1996 was because, guess who, HILLARY CLINTON came to town and he slithered around next to her because he realized she could do him some good. And guess how I know . . because I was there and have the photos to prove it. And, he ran against some really weak Republican who made a sexual remark about a local TV reporter during a debate that basically lost him the race. . big win for Dennis on the issues! NOT! Oh, and don't forget he was the boy mayor who helped put Cleveland into financial default back in the 1980s. Typical Dennis . . it's always all about his ego . . that's why it took so long for him to give up his failed Presidential bid even though he never had any chance of winning . . he had to feed his ego. Bubye Dennis!
P.S. I think your word "imbecel" is correctly spelled "imbecile." Don't you have spellcheck?
Posted by: JerryinOhio | Jan 25, 2008 10:57:03 AM
Let me get this straight...
Soros pays for a study that lists how many times Bush said something about Iraq that turned out to be wrong (never mind that Bill and Hillary said the same thing at least half as many times!)
Then Kucinich, on the basis of this "evidence", goes to the House floor and calls for Bush's IMPEACHMENT?
I'll vote for Kucinich as soon as he shows me one of his little green!
Posted by: cwflink | Jan 25, 2008 4:40:51 PM
Dennis was/is a threat to the military-industrial organizations and the media that they are part owners in. Dear young lady, Dennis saved the people of Cleveland millions of dollars by his actions of keeping the utilities public, again looking out for the working stiff and not controlled by money and power. It is a real threat to all of us that our democratic republic is controlled and we are given the illusion that we have a choice.
Posted by: truthseeker | Jan 30, 2008 5:10:00 AM
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