Kucinich focuses on congressional race

Posted: Friday, January 25, 2008 3:13 PM by Domenico Montanaro
Filed Under: 2008, Kucinich

From NBC’s Andy Merten
Dennis Kucinich may be out of the presidential race, but he’s not finished campaigning, just yet.

“I won’t be president, but I can continue to fight for these important issues as a U.S. Congressman,” said the former dark horse presidential candidate of universal healthcare and ending the war in Iraq during a press conference in Cleveland this afternoon. Kucinich, the former mayor of Cleveland, now represents the district, and is facing four challengers in the March 4 Democratic primary.

“I’m directing my energies to being re-elected to the Congress of the United States,” he told reporters, while flanked by supporters and his wife, Elizabeth. He went on to say that he will channel his presidential campaign into a new organization to push his anti-war, pro-labor agenda, called “Integrity Now” -- but the website, as of this writing, was just a sign-up sheet for future newsletters.

Kucinich, who has now spent two of his past three congressional terms running for president, has faced critics at home who say that he is not sufficiently doing his job representing Cleveland while running for president and missing votes. But to be fair, the Ohio congressman has actually missed the least percentage of votes of any member of Congress who has run for president in the past year.

Asked if he will make a third run for the White House in the future, Kucinich would neither confirm nor deny any plans. “This is the last thing on my mind right now.”

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Comments

DENNIS WHAT ARE YA DOIN NOT SUPPORTIN FIREFOX FOR PC??/ CMOONN!!!
You have NO IDEA how many union guys ive converted to firefox!@

Anyway, best of luck to him- hes one of the best men for his job, but he just wasn't willing to put the work in to be president, few people could and I dont hold anything against him for it. If he needs help I'd be glad to drive over to help even tho Im an Edwards man(and he basically backstabbed'd him)

Brett, Pittsburgh, PA (Sent Friday, January 25, 2008 3:27 PM)

America needs more people like Dennis Kucinich. The Presidential race was better for him being it. Good luck Dennis.

StopwatchingMSNBC, Rochester, NY (Sent Friday, January 25, 2008 3:50 PM)

Dennis the Menace.

Thank you for standing by your guns, for risking political suicide, for going with your gut and your common sense.

You were right. You were always right about everything that has transpired with the Bush Administration.

Good luck. Sir. And thank you.

Pat, Boston, MA (Sent Friday, January 25, 2008 3:58 PM)

Most Americans do not know that MSNBC played a direct role in the demise of Dennis Kucinich's candidacy by barring him from its debate in Nevada. Most Americans do not know this because MSNBC has blacked out this story, as have most other corporate news outlets, such as ABC, who have colluded in this disgraceful form of political censorship.
Many analysts are now on record agreeing that the remaining three Democratic candidates are only millimeters apart on most of the central issues. By excluding Kucinich, media conglomerates have succeeded in suppressing and framing limits on the range of the ideas that can be expressed in these debates. Mr. Kucinich began being excluded from public debates immediately after the Iowa caucuses, when less than one percent of America's democrats had only just voted, and he didn't even run in that primary! The low numbers he got in New Hampshire and from then on were a direct result of his exclusion from the public forum by a handful of corporate executives, who frankly, had reason to feel threatened by his anti-corporate and populist messages. Freedom of speech without access to media airwaves amounts to censorship of the diversity of viewpoints that should comprise the patchwork that is the reality of American politics. Mr. Kucinich, if measured by the ratio of supporters to dollars raised, probably would be the number one candidate, if that ratio were counted as the salient measure of grassroots appeal. I fail to understand how the freedom of speech of the infinitesimally tiny group of media moguls, who stand at the toll booth of media access, outweighs the needs of hundreds of millions of people in this so-called democracy to hear free speech mirroring their actual political viewpoints. The sad truth is that Mr. Kucinich's campaign failed because most Americans never got a chance to hear him speak. If they had, there is little doubt that the agenda of the Democratic Party would not be the sad choice we now have on the political menu, between Column A, Column A, and Column A.

Progressive Voice, Los Angeles, CA (Sent Friday, January 25, 2008 4:37 PM)

Thank you Progressive Voice - you took the words right out of my mouth. I'm surprised MSNBC even allowed the word "Kucinich" to appear, even as part of a "Kucinich is no longer a threat" story.

Same thing happened over here in the UK with John McDonnell's Labour party leadership bid. Shot down before it could gather momentum. How many of you in the US have heard of him? Not many? Same reason I hadn't heard of Kucinich til very recently: they are both a THREAT to a lot of very greedy, very vested interests.

seb, Glasgow Scotland (Sent Sunday, January 27, 2008 12:55 PM)

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