Kucinich's T-shirt crisis

In the News: It seems as though Kucinich made a HUGE mistake when he dropped out of the presidential race. While not only giving up his chances at becoming the next president, Kucinich wasted 25,000 Dennis Kucinich for President T-Shirts! Keith Shirey, who was in charge of all of the Kucinich merchandise, was forced to sell the T-Shirts to a rag company for eight cents apiece after he found out that, because of California's anti-smog laws, he could not burn them. Such a tragic story. He should have just replaced "president" with "congressman." And on that note, Kucinich has survived the challenge to his congressional seat, winning 50% of the vote while his four challengers made up the other half. Kucinich received support from local labor unions who supported his anti-free trade proposals and his support of a universal, single-payer health care system. However, even though his constituents wish him to focus on local issues, Kucinich maintains that he will not ignore national issues such as the war in Iraq and health care.

2 MORE YEARS! 2 MORE YEARS!

In the News: After removing himself from the national spotlight of a presidential bid, Kucinich has focused on winning back his seat in Ohio's 2008 Congressional election. Fortunately for Kucinich, his congressional prospects are much brighter than his presidential ones were. Since Valentine's Day, the Kucinich Camp has raised $830K, putting him well ahead of his GOP challenger, thanks to contributions from the likes of Vidal Sassoon and pornography publisher Larry Flynt. This welcome bump in funds seems to promise us 2 more wonderful years of Dennis!

Cancer?

Looks like our favorite little Kucinich has gotten himself caught up in some NASA research issues that have left 40 out of 100 workers on a single floor of a research facility with cancer over the last three years. Kucinich has stated that the health and safety of the workers is his utmost concern, and will be looking into what has caused this enormous percent of workers to develop cancer.
In other news, Kucinich has been fighting against Mayor Frank Jackson of Cleveland's decision to shut down a police district headquarters. Saying that this is, obviously, not in the best interests of the safety of the citizens, Kucinich has asked Mayor Jackson to reevaluate his decision.
What will the crazy Kucinich come up with next?

ALL HAIL KUCINICH!!!!

In the News: Go Kucinich! Even though the presidential candidate had little to no success in the presidential race, his luck is much better in the race for the 10th District of Ohio congressional seat. After facing one of the best financed contenders in his congressional career, Kucinich survived the challenge from several Democrats when he won the primary in Ohio. I guess Ohio still loves him. Kucinich said, "We won this victory the old fashioned way. We knocked on doors, we put up signs, we appealed directly to the people. And I want to thank the people of the 10th Congressional District for seeing through the lies, the distortions and the misrepresentations." He criticized the Republicans for trying to buy the election. It seems as though the people of Ohio did not care that Kucinich tried to run for president or that he "neglected the needs of his constituents" as Cimperman says. Kucinich, even though No One Likes You as a president, you are loved by your constituents. Congratulations.

Race for Cleveland '08

In the News: Fortunately for Kucinich, campaign finances for his House seat are looking much better than his presidential campaign donations; the Congressman has raised at least $700,000 thus far. Interestingly, though, the majority of his donors do not live in his district, or even in his state; Ohio's 10th District incumbent may win his seat back due to the generosity and ardent support of his non-constituents. As odd (and as awkward) as it may seem to have an unpopularly-backed congressman, that would give Kucinich an excuse to "not get much done" for his home district; after all, why fight for constituents who do not support you?

OH NO! More 9/11 conspiracy theories!

... But this time, from an ex-presidential candidate!
That's right, folks, Kucinich is at his crazy antics yet again, but this time, he's decided to investigate the stock trading prior to the September 11th attacks in 2001. Due to the apparently suspicious spike in stock trading in the American Airlines and United Airlines stocks. Kucinich Stated that this possible insider trading might indicate some sort of prior knowledge of the attacks, or point to a sort of foul-play within the stocks.
Furthermore, Kucinich has also expressed that he is doing this because he is "not afraid to ask questions about 9/11." Clearly, he thinks that there is some suspicious activities that have taken place. Kucinich has also stated that he wants to start gathering information on the health of the victims of the 9/11 attacks, and bring them up to more fully evaluate the aftermath and ramifications of the attacks.
Hey, Kucinich. Maybe you should spend a little more time getting reelected?

Kucinich's Upcoming Fight

In the News: Sharon Jimenez, a former publicist and political strategist for Kucinich, stated that she believed the presidential race is most heavily based on money. Because candidates like Kucinich and Gravel could not rake up the cash, they were excluded from debates and eventually dropped out of the race. Jimenez believes that because of this focus on money from both parties, many voters are going to be registering as independents for the upcoming election. The actor, Sean Penn, had to cancel his appearance at a Kucinich fundraiser because of a scheduling conflict. After initially declining to participate in a debate with his competitors for the congressional seat, Kucinich decided to take part because of mounting criticism from his competitors and the media. While Kucinich's time in the news is being overshadowed by the remaining presidential candidates, time will tell if Kucinich will be able to be reelected to his seat in the 10th district of Ohio. The question remains whether his participation in the presidential race helped or hurt his chances of being reelected to Congress.

Trouble In Cleveland

In the News: Everyone's favorite left-wing congressman from Ohio's 10th District may be dropkicked out of office by his own party. Since before the Nevada Primary, rumors have been circulating that Kucinich had a less-than-pleasant run in with Speaker Pelosi regarding his campaign trail challenges to Democratic Party leadership: calling for the impeachment of Bush (which was officially declared off of the Party table since 2006), as well as refusing to take a campaign oath promising to support the eventual Democratic Presidential Nominee. Unfortunately, the Congressman's rhetoric may cost him his job; Kucinich's top rival, City Councilman Joe Ciperman, has been receiving money and endorsements from Cleveland's mayor and newspaper, while Kucinich's pockets are extremely light after his failed Presidential bid (only having about $30,000 left in the bank). Furthermore, Ohio residents have been voicing complaints that Kucinich has been at best inattentive and unresponsive to their local needs over the past two years. Financial difficulty and the chilly reception on the homefront, coupled with virtual Party excommunication, means that Kucinich is facing an uphill battle during the next two months to win over Ohio's 10th District.

Kucinich: Back to the Background

As everyone's favorite short, silly, UFO-sighting congressman, Kucinich has, with his dropout, quickly and inevitably faded directly back into the background. However, with Super-Tuesday coming up, it will be interesting to see how many votes this ex-candidate will still get (probably from voters.
Kucinich, himself, however, seems to be reluctant to choose a side with the only two remaining Democratic nominees, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton and has basically coped out of an endorsement by stating that while he has campaigned over the past months with both of these candidates, he has come to recognize that both of them are very capable leaders for the United States.

Goodbye Kucinich

In the News: Dennis Kucinich, after being slaughtered at all of the primaries thus far, made the decision to drop out of the presidential race in order to focus on his re-election into congress. His seat is being threatened by four candidates, Joe Cimperman (his chief rival), Rosemary Palmer, Thomas O’Grady (who may withdraw now that Kucinich is focusing his attention on the House instead of the presidency), and Barbara Ferris. Ironically, most of his competitors campaigned for Kucinich in 2006. While speaking at a Union Hall in Cleveland, Kucinich said that he would work to keep his campaign promises of the presidential race the same as his promises for the congressional race. Kucinich’s supporters from the Bay Area in California are probably the most devastated by Kucinich’s decision to withdraw from the presidential race, and they are stuck on whom to go to next. The real question now is who Kucinich will endorse for president. In the Iowa caucus, after failing to get enough people to move on, Kucinich told his supporters to caucus for Obama. Will his decision be the same now that he is out of the presidential race?

Where is Kucinich?

In the News: Unfortunately for Kucinich, the courts are not ruling in his favor. First, his victorious suit against MSNBC (the station excluded him from the pre-Nevada Democratic debate for his low polling position) was overturned by the Nevada Supreme Court, who called his mandated appearance "an unconstitutional prior restraint" on the media station, violating their First Amendment rights. Then, the Texas Supreme Court refused to get involved when Kucinich's name was excluded from the state's primary ballots; Kucinich refused to take the Texas Democratic Party's "loyalty oath" (a vow that, should a candidate not get the party's nomination, he/she will "fully support" the party's nominee), and was therefore excluded. But Kucinich refuses to be deterred; he and star supporter Willie Nelson vow that they will take this ruling to the US 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. And finally, Kucinich has officially filed a complaint with the FCC against CNN for "arbitrarily establishing criteria" for the South Carolina Presidential Candidate Debate (again, Kuinich was not invited). Yet again, the media giant under fire responded that the criteria (the candidate must place in the top three of a DNC recognized presidential contest and have national poll numbers of 5% or higher) was not crafted to automatically exclude Kucinich: no conspiracy here.

Support: This past week, Kucinich has gained the endorsement of the Mexican American Political Association (MAPA) President Nativo Lopez. Also, this week Mrs. Kucinich launched an "Elect Dennis Kucinich Tour" in California.

Kucinich's Meager Turnout

Well, the New Hampshire primary has come and passed, and our dear friend (the "ridiculous" candidate, as noted by The Simpsons) has made only a meager turnout. Showing only a small number of votes, a total of 1.4% of the total votes statewide. Seemingly upset by this meager turnout, or perhaps upset at the discrepancy between the exit polls of people who claimed they did and did not vote for the candidates Obama and Clinton, Kucinich has thrown into the political ring the claim that the integrity of the New Hampshire is questionable.
Due to the claim that Clinton did significantly better in the locations that were not counted by hand, but were instead machine counted, Kucinich has shifted his gaze toward the results. While Obama did not do as well as Clinton in the machine counted counties, he did do much better than Clinton in many of the hand-counted areas, raising suspicion.
At this point, Kucinich has begun his trip toward Michigan, and we'll see how he works towards supporting his views, and making a show during this election!

Kucinich upset!

In the News: After going to extreme measures to try to get himself included in the debates, including attempting to get a New Hampshire judge to hear his case against ABC news and threatening to bring in the FCC, Kucinich and co-candidates, Gravel and Hunter, were not included in the debates. ABC’s reasoning was that they only allowed candidates who got at least 5% support in the Iowa caucus. However, in the wake of the debates, actor Viggo Mortensen flew to New Hampshire to speak of his displeasure at Kucinich’s exclusion from the debate. Singer Melissa Etheridge also complained. Kucinich was not fazed by his exclusion and even stated that he believed his campaign was boosted by the debates; he is now speaking to mainstream democrats and stating that if they agree with him on issues important to them, then they shouldn’t shy away from him solely because of his standing in the polls. Kucinich is also having problems closer to home; his congressional seat is being threatened by four new candidates after Kucinich filed to run for president and for congress. Also, Kucinich is having problems with the Democrats officials of Texas because he has stated that he will withdraw support of a democratic nominee if they do not pledge to pull troops out of Iraq; he is trying to edit a loyalty oath. He, along with the support of Willie Nelson, have filed a lawsuit to get him on the Texas primary ballot. In other news, Kucinich is firmly against the Verizon deal to sell its land-line business to FairPoint Communications. Kucinich stated that his supporters should back Obama if he does not survive the early rounds of the caucus.

In the Books: Kucinich has published an autobiography, but has not worked on promoting it.

In the Polls: During the month of December, Kucinich still maintained his percentages at 1-4%. During the Iowa caucus, Kucinich did not manage to get the required 5% of votes to participate in ABC's debates.