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.