Kucinich Abandons White House Bid

Dennis Kucinich, the Ohio congressman who tried to prod his fellow Democrats to take a tougher stand against the Iraq war, dropped out of the race for the White House yesterday.

Kucinich, 61 and a six-term member of Congress from Cleveland, had barely registered on the political radar during the campaign. He makes his exit amid reports that he faces a series of primary challenges to his seat in Congress.

He told his hometown newspaper that he would make a formal announcement on Friday. "I'm transiting out of the presidential campaign," he told the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

Kucinich also has made a desperate appeal for funds for his congressional campaign.

It was Kucinich's second run for the White House. As in 2004, he campaigned for an immediate exit in Iraq. But though the war was even more unpopular than four years ago, Kucinich found it harder to gain traction this time around in a Democratic field overwhelmed by celebrity and money power.

Kucinich made few campaign appearances outside New Hampshire. Aside from the occasional profile of his much younger and very glamorous British wife, Elizabeth Harper, 29, the Kucinich campaign was barely covered by the media.

He was regularly shut out of presidential debates - even after he went to the courts to seek airtime in Las Vegas.

His preoccupation with seeking the presidency also caused anger in Cleveland. The city's mayor and a member of the local council last month launched primary challenges to Kucinich, arguing that he had neglected local concerns. In an email appeal to campaign donors, Kucinich said the challenges had been inspired by "corporate interests".

Despite his apparent failure to gain support in presidential politics, commentators have given Kucinich credit for giving a greater airing to anti-war sentiment. But as he himself admitted yesterday: "There is a point at which you just realize that you, look, you accept it, that it isn't going to happen and you move on."