1 down 11 or so to go

[redbrian]

Kerry has dropped out of the race, leaving only what, 11 or so wana-be's for the Dem's?

[noa]

1) Hillary
2) Edwards
3) Obama
4) Richardson
5) Biden
6) Kucinich
7) Vilsack
8) Sharpton
9) Gore?

I'm not sure about Gore, but you're probably right that there will be about 11 candidates in the beginning. Should be interesting. Is there anyone I'm forgetting?

[beer me]

I like Joe Biden.

[penchief]

I like Joe Biden.

I like Biden, too. But I wish Feingold had run.

[banyon]

1) Hillary
2) Edwards
3) Obama
4) Richardson
5) Biden
6) Kucinich
7) Vilsack
8) Sharpton
9) Gore?

I'm not sure about Gore, but you're probably right that there will be about 11 candidates in the beginning. Should be interesting. Is there anyone I'm forgetting?

Dodd has announced too for some strange reason. Yeah, no one else noticed either.

[Cochise]

:)

.

[Taco John]

Obama is the only democrat I could vote for. Currently, Guliani is probably the only republican I could vote for, though I'd give Jeb consideration if he were running. I don't think he has nearly the flaws that his dumber brother has.

[Amnorix]

I hadn't heard that Kerry had dropped, but if so, thank freaking God.

[pikesome]

Am I wrong in thinking that the Dems seem to pick their candidate in something like a public "Mortal Combat" tournament? Let the hopefuls get out there and mix it up with the others and then run the strongest looking person after that.

[redbrian]

I hadn't heard that Kerry had dropped, but if so, thank freaking God.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21120100-601,00.html

Blunder-prone Kerry pulls out of 2008 race
David Nason, New York correspondent
January 26, 2007

IN mid-2004, John Kerry stood before jubilant supporters at the Democratic Convention in Boston and said he was "reporting for duty" in the race for the White House.
Yesterday, the 64-year-old junior senator from Massachusetts and decorated Vietnam veteran used the floor of Congress to announce he would go on furlough during the 2008 race and instead devote his political energies over the next two years to getting US soldiers out of Iraq.
"I've concluded that this isn't the time for me to mount a presidential campaign," Senator Kerry said at the end of a speech attacking the Bush administration's handling of the war in Iraq.

"It is the time to put my energy to work as part of the majority of the Senate and do all I can to end the war. I don't want the next president to find that they have inherited a nation still divided and a policy destined to end, as Vietnam did, in a bitter and sad legacy."

Referring to his narrow loss to President George W. Bush in the 2004 election, Senator Kerry said: "We came close, certainly close enough to be tempted to try again."

But in withdrawing so early from the increasingly congested field of 2008 presidential candidates, Senator Kerry has accepted that his reputation for campaign trail blunders renders the Democrat nomination unattainable.

That was confirmed as recently as last November's mid-term elections when Senator Kerry so badly bungled a joke about Mr Bush that he appeared to say US soldiers serving in Iraq were stupid. The resulting storm gave the struggling Republicans a couple of days of breathing space that threatened to stall the Democrat drive to control both houses of Congress.

But whether Senator Kerry is consigned to the one-shot-in-the-locker brigade of presidential aspirants remains uncertain.

He intends seeking another six-year term in the Senate in 2008, a decision that would make him a potential presidential contender in the 2012 and 2016 presidential elections.

In a 2004 election marred by voting irregularities that appeared to disadvantage Democrats in key states such as Florida and Ohio, Senator Kerry polled 48 per cent of the popular vote, an effort many considered remarkable given his opponent was a wartime president.

The crucial loss was in Ohio, where 20 Electoral College votes were at stake. President Bush won the state - and effectively the election - by a paper-thin margin of 118,000 votes.

Senator Kerry's loss was made more disappointing by normally reliable exit polls that declared him the early winner but were eventually found to be nearly 7per cent out.

He also endured a vicious Republican campaign that questioned his record of bravery in Vietnam.

Senator Kerry's anger at such tactics spilled over last year when Republicans attempted to exploit his botched joke during the midterm elections.

"If anyone thinks a veteran would criticise the more than 140,000 heroes serving in Iraq and not the President who got us stuck there, they're crazy," Senator Kerry said.

"This is the classic GOP playbook. I'm sick and tired of these despicable Republican attacks that always seem to come from those who never can be found to serve in war, but love to attack those who did."

But after two days of negative media coverage, including criticisms from some Democrats, Senator Kerry was forced to apologise.

Polls since then have consistently showed Senator Kerry badly trailing his rivals for the Democratic nomination.

In a CNN poll out this week, 51per cent of Democrats said they didn't want Senator Kerry to run in 2008.

Asked which Democrat they would support, only 5 per cent of respondents nominated Senator Kerry, placing him in fifth place and well adrift of Senator Hillary Clinton, with 33 per cent.