From NBC’s Huma Zaidi: Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) will make a formal announcement at noon tomorrow in Cleveland that he will run for president in 2008. According to the AP, Kucinich said he’s running because he doesn’t feel his party is doing enough to get the US out of Iraq.
Kucinich, who ran for president in 2004, received just 1% of the vote in both Iowa and New Hampshire. He was the last candidate to officially drop out of the race before endorsing Sen. John Kerry.
Sources tell CandidatesBlog that the progressive wing of the Democratic party is planning high volume support for Kucinich in an effort to intimidate likely frontrunner Hillary Clinton to make a hard move to the left. Once she appears to give to this pressure, they will vocally endorse her in hopes that the strategy will unite the Democratic party. One progressive source currently working for a Senator whom we were asked not to name, tells us “We’re tired of this glorification of being a centrist. If the Republicans nominate Mccain, the last thing we can do is nominate someone like present day Hillary, where the voters will see little difference between the two. If Hillary is destined to get the position, we need to put heavy pressure on her to get back to her roots and actually fight for the values she was once a poster for”.
We have recieved no indication from anyone in the Kucinich camp that they are part of this strategy.