Kucinich Names Obama the Best of the Rest

Dennis Kucinich is encouraging his supporters to caucus for Barack Obama if he, Kucinich, fails to meet the minimum threshold of support. Iowa Democrats are allowed to re-caucus if their preferred candidate doesn’t perform above a certain level, usually 15 percent. Ralph Nader, meanwhile, disclosed that he prefers John Edwards.

The endorsements are significant considering that the caucus race appears too close to call. A number of polls released with only days to go show different candidates with leads. One thing most agree on is that many voters in Iowa still haven’t made up their minds.

Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich on Tuesday asked his supporters to make rival Barack Obama their second choice if he doesn’t meet a cutoff point for voting in Iowa’s caucuses.

Kucinich, an Ohio congressman at the back of the pack of Democratic hopefuls, seemed to concede a loss in the caucuses. He said his recommendation was for “Iowa only.”

Read more

The Nation via Yahoo:

Nader has been edging toward this “endorsement” in the last couple of weeks. In an appearance on “Hardball,” in mid-December, he said Edwards “now has the most progressive message across a broad spectrum of corporate power damaging the interests of workers, consumers, taxpayers, of any candidate I have–leading candidate I have seen in years.” He went on to explain that “the key phrase is when he [Edwards] says he doesn’t want to replace a corporate Republican with a corporate Democrat.” Nader told Politico, ” it’s the only time I’ve heard a Democrat talk that way in a long time.” For Ralph Nader–and take my word for it, please–that is rare praise for a leading Democratic politician.

In throwing his support to Edwards, Nader was scathing in his criticism of Hillary Clinton–calling her a “corporate Democrat …[ who ] … has not led the way against the avalanche of military contracting, corporate crime, fraud and abuse.”

Read more