Crushed, but not defeated, Dennis, we all owe you so much gratitude for refusing to back down in the face of the ignorance, deception, outrageous behavior on the part of the DNC- shameful. You have been a bright light in such desolate times, and we are eternally grateful for hanging in as long as you did. I will continue to pray for peace and for an end to the ridiculous overspending in the military budget- the never ending war- so much more. You really deserved to be our nation's leader, but our befuddled nation is in such disarray and in such denial, it can't see the forest through the trees. God be with you and Elizabeth.

...the DNC had little to do with Kucinich's plight. The MSM and the DLC would bear more of the blame than Dean. Anyways, now that my initial choice is out; I feel inclined to offer my support to Edwards. In the event that he drops out, Obama would then earn my vote. Either way, this is a sad but expected outcome in a corporate-interest led election.

"As a Christian, I believe that Separation of Church and State is Vital, not only for the People's Protection from an overzealous Theocratic Regime, but also for the protection of Religion from suppression."

I feel a deep sense of sadness and loss over Dennis’ withdrawal from the race. No one else comes close to him in terms of speaking the truth and giving voice to the needs and views of the American people. I’m sure many of you share with me a feeling of disgust with the race, an urge to drop out and let the puppets dance on the stage,. But we still have the task of prying the Democratic Party loose from the DLC, and then of freeing our country from the grip of the Republican proto-fascists, and we have no time to lose. There are several things I want to share about this.
1. Dennis is facing the fight of his life with what for a congressional primary is a simply HUGE amount of money being spent to knock him out. We need his voice and leadership in Congress.
2. Dennis was the towering moral figure of this campaign. Wherever he met the voters face to face, he won their hearts. Whenever people considered the issues carefully and chose candidates accordingly, they chose Dennis. He had the support of the progressive activist base. He shaped the debates. He was a true man of the people, more so than any other Democratic candidate in my memory. He was one of us. Yet he lost miserably, worse than in 2004, and never even came close to 100% name recognition. We need to look at this carefully, discuss it and draw the proper lessons from it.
3. This was a media defeat. We must know now, if we didn’t already, that the major media is shaping the national conversation decisively, that its owners are colluding to control this process, and that they have absolutely no intention of letting a progressive candidate get an even break. We need to vigorously pursue media reform (including pushing for breaking up the monopolies), campaign reform (including rules governing who can run the debates and moderate them) and a reinstatement of the fairness doctrine for the airwaves. At the same time we need to be developing our capability to reach the people directly, through the Web, the Internet, independent local media, and the old fashioned way through leaflets and newsletters that we print and distribute ourselves.
4. We need to organize, starting early. We need to build an alliance of local ”Reform Democratic Clubs”, capable of mounting a grass-roots campaign and drawing in all the many organizations in which the people are organized. We need to be able to choose a progressive candidate and have him or her be responsible to us. No more Lone Ranger! And when our candidate takes an initiative, as Kucinich did in introducing motions of Impeachment, it needs to come from us, and we need to be prepared to swing behind it and push hard.
5. We need to be prepared with a second-string and a third-string leader, known to the public, ready to step to the front if our standard bearer gets knocked off.
In sum, we need to become a “we”, and to follow the old slogan: “Don’t mourn, organize!”

Was Kucinich for real? Did he ever have a chance? Was he a vanity candidate? A bad campaigner? Did he blow it? Did he disgrace our cause by losing? Well?

People, wake up! Kucinich is who he is and did what he could. He spoke the truth and was heard by millions, if briefly. He motivated many people, but not nearly enough, to get into action around the issues that we all (I presume) believe in and care about. His campaign might not have been the answer, but are we not better off because he ran? Where did he fail?

The answer, my friends, is in US. WE are the ones who need to build a great mass movement for change if anything is going to change. WE are the ones who need to organize the millions of disenfranchised, disillusioned and disaffected people (which description includes most of us, to be honest about it) and bring them into action. And when we do we will need people like Kucinich to help give us voice and leadership and the wisdom that comes from decades of passionate struggle.

I have posted on ten different websites - including this one - about what we need to do to build a movement that can contest for power in 2012. These posts received on average less than one comment per website, and not a single response that talked about the specifics, about how to build a movement that can win. People seem to be content to let a hero like Kucinich do it for us, and then to carp about it when he can't do it without us.

What's it going to take? We have this great medium available to us now, the Internet, on which to talk to each other about things like this. Well, let's start talking! Time to get serious, while we still have time!