Former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack is dropping out of the race for the Democratic Presidential nomination, according to the Associated Press:
Democrat Tom Vilsack is abandoning his bid for the presidency after struggling against better-known, better-financed rivals, a senior campaign official told The Associated Press on Friday.
Vilsack left office in January and traveled through states holding early tests of strength. He had faced a tough challenge from rivals such as New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama and John Edwards, who have had more success raising money and attracting attention -- even in Vilsack's home state of Iowa.Vilsack was scheduled to make a formal announcement later in the day. The official spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity to avoid pre-empting the Democrat's statement.
Read the rest at the link above. Vilsack was always a dark horse at best. He entered the race before the Obama boomlet began, probably with the hope that doubts about Hillary and Edwards would leave the door open for someone without their negatives, and that his home state being first to vote could give him a good start out of the blocks.
With Obama and Bill Richardson now in the race, though, Vilsack's chances were substantially diminished. He had little chance of raising the $10 million experts say candidates in both parties must raise by this June in order to run competitive campaigns.
By my count, this leaves eleven Democrats still "in" or likely to get in, versus 14 Republicans.
Maybe we should just get American Idol to run the nominations. Simon Cowell's opinion on some of these candidates might amuse us.
Thanks to Patrick Ruffini, now blogging with Hugh Hewitt at Townhall.com, for pointing out this story.
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2008 Presidential Race, Vilsack
