US Senator Kerry says he won't relaunch bid for White House

[Ron Burgundy]

AFP - US Senator John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential candidate who narrowly lost to Republican President George W. Bush, announced he will not launch a new bid for the White House.

Kerry alluded to his failed presidential bid, which hinged largely on his strong opposition to the US war in Iraq, in making his announcement.

"We came close -- certainly close enough to be tempted to try again," the Massachusetts senator said on the floor of the US Senate.

"There are powerful reasons to want to continue that fight now. But I have concluded that this is not the time for me to mount a presidential campaign," Kerry said.

His decision to pull out is the latest major development in the accelerated 2008 presidential race, in which several candidates have felt compelled to declare their intentions earlier than ever to lock up vital funds and campaign staff, or to bow out.

Kerry made his announcement in a 20-minute speech which he used as a platform for slamming what he called President Bush's "reckless" plan to put more troops into Iraq.

"Our own intelligence agencies tell us that the war in Iraq is fanning the flames of jihad ... and creating a recruitment tool for Al-Qaeda," said Kerry, a decorated Vietnam war veteran who made his opposition to the war in Iraq the centerpiece of his failed White House bid.

He assailed the administration's recently announced plan to send 21,000 additional troops to Iraq.

"We've gone backwards, and we've gone backward because of this policy," Kerry told his fellow lawmakers.

His 2004 campaign faltered in part over allegations swirling around his past as an anti-war activist and questions raised about the authenticity of his war hero claims.

Senator Harry Reid (news, bio, voting record), the Senate's top Democrat, said those charges were unfair and unfounded smears.

"John Kerry came within a few votes of being president of the United States in one of the dirtiest, most negative, unfair campaigns I have ever witnessed," Reid told the Senate.

"To try to take away from this man his gallantry as a war fighter was beyond the pale," said Reid, "but they did it."

source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070124/pl_afp/usvotekerry [link]