Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) has formally abandoned his wildly unrealistic second bid for the presidency, having raised anemic sums of cash and garnered next to no grassroots support.

With his announcement, all that remains is for the obligatory SINISTER RED X OF DEATH to be affixed to Kucinich’s face on the Time magazine graphic below. You’re slacking, Time!

Just a few observations here:

• Horse race-style campaign coverage is all good, but can’t there be a denotation for White House bids that are technically in progress, but were DOA from the second they were announced?

(We’re not naming names, we swear, Mike Gravel)

• The campaign of Dennis Kucinich is most notable for that reason - he was never taken seriously, and thus, was unabashed in his rhetoric on the Patriot Act, the Iraq war, the impeachment of Dick Cheney and more. Funny what you can get away with when there’s no way you have to run against a Republican later.

(Right, Al Gore?)