Gravel’s still running

Democrat Mike Gravel is still in the race for the presidency, despite media reports he’s dropped out. A statement on his campaign site states:

“Once again, the Mainstream Media has not gotten the facts straight. MSNBC pundit Keith Olbermann has incorrectly declared that Sen. Gravel has dropped out of the race following the January third caucus in Iowa. This is not true, and Sen. Gravel is still an active member in this race. We are requesting that MSNBC and Keith Olbermann retract their statement, and issue an apology to the campaign for promoting blatantly false misinformation.

“Again, Sen. Gravel has not dissolved his campaign, and has no intentions of doing so.”

Gravel won’t, however, be included in Saturday night’s debate on ABC; he, Dennis Kucinich and Republican Duncan Hunter didn’t meet the network’s benchmarks for inclusion (finishing in the top four in Iowa or garnering five percent support in either the four big national surveys or the pre-primary New Hampshire polls), the AP reports.