Gary Hart explains his decision not to run in an op-ed today in the Denver Post. He will continue to fight, but not as a candidate.

Hart was interviewed by the Denver Post about his and others' chances at securing the Democratic presidential nomination.

In a long, biting survey of his own chances and the nine Democrats currently running, Hart said that young supporters could have raised $20 million for him over the Internet in eight months and that he had the best chance to beat President Bush. While resisting a request to handicap the remaining contenders for the White House, the former Colorado senator offered these observations about some still in the field:

Bush is still "inexperienced" as the chief executive, having pushed ineffective tax cuts that have failed to kick-start the economy. Bush is hiding a "stealth agenda" of radical federal cutbacks from the American people. In evaluating Bush on three key leadership areas, Hart gave the president nearly failing grades on his stewardship of the economy and as a head of state but relatively high marks as commander-in-chief, based on successes in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Howard Dean, former governor of Vermont, lacks crucial defense or foreign policy experience.
Joe Lieberman, U.S. senator and former vice presidential candidate, is making a futile appeal to the "amorphous middle" by parroting Bush policies.

But Hart concluded that he couldn't trim his own complex vision of American economic revitalization and international cooperation to television-friendly sound bites, and he acknowledged that at age 66, he may be 20 years too old to take a populist fight straight to a majority of voters.

Political analysts interviewed in the article say that Hart "accomplished his goals of restoring himself as a national sage and a respected critic of both Republicans and Democrats."

There's lots more in this article on Hart's positions on domestic issues and his view of the Democratic contenders--we highly recommend you read it all.

Update: Two terrific bloggers who became a central part of Gary Hart's testing the waters campaign, Matthew Langer of Untelevised and Kevin Thurmond of Getting in the Game provide their thoughts on his decision.