CEDAR FALLS - Despite poll numbers that lag far behind the front-runners for the Democratic presidential nomination, Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich said Friday he remains confident of his chances in the Jan. 19 Iowa caucus.

"I'm going to be surging late," Kucinich said. "I expect to be the surprise of the 2004 election season.

One recent poll showed Kucinich trailing former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean by 40 percentage points in New Hampshire. The margin is smaller in recent polls in Iowa, but voter support for Kucinich is still in the low single digits while Dean and Missouri Rep. Dick Gephardt have polled in the twenties.

That will soon change because the growing number of U.S. casualties in Iraq is becoming a serious issue for much of the public, said Kucinich, who has often focused on the war during campaign appearances.

"Americans want those troops brought home, and I'm the only candidate, including the president, who's offered an exit strategy," he told a crowd of about 100 people on the University of Northern Iowa campus, one of six northeast Iowa stops he made Friday.

Kucinich said the United States needs to work with the United Nations on a new approach that allows Iraq to set up its own government and manage its oil assets. The candidate also dismissed a common Republican criticism that Democrats are soft on national defense.

"The question is not whether we're soft on defense, it's whether we're as soft-headed about defense as this White House has been," he said, adding that weapons of mass destruction still haven't been found in Iraq, and the Bush administration has failed to prepare a more relevant defense against the threat of terrorism.

Henry Cowlin of Cedar Falls said he's tired of the way elected officials are running the country, and that's why he came to listen to Kucinich.

"I think he can lead the country in a good direction. It's a shame that some people aren't taking him seriously as a candidate," Cowlin said.