I don't think Kucinich sold out all all. I think he just carefully considered the true options at hand and chose the most likely to move the country in the right direction re health care, even if only by a small amount and even with the outcome is uncertain.
The way the Republicans and the media and some conservative/corporatist Democrats have acted since Obama took office -- and, yes, with Obama being part of the problem by trying to be too centrist and "post-partisan" -- I really think if this health care bill, with some important tweaking, doesn't get passed, not only will our government probably not seriously look at fixing our pathetic health care "system" for at least another 20 years, but the Republicans will probably retake control of Congress & the White House within the next 3 years, put more Scalias, Thomases, Alitos, and Robertses on the SCOTUS, and destroy what's left of our middle class and our democracy.

Even now, the big money has so strong a grip on our media and our elections that it's very difficult for the people to get fair and accurate political news or to have their "right to vote" really mean much.    Another 4 years like the GWB administration and/or with people like McConnell & Boehner in charge of Congress and we may truly become a nation of the few very rich and the rest very poor, with corporations effectively being the government.

Had Kucinich been known as "the guy who killed the health care reform bill," it's more likely that he'd have been unseated this fall than that he'd have effectively spearheaded a movement to pull the Democrats or the electorate at large to the left.

The Senate health insurance "reform" bill is as unsavory a "sausage" as was the process by which it was made.   But passing it will allow the possibility of many important revisions which would otherwise have been much less likely.   

I can't help thinking back to 2000 and Ralph Nader's run for the Presidency. He insisted that there was no meaningful difference between the Republicans and the Democrats. He was wrong. -- Can you say "John Roberts" and "Samuel Alito?" Can you say "initiating a war in Iraq because a Saudi living in Afghanistan spearheaded an attack on our soil?"
Yes, the election was stolen by the 5-4 SCOTUS decision & by the purging of thousands of minority voters from voter registration lists, but if Nader had not insisted on, in effect, "challenging" Gore in swing states, Gore's margin would have been too big for the election to be stolen.    If true progressives put ideological purity ahead of political pragmatism, we may still have our "integrity" and "principles" but nothing else to show for it.

Politics is the art of the possible. (I forget who said that, but it's true.) Kucinich, when push came to shove, chose a path that's far more likely to move the country in a progressive direction than the alternative path would have.

(Naturally, some of you will disagree.   It wouldn't be politics, otherwise.