Mike Gravel's offensive

With the most recent Times Poll showing Democrat Mike Gravel's standing at 0% in both Iowa and New Hampshire, the former senator's surge to the front of the political pack has yet to emerge.

Yes, he's gotten some ink recently and even not so recently when The Times' Tomas Alex Tizon followed him on his simple campaign trail.

He's still trekking around the countryside, alone, staying at friends' houses and talking to anyone who will listen. He was in Colorado this week where he got some free publicity in a Denver Post article. And hoped he could convince maybe 70 people to show up at his niece's house in Boulder and pay $50 apiece to hear him speak.

Gravel stands last in fundraising among Democrats, having gathered a little more than $200,000 through June this year. That's less than former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore took in, and he's long since seen the light and dropped out.

Gravel has so many ideas at odds with the political mainstream, which is swell in a democracy as long as you're good with guaranteed political failure. You have to admire almost anyone who offers themselves up for elected office in the media meatgrinder that has become modern American politics. But you also sometimes wonder whether loners like Gravel and Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich are worthy of applause for their stick-to-it-iveness or if they're simply dim.

Gravel has written off Iowa. Good thing. He's never registered anything there in the polls, which supporters will no doubt allege among themselves is a media conspiracy but really shows the difficulty in random sampling of finding anyone who will vote for the guy. For starters, he's against ...

ethanol as a substitute fuel, which pretty much writes off much of the agricultural Midwest. He bemoans the power of big-money political contributions, which is what you'd expect from someone without any.

He's pleased with his videos' popularity on YouTube, which is free, and he delights in making rhetorical cannonballs into the pool at the Democratic debates, which are free. "I think the American people are fed up with what's going on," he said astutely. The trick, of course, is translating that discontent into votes for someone who talks as bluntly as Gravel.

During this week's online debate sponsored by Slate, Yahoo and Huffington Post that no one was allowed to hear or see for a day, Gravel went for the skinny, smart vote when he opined, "I'm prepared to tell you that Americans are getting fatter and dumber."

In Denver he vowed to Chuck Plunkett, a reporter, "I can promise you I will be a very unique president of the United States." Besides the fact that the word "unique" can't be modified -- it's like "pregnant," you are or you aren't -- a unique President Gravel is not likely something we're going to see come Jan. 20, 2009.

--Andrew Malcolm

Comments

[Joe]

What's wrong with you? Ron Paul is the leading fundraiser in the whole Republican pack this quarter. He is anything but a "loner." He's got the most support of anyone.

[gwelymernans]

I would hardly call Ron Paul or Dennis Kucinich dim. I have not read enough or heard enough of Gravel to comment upon him. But certainly Ron Paul is the most intelligent and rational candidate of the two major parties, irrespective of his political views.

[ThanksForNothingLATimes]

You guys disgust me.

[Tannim]

Who?

[Tom]

gwelymernans, The fact that you have not 'read enough or heard enough of Gravel to comment upon him' surely makes your comment proclaiming "Ron Paul is the most intelligent and rational candidate of the two major parties" invalid.

[Hans_Peters]

I would follow Mike Gravel into battle.
This guy has weathered more political storms and lived to tell than ANY other Democratic candidate.
For pete's sake, the man released The Pentagon Papers into the public record and was sued by Nixon up to the Supreme Court!
Congressional bonafides aside, he has a lambent wit and is tough as nails.

Gravel may be ahead of his time, but I firmly believe he represents what politics will someday become: unassuming, plainspoken and unflinchingly honest.

[paul]

who cares if a candidate is popular or not, Hitler was very popular and so what. Who cares if a canditdate is a loner, all great artists were loners in one way or another and they paved the future course of invention for civilization. This political rhetoric is really obfuscating the issues that are important and americans are apathetic and do not have a choice because they are led to think because of articles like this that candidates like Gravel, Paul do not have a chance and therefore wipe them off of their list of possibilities. Therefore Paul, Gravel are revolutionaries going against the monarchy and their support is grass roots which translates into revolutionaries. Gravel deserves a monument to him but is treated as some dummy. The dummies are the establishment and those who prefer stagnation than invention and creativity and freedom. These people prefer to pay hundreds of thousands for their childrens education, they prefer to dole out tons of cash for med insurance which they may not even use. These people are imbeciles for not changing the system. We live in a time of communist regime not democracy. What is so democratic about a society where pragmatic views are banned and censored by the media, govt.., and society which waves the flag for what I do not understand. What was the USA was nice yes but now it is going down hill and Gravel, Paul are revolutionizing the society and they are suceeding and the establishment fears them so it marginalizes them. American society is foolish because they are setting up a dangerous situation, a confrontation between the people the poorer ones and the rich, and the media just puors their rabid entertainment over this whole mess. One day the people will get bored with this junk, and I do not understand why they have not gotten bored with it yet because hollywood has absolutely nothing to offer of inteligent and entertaining nature. I hope Americans change their taste for the better, because presently it is very bad and kitchy both in hollywood and the art world. Just look at the MOMA it has more TV sets than art. And the art it claims is not art but boring stuff they would be much better off putting on the street. They show it off as some genious stuff which I feel is not worthy of such title, and more any child can tell that it is not art. And should not art be for the children too, like it was in the renaissance since Leonardo and Michaelangelo were child renaissance artists and founders of it. Today we have no renaissance we have the dark ages and we need a Charlamagne like Gravel, and not smooth talking corporate two faced people who on the one hand say christian this or that and then go drop bombs on innocents and steal money from Americans and everyone else they can decieve and use force on.

[Fazsha]

I wonder why you called Ron Paul a loner when he raised $18M, yet Tancredo doesn't get mentioned, even though he can only dream about raising the money and support Ron Paul gets.

(TomTancredo hasn't raised $18 million this quarter or any quarter so we don't take him as seriously as, say, Ron Paul, the loner and only Republican who opposes the Iraq war. Don't tell me, a Paulite is complaining now about someone else getting ignored.)

[Chuck]

Tonight at 8pm EST on Third Rail check out our live exclusive interview with democratic presidential candidate Senator Mike Gravel. We will discuss his current campaign as well as his recent exclusion from the Des Moines Register debate. Call in and check it out at thirdrailradio.com

[Ryan]

I guess the person writting this article is just proving the point that it takes millions to become elected, or to even be able to speak in a debate for that matter. I'm glad so many young people have enough common sense to see how biased the media is and I give that guy paul up there major props for writting such great words and truth.

[Karen Parker]

How embarrassing for you that you wrote this article.

[Aaron]

The greatest thing that could ever happen to America would be a Ron Paul/Mike Gravel run. These two, although on different sides of the political spectrum, represent true American spirit. Call me a dreamer, but I'm not the only one: http://paulgravel2008.com/

[Third Rail]

Check out our exclusive interview with democratic presidential candidate Senator Mike Gravel. We discuss his current campaign as well as his recent exclusion from the Des Moines Register debate. Listen to it in its entirety at http://media.libsyn.com/media/thirdrail/Third_Rail_Senator_Mike_Gravel_12.19.07.mp3

[Wack]

People are sick and tired of your old tactics to shape the political landscape according to your Corp. owner's agenda.

We're not buying it anymore.

You can downplay the importance of Gravel all you want, and purposefully forget to mention his exemplary political background, and make fun all you want that he has no money... you're the one who's pathetic.