Mike Gravel presidential campaign, 2008
Encyclopedia
Mike Gravel
, a former United States Senator from Alaska, on April 17, 2006, declared his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States in the 2008 election
, in a speech to the National Press Club.
His campaign gained an Internet
following and national attention due to outspoken debate appearances during 2007, but consistently showed little support in national polls. In the 2008 Democratic caucus
es and primaries
, he did not win any delegates. Out of the eight candidates for the Democratic nomination for president, he received the fewest votes - less than one percent.
In March 2008, Gravel announced that he had joined the Libertarian Party
and would seek its presidential nomination, instead of further pursuing the Democratic nomination. In May 2008, Gravel finished fourth at the 2008 Libertarian National Convention
and ended both his presidential quest and his political career.
On April 17, 2006, Gravel became the first candidate for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States
in the 2008 election
, announcing his run in a speech to the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.
Short on campaign cash, he took public transportation to get to his announcement.
Gravel had spoken out against the war in Iraq since before the invasion of that country began in March 2003. In his announcement he called for immediate cessation of US military involvement in Iraq via his own-drafted U.S. Armed Forces Withdrawal From Iraq Act, and offered a strategy he claimed would get it passed. He unequivocally denounced any possible war with Iran
. His announced campaign platform was centered on systemic changes to the U.S. system. Foremost among these were:
Gravel's initial campaign also emphasized his support for a single-payer national health care system
, term limits, nuclear disarmament
, and same-sex marriage
recognition.
(the first primary state
). He garnered broader awareness and interest through his occasional television appearances, netroots
campaigning, participation in Party forums (such as the Democratic Presidential Candidates Forum and Democratic National Committee
(DNC) Winter Conference), and up until October 30 in Philadelphia, the string of televised debates sponsored by the DNC and others.
Gravel was interviewed for the Blue State Observer weblog on June 27, 2006. On that occasion he expressed his support for constitutional change in aid of citizen-initiated legislation, he declaimed the existence of limitations upon the conduct of stem cell research, and stated he was against the widespread deportation of illegal immigrants then being advocated by conservative talk radio and other elements.
An August 2006 media release draws attention to the candidate's public opposition to the prospect of war in Iraq expressed as long ago as the early months of 2002.
The campaign and/or candidate have attracted notable coverage in The New York Times, The Reno Gazette-Journal, on CBS News, on ABC News, in The Progressive, and in The American Spectator,
Among other sources of news and commentary, the campaign notes coverage and appraisal of its candidate by The Free Liberal, CrooksandLiars.com, the New York Daily Star, AntiWar Radio
, the Ed Schultz Show, Internationalist Magazine, the Roanoke (VA) Times, American Chronicle, Daily Kos, The Dartmouth Online, Blue Hampshire, and the Portsmouth (VA) Herald.
Gravel delivered an address before the New Hampshire
Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College
in November 2006 which has been recorded and published on video.
The campaign website included participation forums. A video section of the campaign website linked to videos of some media appearances, his address to the New Hampshire Institute of Politics, a September 2006 appearance at the 'Camp Democracy' activist forum in Washington D.C., as well as the introductory video from his successful 1968 Senate campaign.
The candidate has maintained his own weblog since October 2006, and began blogging at The Huffington Post
in June 2007 as well. The Gravel campaign also had its own YouTube
channel featuring more than 80 videos of the candidate's past speeches and campaign appearances.
. In speaking he offered harsh judgments against President Bush
and the Senate Democratic leadership, and implicitly his Presidential rivals Joe Biden
, Hillary Clinton, and John Edwards
, saying "anyone who voted for the war on October 11 based upon what President Bush presented to them is not qualified to hold the office of President of the United States." Gravel was interviewed on MSNBC
at the time. He also appeared as a guest of a video weblog directed from New Jersey answering questions about netroots
and the blogosphere
.
Senator Gravel was interviewed on Toniq TV where he forthrightly expressed views supporting the lifting of restrictions against the service of identified gays and lesbians in the US military. Calling comparison to President Harry S. Truman's racial desegregation of the US military in 1948
he criticized former President Bill Clinton
as 'dead wrong' and 'mousy' for his innovation of the don't ask don't tell policy covering homosexual conduct by military members:
On February 11, 2007, the senator addressed the Jefferson County Presidents Day Dinner in Watertown, Wisconsin
.
On February 13, 2007, the senator released a statement outlining his views on the possibility of impeachment
proceedings against President George W. Bush
, regarding it as 'not sufficient' and favoring a congressional inquiry which could ultimately lead to criminal charges being brought against the President.
Senator Gravel participated in the AFSCME Democratic Presidential Forum on 21 February 2007 in Carson City, Nevada
, at the Carson City Community Center. He appears toward the end of the video of the broadcast of the event.
In the Carson City Forum, he roundly condemned President Bush's policy of military involvement in Iraq and reminded those present of his statements warning of lies and distortions about Iraq's supposed unlawful weapons of mass destruction
as far back as early 2002 (the time of the occurrence of the first signs of the Bush Administration's formulation of an agenda for military action against Iraq). He decried the overall level of military spending as opposed to the funding of education and of what he regarded as the consequent, poor educational outcomes achieved.
Senator Gravel called on congressional Democrats to force a 'constitutional crisis' by denying all further budgetary appropriations in aid of continued American military involvement in Iraq. He further argued that the income tax
should be 'wiped out' in favor of the FairTax
proposal - which imposes a progressive
sales tax
on newly manufactured items varying from 19% to 23% while providing 'prebates' to 'untax' families spending on necessities, up to the poverty level. He stated his view that experience showed income taxes were successfully 'gamed' by the wealthy at the expense of the poor and middle income earners. And he voiced his support for the constitutional and legal reform necessary to effect the National Initiative
as a means of enabling citizen-initiated national lawmaking.
Senator Gravel also spoke in favor of public financial assistance for campaigning Presidential candidates.
On February 26, 2007, Senator Gravel was interviewed about his campaign on the American C-SPAN
network's Washington Journal
program..
In a February 25, 2007 Washington Post/ABC News
nationwide poll of voters who lean Democratic, 0% supported Gravel for the Democratic presidential nomination. Indeed, through February 2007, such opinion polls of contenders for the Democratic nomination all showed Gravel with a 1% or less support level.
At the close of the first quarter 2007 reporting period, the campaign committee had $498 in cash against debts and obligations amounting to $88,515.
, at South Carolina State University
. State party chairman Joe Erwin said that he chose South Carolina State because it is an historically black college, noting that African-Americans have been the "most loyal" Democrats in the state. The debate was 90 minutes with a 60-second time limit for answers, and no opening or closing statements. It was broadcast via cable television
and online video streaming by MSNBC
. The debate was moderated by Brian Williams
of NBC Nightly News
.
Mike Gravel appeared with the seven other contenders for the Democratic nomination for President. He stated that the Iraq War had the effect of creating more terrorists and that the "war was lost the day that George Bush invaded Iraq on a fraudulent basis." He maintained that an end to the war could be effected by a bill passed in the House and a Senate filibuster on such a bill defeated by a daily vote on cloture, but that the will to do so was lacking. Further, he suggested a bill requiring the president to withdraw from Iraq on pain of criminal penalties. He said the recent threat of a pre-emptive nuclear strike in the "war on terror" was immoral and would be dropped under a Gravel administration, and that America has no important military enemies and it is the influence of the military-industrial complex that has conditioned Americans to think of the world in terms of enemies. He characterized the CIA overthrow of democracy in Iran in the 1950s lies as the root of U.S. problems with that country. Overall, he said that all American armed forces who died in Vietnam died in vain and American armed forces in Iraq were dying in vain. Regarding his fellow candidates, he said, "I got to tell you, after standing up with them, some of these people frighten me — they frighten me."
Media stories about the debate said that Gravel was responsible for much of whatever "heat" and "flashpoints" had taken place. Gravel gained considerable publicity by shaking up the normally staid multiple-candidate format; The New York Times
' media critic said that what Gravel had done was "steal a debate with outrageous, curmudgeonly statements." The Internet was a benefit: a YouTube
video of his responses in the debate was viewed more than 225,892 times, ranking seventeenth in most views for week and first among news and politics clips; his name became the fifteenth most searched-for in the blogosphere
; and his website garnered more traffic than those of frontrunners Hillary Rodham Clinton
, Barack Obama
, or John Edwards
. Gravel appeared on the popular Colbert Report on television on May 2, and his campaign and career were profiled in national publications such as Salon.
All of this did not help his poll ratings: a May 2007 CNN poll showed him with less than 0.5 percent support among Democrats.
In late May 2007, two wordless, avant-garde
campaign videos, "Rock" and "Fire", created by Otis College of Art and Design
staff Matt Mayes and Guston Sondin-Klausner, were released on YouTube and became hits. The first, nearly three minutes long, showed Gravel staring at the camera silently for more than one minute, then throwing a large rock into a lake and slowly walking away, with a sole graphic showing the campaign website. The second, nearly eight minutes long, briefly showed Gravel walking through a forest collecting wood and looking at the resultant campfire, then for the remaining seven minutes just showed the fire burning, with the website graphic superimposed. These videos would eventually gain over 480,000 and 140,000 views respectively. "Rock" was given airtime during an episode of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.
WMUR-TV
, CNN
, and the New Hampshire Union Leader
hosted both Democratic and Republican debates in Manchester, New Hampshire
, at Saint Anselm College
. The Democratic debate was Sunday, June 3, starting at 7 PM EDT and lasting two hours, commercial free. The moderator was Wolf Blitzer
, host of Late Edition
and The Situation Room
. He was joined by Tom Fahey
of the Union Leader and Scott Spradling from the local NH television station WMUR. The first half of the debate was a directed question and answer, with candidates at podiums, as in the first debate, responding to questions from Fahey and Spralding.
On March 17, 2007, CNN
, the New Hampshire Union Leader
and WMUR-TV
had formally decided to exclude former Senator Gravel from debates between Democratic Presidential candidates they would be sponsoring in New Hampshire. The decision was decried as "censorship, unbecoming a free society", and on 1 May 2007 the decision was reversed, and Mike Gravel was invited to be a participant. The venue was Saint Anselm College
and the debate was nationally televised on CNN.
Gravel reiterated many of his past foreign policy points during the debate, and emphasized that Biden, Clinton, Dodd, and Edwards voted for the resolution under which the invasion and occupation of Iraq were undertaken and Edwards co-sponsored it. Gravel claimed that the history of Southeast Asia after U.S. withdrawal showed Iraq withdrawal would not necessarily be dire, and that the insurgency in Iraq was successful because it had the support of the Iraqi people. He said that the fact that the other candidates knew, or should have known, that there were "two sets of books" being kept on intelligence from Iraq, and that they voted the resolution that authorized the war in spite of that fact, indicates that morality plays no part in their political decisions and that lack of moral judgment ought to keep them from the presidency.
Two of eight candidates, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, were accorded greater talk-time than the moderator. Barack Obama was accorded the greatest talk-time at 16 full minutes, 2.85 times the talk-time accorded Mike Gravel, who was accorded the least talk-time at 5.62 minutes.
On June 28, 2007 in Washington, D.C., PBS
held and televised a debate at Howard University
, an historically black college
. The moderator was Tavis Smiley
. All eight candidates discussed various topics including education, poverty, unemployment, racial discrimination, and health in the black community. The debate drew a record crowd of celebrities, such as Harry Belafonte
, Al Sharpton
, Dorothy Heights, Jesse Jackson
, Terry McMillan
, Judge Hatchett
, and Mark Ridley-Thomas
.
Gravel's points in the debate included that the "war on drugs" was a failure. He asserted that the prison population of the US had increased 1285% over the past 35 years and that 70% of that population is African-American. Gravel compared the legal basis for the war on drugs to Prohibition, claimed that it made criminals of people who otherwise were not criminals, and that they were disproportionately African-American. Gravel asserted that the money spent on the war in Iraq could have built 4 million houses thus helping victims of hurricane Katrina, or financed 21 million four-year college scholarships, or hired 7.6 million new teachers. Gravel said that the income tax code was especially open to corruption. That the tax code was now so complicated and corrupted that no one alive understood it. He said that with his alternative, progressive sales tax proposal everyone would know what everyone else was paying in taxes. Gravel said that equal justice before the law would only be possible if the people were empowered as lawmakers. Gravel asserted that Free Trade Agreements benefited corporate management and shareholders but hurt most people on both sides to the agreement.
This was the first debate during which all the candidates were accorded equal time. The earlier debates were heavily biased toward the 'Top-tier' candidates.
By the second-quarter 2007 close, the committee had $31,141 in cash on hand, and had collected a total of $175,229 in net contributions during the entire 2008 election cycle.
On July 12, 2007 in Detroit, Michigan, all eight candidates attended a debate held during the NAACP convention. John Edwards and Hillary Clinton were overheard—on stage, over microphones—conferring about weeding those candidates not in the 'Top-tier' out of future debates.
On July 23, 2007 in Charleston, South Carolina
, the CNN-YouTube Presidential Debates
took place for the Democrats, on the campus of The Citadel
. All questions were selected from among, and posed as videos submitted via YouTube by members of the public; the debate was moderated by Anderson Cooper
of Anderson Cooper 360. YouTube and Google
streamed the event live. It was also simulcast on CNN en Español
.
Two of eight candidates, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, were accorded greater talk-time than the moderator. Barack Obama was accorded the greatest talk-time at 15.18 minutes, 3.64 times the talk-time accorded Mike Gravel, who was accorded the least talk-time at 4.17 minutes. Gravel responded to audience applause when he had complained of a lack of airtime and said: "Thank you. Has it been fair thus far?" Detractors began to liken Gravel to "the cranky uncle who lives in the attic," or "the angry old guy that just seemed to want to become angrier."
On August 4, 2007, the Yearly Kos Presidential Leadership Forum was held in Chicago
, Illinois. This informal discussion was attended by seven of the eight presidential candidates, with Joe Biden not attending due to votes in Congress. New York Times Magazine writer Matt Bai
and DailyKos Contributing Editor and Fellow Joan McCarter moderated. The debate was broken down into Domestic Policy, Foreign Policy, and Philosophy and Leadership. Candidates were allotted 90 seconds for each question with 45 second rebuttals, although the time limits were not strictly enforced. After the debate, breakout sessions were held where convention goers could question each candidate individually.
Mike Gravel expounded upon the shortcomings of representational government, concluding with, "So the only answer is for you to realize that the answer is not up here on the dais, the answer is with you, the American people, to acquire lawmaking powers." He reiterated that the U.S. Senate had the power to shut down the Iraq War with a series of forced cloture votes if they so chose. And he talked about the effect of the concentration of the media and of money in politics, saying "You gotta keep in mind that all politicians sort of walk in the mud. You know their head may be up here but they walk in the mud. And you have to understand that, because of the way the system is structured, you have to raise money. We're raising hundreds of millions of dollars on this dais for these people to talk to you, when we all know that money is the corrupting agent of politics, and lo and behold the media, which is now controlled in this country by five corporations, is telling us that these people who raise the most, who technically are the most corrupt, are the ones that should get to be elected."
On August 9, 2007, Mike Gravel participated in an LGBT network Logo
hosted debate focusing on LGBT
issues, moderated by Human Rights Campaign
President Joe Solmonese
and singer Melissa Etheridge
in Los Angeles, California
. Mike Gravel was originally excluded from this debate, the reason given that his campaign had not raised enough money to qualify for participation. Rallying from Gravel's supporters reversed this decision.
On August 19, 2007 in Des Moines, Iowa
, ABC News
in conjunction with the Iowa Democratic Party
held a debate streamed on This Week
moderated by George Stephanopoulos
.
During the course of the debate Gravel reiterated many of his stances against the Iraq War. Asked if he believed in the efficacy of prayer Gravel replied that he believed in love, that love implements courage, and that courage fosters all the other virtues useful in life. Gravel observed that many of the people who pray are the same ones who want to go to war and thus to kill fellow human beings. Gravel said that more love between individual Americans, individual Iowans, would enable more individual courage, and that more courage would enable Americans to grapple with the problems of governance. Gravel also questioned Americans' view of their country as "Number 1" in the world.
Five of eight candidates, Joe Biden, Bill Richardson, John Edwards, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, were accorded greater talk-time than the moderator. Barack Obama was accorded the greatest talk-time at 13.17 minutes, 2.7 times the talk-time accorded Mike Gravel, who was accorded the least talk-time at 4.88 minutes. Moderator Stephanopoulos noted that Gravel polled a statistical zero percent support in the state, meaning less than 0.5% support. In a poll asking who did the best in the debate, Gravel placed seventh among the eight candidates. National opinion polls of contenders for the Democratic nomination continued to show Gravel with one percent or zero percent numbers.
On September 9, 2007, Univision
hosted a forum in Spanish at the University of Miami
's Bank United Center in Coral Gables, Florida
and moderated by Univision's anchors Jorge Ramos and Maria Elena Salinas
. Joe Biden did not participate in the debate. During the course of the forum Mike Gravel stated that it was wrong that the father of (Pfc. 3rd Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment) Armando Soriano (age 20, of Houston), killed in Iraq (1 Feb 2004, in Haditha
), was about to be deported. Along with the other candidates Gravel committed to immigration reform in his first year as president. Gravel then charged that the national immigration issue was in fact a case of scapegoating immigrants for other systemic problems in the US, in education and health care for example. Gravel said he was embarrassed that the US was building a wall on its southern border. Gravel charged that CAFTA and NAFTA were the real causes of many of the problems on both sides of the US borders but confessed that he thought remedying those acts would have to await the enactment of the National Initiative for Democracy and the empowerment of US citizens as legislators. Gravel said that instead he would reach out to Hugo Chavez in Venezuela and to Castro leadership in Cuba as well. Reminded that health problems had forced Gravel into bankruptcy, Gravel was asked how he would apply his personal experience to the problem of health care. Gravel outlined his plan for healthcare vouchers, paid for out of general revenues, to be applied against premiums of up to five private plans and one government plan, each with identical defined benefits, each mandated to allow freedom of choice of provider.
All candidates were accorded equal talk times at the Univision forum.
A September 11, 2007 Los Angeles Times
/Bloomberg poll found that, among registered South Carolina
voters who plan to vote in the Democratic primary or usually vote for Democrats, 2% would vote for Gravel "if the presidential primary were held today". Candidates Chris Dodd, Dennis Kucinich
, and Bill Richardson each got 1% of respondents to that question. Additionally in the same poll of South Carolina voters, in response to the question, "Regardless of your choice for president, who do you think has the best chance of beating the Republican candidate in November…?" Gravel polled 2%, compared to 1% for Joe Biden
and Bill Richardson, and 0% for Chris Dodd and Dennis Kucinich.
During mid-September 2007, Yahoo!, in partnership with The Huffington Post
, produced a "mashup debate" with Charlie Rose
interviewing the candidates. Segments were recorded on September 12, with the "mashups" posted on September 13.
On September 20, 2007 in Davenport, Iowa
, PBS
held a forum focused on domestic issues, specifically health care and financial security. It was moderated by Judy Woodruff
, and was a joint venture between IPTV
and AARP
. Barack Obama rejected PBS's invitation. Mike Gravel and Dennis Kucinich were excluded from the debate on the grounds that they did not have at least one paid staff member or office space in Iowa.
On September 26, 2007 in Hanover, New Hampshire
, MSNBC
held a debate at Dartmouth College
in conjunction with New England Cable News
and New Hampshire Public Radio
. During the course of the debate Gravel reiterated many of his familiar positions on Iraq. When asked his opinion Gravel stated that anyone old enough to fight and die for the nation ought to be able to drink alcohol legally.
Asked if he would tax gasoline to reduce national consumption Gravel said that he would tax all carbon based fuels to eliminate the politicians' and bureaucrats' playing favorites in the implementation of such a scheme. As well, he offered that he thought it futile to try to get the Congress to pass such a law, that it would instead require his proposed National Initiative and the empowering of the people to do so. Further he said that the nation could eliminate gasoline as an energy source in 5 years and all carbon based fuels in 10 years if it could just summon the will to do so, substituting wind generated electricity, for instance, for nuclear reactors as a source of power.
None of the eight candidates were accorded greater talk-time than the moderator, who accorded himself 19.42 minutes of talk-time. Hillary Clinton was accorded the second greatest amount of talk-time at 17.62 minutes, 4.1 times the talk-time accorded Mike Gravel, who was accorded the least amount of talk-time at 4.33 minutes.
A September 27–30 , 2007 American Research Group Poll showed Gravel with 2%, tied with Joe Biden
and ahead of Dennis Kucinich
.
By the end of the third-quarter 2007, the committee had $17,526.55 in cash on hand, and had collected a total of $379,794.85 so far during the 2008 election cycle.
. He described himself as an ordinary guy, and would be more likely to take the train than fly in a private jet. He explained that other leading nations, including Russia
, spend just 3%–4% of their budget on defense, while the US defense budget is more than all other nations combined. He then rhetorically asked: "What are we afraid of?" He explained that the defense budget is associated with the military industrial complex. He stated that the US military is internationally competitive, but the US schools and health care system are not. Gravel said that Ralph Nader
once referred to him as a "breath of fresh air".
On October 19, it was announced that Gravel was excluded from the next Democratic debate – October 30, 2007 in Philadelphia to be televised on NBC News and MSNBC and held at Drexel University
– with the debate sponsors or the Democratic National Committee
saying Gravel's campaign had not met fund-raising, polling, or local campaign organizational thresholds. For the Philadelphia exclusion, Gravel blamed corporate censorship
on the part of sponsor owner and alleged military-industrial complex
member General Electric
for his exclusion.
Senator Gravel mounted a counter-gathering and debate against a video screen a short distance away, at Philadelphia's "World Cafe Live" at the same time as,
and two blocks from, the Democratic Presidential Debate from which he was excluded. The debate was shown on a large screen, with Senator Gravel providing a running commentary and later answering audience questions. The event was called "An Alternate October 30th" and initially announced on Gravel's YouTube page.
However, Gravel's exclusion continued for almost all of the subsequent Democratic debates, and he had thus lost his easiest publicity.
At some point, none of the major polls were including Gravel's name in their polling. Despite poor polling numbers, Gravel had positive support among young people and Internet users, however his lowest support comes from the constituency. Blind polls suggested that he would garner much more voting support if his positions were more well known.
For the fourth quarter of 2007, Gravel reported no money raised. Following Gravel's exclusion from most of the Democratic debates, and consequent impairment to his monetary turnover, his supporters began organizing "mass donation days" to help the campaign gain momentum and necessary funds, in the manner of Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul
. Such planned days included:
, choosing to focus on the New Hampshire primary
instead, and received no Iowa state delegates. Nevertheless, he was still subjected to a false report from Keith Olbermann
of MSNBC
that he had pulled out of the race afterward, as had fellow Democratic candidates Chris Dodd and Joe Biden
. Later that night, Gravel's campaign issued a press release and YouTube video denying this and making it clear that Gravel intends to continue his campaign and that he does not intend to drop out of the race for presidency. Keith Olbermann later apologized to the Gravel campaign stating that a man named Alex Colvin, Gravel's press secretary, contacted MSNBC news at approximately 11:30 PM. MSNBC double-checked the source and believed the man was who he said he was, and was subsequently read on the air.
Gravel did focus much of his attention on the second 2008 vote, the New Hampshire primary
held on January 8, and gained some media attention for a pre-election appearance at Phillips Exeter Academy
where he told students that using marijuana was safer than drinking alcohol
. In the primary he received 402 votes out of some 280,000 cast, or 0.14 percent. Gravel said he would take some time off from campaigning to deal with a respiratory infection. He subsequently resumed campaigning.
On January 15, 2008, Gravel received 2,363 votes out of 593,837 votes cast in the Michigan primary
, or 0.40 percent.
Campaigning was light in the Democratic primary due to an intra-party dispute removing several top candidates' names from the ballot.
Gravel did not reach viability in any of the Nevada caucuses
in the state on January 19, 2008, and as a result, received no delegates.
On January 26, 2008, Gravel received 214 votes out of 532,468 votes cast in the South Carolina primary
, or 0.04 percent.
On January 29, 2008, Gravel finished 8th in the Florida primary, with a little over 5,000 votes. He finished behind 4 candidates who had already withdrawn.
This primary too was affected by an intra-party dispute causing several candidates not to campaign.
By the end of January 2008, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and Gravel were the only remaining Democrats from the initial debates still running. Gravel vowed to stay in the presidential campaign until November.
On March 11, 2008, Gravel continued to remain in the Democratic race but additionally endorsed a Green Party
candidate for president, Jesse Johnson
, saying he wanted to help Johnson prevail against Green Party rivals Cynthia McKinney
and Ralph Nader
. As March neared a close, Gravel had almost no fundraising and was only on the ballot in one of the next ten Democratic primaries.
, stating “I look forward to advancing my presidential candidacy within the Libertarian Party, which is considerably closer to my values, my foreign policy views and my domestic views.”
As a Libertarian candidate, Gravel found more support than he had as a Democrat, placing second and third in two April 2008 straw poll
s.
In the May 25 balloting at the 2008 Libertarian National Convention
in Denver, Gravel finished fourth out of eight candidates on the initial ballot, with 71 votes out of 618; he trailed former Congressman and eventual winner Bob Barr
, author Mary Ruwart
, and businessman Wayne Allyn Root
. Gravel's position did not improve subsequently and he was eliminated on the fourth ballot. Afterwards he said, “I just ended my political career. From 15 years old to now, my political career is over, and it’s no big deal. I’m a writer, I’m a lecturer, I’m going to push the issues of freedom and liberty. I’m going to push those issues until the day I die.”
activist Doris Haddock
and received financial contributions from actor Mark Ruffalo
.
Noted academic and political dissident Noam Chomsky
also endorsed Senator Gravel.
Mike Gravel
Maurice Robert "Mike" Gravel is a former Democratic United States Senator from Alaska, who served two terms from 1969 to 1981, and a former candidate in the 2008 presidential election....
, a former United States Senator from Alaska, on April 17, 2006, declared his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States in the 2008 election
United States presidential election, 2008
The United States presidential election of 2008 was the 56th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on November 4, 2008. Democrat Barack Obama, then the junior United States Senator from Illinois, defeated Republican John McCain, the senior U.S. Senator from Arizona. Obama received 365...
, in a speech to the National Press Club.
His campaign gained an Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
following and national attention due to outspoken debate appearances during 2007, but consistently showed little support in national polls. In the 2008 Democratic caucus
Caucus
A caucus is a meeting of supporters or members of a political party or movement, especially in the United States and Canada. As the use of the term has been expanded the exact definition has come to vary among political cultures.-Origin of the term:...
es and primaries
Primary election
A primary election is an election in which party members or voters select candidates for a subsequent election. Primary elections are one means by which a political party nominates candidates for the next general election....
, he did not win any delegates. Out of the eight candidates for the Democratic nomination for president, he received the fewest votes - less than one percent.
In March 2008, Gravel announced that he had joined the Libertarian Party
Libertarian Party (United States)
The Libertarian Party is the third largest and fastest growing political party in the United States. The political platform of the Libertarian Party reflects its brand of libertarianism, favoring minimally regulated, laissez-faire markets, strong civil liberties, minimally regulated migration...
and would seek its presidential nomination, instead of further pursuing the Democratic nomination. In May 2008, Gravel finished fourth at the 2008 Libertarian National Convention
2008 Libertarian National Convention
The 2008 Libertarian National Convention was held from May 22 to May 26, 2008 at the Sheraton Hotel in Denver, Colorado...
and ended both his presidential quest and his political career.
Announcement
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
in the 2008 election
United States presidential election, 2008
The United States presidential election of 2008 was the 56th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on November 4, 2008. Democrat Barack Obama, then the junior United States Senator from Illinois, defeated Republican John McCain, the senior U.S. Senator from Arizona. Obama received 365...
, announcing his run in a speech to the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
Short on campaign cash, he took public transportation to get to his announcement.
Gravel had spoken out against the war in Iraq since before the invasion of that country began in March 2003. In his announcement he called for immediate cessation of US military involvement in Iraq via his own-drafted U.S. Armed Forces Withdrawal From Iraq Act, and offered a strategy he claimed would get it passed. He unequivocally denounced any possible war with Iran
Support for military action against Iran
American military action against Iran has been endorsed by some mainstream American politicians and some in the media.-Polls:In 2010, a poll conducted Feb. 23-24, by Fox News and Opinion Dynamics found 60% of Americans believed military force will be necessary to stop Iran from working on nuclear...
. His announced campaign platform was centered on systemic changes to the U.S. system. Foremost among these were:
- The National InitiativeNational initiativeNational initiative refers to proposals within the United States to allow for ballot initiatives at the federal level. Currently, this is being proposed by Mike Gravel, a former U.S. Senator, and The Democracy Foundation, a non-profit non-governmental organization...
for Democracy, a Constitutional amendment and proposed federal statute that would recognize a fourth branch of the US federal government in addition to the judicial, executive and legislative branches, namely the people via direct democracyDirect democracyDirect democracy is a form of government in which people vote on policy initiatives directly, as opposed to a representative democracy in which people vote for representatives who then vote on policy initiatives. Direct democracy is classically termed "pure democracy"...
, enabled to directly initiate and pass legislation and to amend the Constitution of the United States on their own. - A national sales taxFairTaxThe FairTax is a tax reform proposal for the federal government of the United States that would replace all federal taxes on personal and corporate income with a single broad national consumption tax on retail sales. The Fair Tax Act would apply a tax once at the point of purchase on all new goods...
that would replace the income tax and the Internal Revenue ServiceInternal Revenue ServiceThe Internal Revenue Service is the revenue service of the United States federal government. The agency is a bureau of the Department of the Treasury, and is under the immediate direction of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue...
.
Gravel's initial campaign also emphasized his support for a single-payer national health care system
Single-payer health care
Single-payer health care is medical care funded from a single insurance pool, run by the state. Under a single-payer system, universal health care for an entire population can be financed from a pool to which many parties employees, employers, and the state have contributed...
, term limits, nuclear disarmament
Nuclear disarmament
Nuclear disarmament refers to both the act of reducing or eliminating nuclear weapons and to the end state of a nuclear-free world, in which nuclear weapons are completely eliminated....
, and same-sex marriage
Same-sex marriage
Same-sex marriage is marriage between two persons of the same biological sex or social gender. Supporters of legal recognition for same-sex marriage typically refer to such recognition as marriage equality....
recognition.
Campaign developments 2006
Although Gravel's candidacy was little-noticed by the national media, at its outset he campaigned almost full-time in New HampshireNew Hampshire
New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...
(the first primary state
New Hampshire primary
The New Hampshire primary is the first in a series of nationwide political party primary elections held in the United States every four years , as part of the process of choosing the Democratic and Republican nominees for the presidential elections to be held the subsequent November.Although only a...
). He garnered broader awareness and interest through his occasional television appearances, netroots
Netroots
Netroots is a term coined in 2002 by Jerome Armstrong to describe political activism organized through blogs and other online media, including wikis and social network services. The word is a portmanteau of Internet and grassroots, reflecting the technological innovations that set netroots...
campaigning, participation in Party forums (such as the Democratic Presidential Candidates Forum and Democratic National Committee
Democratic National Committee
The Democratic National Committee is the principal organization governing the United States Democratic Party on a day to day basis. While it is responsible for overseeing the process of writing a platform every four years, the DNC's central focus is on campaign and political activity in support...
(DNC) Winter Conference), and up until October 30 in Philadelphia, the string of televised debates sponsored by the DNC and others.
Gravel was interviewed for the Blue State Observer weblog on June 27, 2006. On that occasion he expressed his support for constitutional change in aid of citizen-initiated legislation, he declaimed the existence of limitations upon the conduct of stem cell research, and stated he was against the widespread deportation of illegal immigrants then being advocated by conservative talk radio and other elements.
An August 2006 media release draws attention to the candidate's public opposition to the prospect of war in Iraq expressed as long ago as the early months of 2002.
The campaign and/or candidate have attracted notable coverage in The New York Times, The Reno Gazette-Journal, on CBS News, on ABC News, in The Progressive, and in The American Spectator,
Among other sources of news and commentary, the campaign notes coverage and appraisal of its candidate by The Free Liberal, CrooksandLiars.com, the New York Daily Star, AntiWar Radio
Antiwar.com
Antiwar.com is a website devoted to opposing aggressive war, imperialism, and assaults on freedom associated with both. The editors describe their politics as libertarian. Their stated motiviation is, "to show how the imperialistic tendencies of the American government lead to a loss of civil...
, the Ed Schultz Show, Internationalist Magazine, the Roanoke (VA) Times, American Chronicle, Daily Kos, The Dartmouth Online, Blue Hampshire, and the Portsmouth (VA) Herald.
Gravel delivered an address before the New Hampshire
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...
Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College
Saint Anselm College
Saint Anselm College is a nationally ranked, private, Benedictine, Catholic liberal arts college in Goffstown, New Hampshire. Founded in 1889 by Abbot Hilary Pfrängle, O.S.B. of Saint Mary's Abbey in Newark, New Jersey, at the request of Bishop Denis M. Bradley of Manchester, New Hampshire, the...
in November 2006 which has been recorded and published on video.
The campaign website included participation forums. A video section of the campaign website linked to videos of some media appearances, his address to the New Hampshire Institute of Politics, a September 2006 appearance at the 'Camp Democracy' activist forum in Washington D.C., as well as the introductory video from his successful 1968 Senate campaign.
The candidate has maintained his own weblog since October 2006, and began blogging at The Huffington Post
The Huffington Post
The Huffington Post is an American news website and content-aggregating blog founded by Arianna Huffington, Kenneth Lerer, and Jonah Peretti, featuring liberal minded columnists and various news sources. The site offers coverage of politics, theology, media, business, entertainment, living, style,...
in June 2007 as well. The Gravel campaign also had its own YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
channel featuring more than 80 videos of the candidate's past speeches and campaign appearances.
First quarter
Gravel's address before the DNC National Winter Conference in early February 2007 was received – enthusiastically, claimed campaign advocates – and was broadcast on C-SpanC-SPAN
C-SPAN , an acronym for Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network, is an American cable television network that offers coverage of federal government proceedings and other public affairs programming via its three television channels , one radio station and a group of websites that provide streaming...
. In speaking he offered harsh judgments against President Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
and the Senate Democratic leadership, and implicitly his Presidential rivals Joe Biden
Joe Biden
Joseph Robinette "Joe" Biden, Jr. is the 47th and current Vice President of the United States, serving under President Barack Obama...
, Hillary Clinton, and John Edwards
John Edwards
Johnny Reid "John" Edwards is an American politician, who served as a U.S. Senator from North Carolina. He was the Democratic nominee for Vice President in 2004, and was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004 and 2008.He defeated incumbent Republican Lauch Faircloth in...
, saying "anyone who voted for the war on October 11 based upon what President Bush presented to them is not qualified to hold the office of President of the United States." Gravel was interviewed on MSNBC
MSNBC
MSNBC is a cable news channel based in the United States available in the US, Germany , South Africa, the Middle East and Canada...
at the time. He also appeared as a guest of a video weblog directed from New Jersey answering questions about netroots
Netroots
Netroots is a term coined in 2002 by Jerome Armstrong to describe political activism organized through blogs and other online media, including wikis and social network services. The word is a portmanteau of Internet and grassroots, reflecting the technological innovations that set netroots...
and the blogosphere
Blogosphere
The blogosphere is made up of all blogs and their interconnections. The term implies that blogs exist together as a connected community or as a social network in which everyday authors can publish their opinions...
.
Senator Gravel was interviewed on Toniq TV where he forthrightly expressed views supporting the lifting of restrictions against the service of identified gays and lesbians in the US military. Calling comparison to President Harry S. Truman's racial desegregation of the US military in 1948
Executive Order 9981
Executive Order 9981 is an executive order issued on July 26, 1948 by U.S. President Harry S. Truman. It expanded on Executive Order 8802 by establishing equality of treatment and opportunity in the Armed Services for people of all races, religions, or national origins."In 1947, Randolph, along...
he criticized former President Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
as 'dead wrong' and 'mousy' for his innovation of the don't ask don't tell policy covering homosexual conduct by military members:
"When Clinton got to be President, well, the first he's doing is standing there on two legs waffling back and forth, oh, don't tell us you're gay. What are you talking about? If you had any knowledge of history, ancient history, in Sparta they encouraged homosexuality because they fight for the people they love. And if it's your partner and you love them, you're prepared to die for them, and that's the same ethic you see in the military today. It's not the country. It's my partner. Go see the movies on war, and it's always the person next to me who is in my foxhole with me. Well, I got to tell you, extend that a little further and you'll see why the Spartans trained their people to be homosexuals, because they're better fighters."
On February 11, 2007, the senator addressed the Jefferson County Presidents Day Dinner in Watertown, Wisconsin
Watertown, Wisconsin
Watertown is a city in Dodge and Jefferson counties in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Most of the city's population is in Jefferson County. Division Street, several blocks north of downtown, marks the county line. The population of Watertown was 21,598 at the 2000 census...
.
On February 13, 2007, the senator released a statement outlining his views on the possibility of impeachment
Impeachment
Impeachment is a formal process in which an official is accused of unlawful activity, the outcome of which, depending on the country, may include the removal of that official from office as well as other punishment....
proceedings against President George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
, regarding it as 'not sufficient' and favoring a congressional inquiry which could ultimately lead to criminal charges being brought against the President.
Senator Gravel participated in the AFSCME Democratic Presidential Forum on 21 February 2007 in Carson City, Nevada
Carson City, Nevada
The Consolidated Municipality of Carson City is the capital of the state of Nevada. The words Consolidated Municipality refer to a series of changes in 1969 which abolished Ormsby County and merged all the settlements contained within its borders into Carson City. Since that time Carson City has...
, at the Carson City Community Center. He appears toward the end of the video of the broadcast of the event.
In the Carson City Forum, he roundly condemned President Bush's policy of military involvement in Iraq and reminded those present of his statements warning of lies and distortions about Iraq's supposed unlawful weapons of mass destruction
Iraq and weapons of mass destruction
During the regime of Saddam Hussein, the nation of Iraq used, possessed, and made efforts to acquire weapons of mass destruction . Hussein was internationally known for his use of chemical weapons in the 1980s against Iranian and Kurdish civilians during and after the Iran–Iraq War...
as far back as early 2002 (the time of the occurrence of the first signs of the Bush Administration's formulation of an agenda for military action against Iraq). He decried the overall level of military spending as opposed to the funding of education and of what he regarded as the consequent, poor educational outcomes achieved.
Senator Gravel called on congressional Democrats to force a 'constitutional crisis' by denying all further budgetary appropriations in aid of continued American military involvement in Iraq. He further argued that the income tax
Income tax
An income tax is a tax levied on the income of individuals or businesses . Various income tax systems exist, with varying degrees of tax incidence. Income taxation can be progressive, proportional, or regressive. When the tax is levied on the income of companies, it is often called a corporate...
should be 'wiped out' in favor of the FairTax
FairTax
The FairTax is a tax reform proposal for the federal government of the United States that would replace all federal taxes on personal and corporate income with a single broad national consumption tax on retail sales. The Fair Tax Act would apply a tax once at the point of purchase on all new goods...
proposal - which imposes a progressive
Progressive tax
A progressive tax is a tax by which the tax rate increases as the taxable base amount increases. "Progressive" describes a distribution effect on income or expenditure, referring to the way the rate progresses from low to high, where the average tax rate is less than the marginal tax rate...
sales tax
Sales tax
A sales tax is a tax, usually paid by the consumer at the point of purchase, itemized separately from the base price, for certain goods and services. The tax amount is usually calculated by applying a percentage rate to the taxable price of a sale....
on newly manufactured items varying from 19% to 23% while providing 'prebates' to 'untax' families spending on necessities, up to the poverty level. He stated his view that experience showed income taxes were successfully 'gamed' by the wealthy at the expense of the poor and middle income earners. And he voiced his support for the constitutional and legal reform necessary to effect the National Initiative
National initiative
National initiative refers to proposals within the United States to allow for ballot initiatives at the federal level. Currently, this is being proposed by Mike Gravel, a former U.S. Senator, and The Democracy Foundation, a non-profit non-governmental organization...
as a means of enabling citizen-initiated national lawmaking.
Senator Gravel also spoke in favor of public financial assistance for campaigning Presidential candidates.
On February 26, 2007, Senator Gravel was interviewed about his campaign on the American C-SPAN
C-SPAN
C-SPAN , an acronym for Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network, is an American cable television network that offers coverage of federal government proceedings and other public affairs programming via its three television channels , one radio station and a group of websites that provide streaming...
network's Washington Journal
Washington Journal
Washington Journal is an American television series on the C-SPAN network in the format of a political call-in and interview program. The program features elected officials, government administrators and journalists as guests, answering questions from the hosts and from members of the general...
program..
In a February 25, 2007 Washington Post/ABC News
ABC News
ABC News is the news gathering and broadcasting division of American broadcast television network ABC, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company...
nationwide poll of voters who lean Democratic, 0% supported Gravel for the Democratic presidential nomination. Indeed, through February 2007, such opinion polls of contenders for the Democratic nomination all showed Gravel with a 1% or less support level.
At the close of the first quarter 2007 reporting period, the campaign committee had $498 in cash against debts and obligations amounting to $88,515.
Second quarter
Because of his time in the Senate, Gravel was invited to many of the early Democratic presidential debates. The first Democratic debate of the pre-primary season was in the evening of April 26, 2007, in Orangeburg, South CarolinaOrangeburg, South Carolina
Orangeburg, also known as "The Garden City," is the principal city in and the county seat of Orangeburg County, South Carolina, United States. The city is also the fifth oldest city in the state of South Carolina. The city population was 12,765 at the 2000 census, within a Greater Orangeburg...
, at South Carolina State University
South Carolina State University
South Carolina State University is a historically black university located in Orangeburg, South Carolina, United States. It is the only state funded, historically black land-grant institution in South Carolina and is a member school of the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund.- Colleges, departments,...
. State party chairman Joe Erwin said that he chose South Carolina State because it is an historically black college, noting that African-Americans have been the "most loyal" Democrats in the state. The debate was 90 minutes with a 60-second time limit for answers, and no opening or closing statements. It was broadcast via cable television
Cable television
Cable television is a system of providing television programs to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through coaxial cables or digital light pulses through fixed optical fibers located on the subscriber's property, much like the over-the-air method used in traditional...
and online video streaming by MSNBC
MSNBC
MSNBC is a cable news channel based in the United States available in the US, Germany , South Africa, the Middle East and Canada...
. The debate was moderated by Brian Williams
Brian Williams
Brian Douglas Williams is the anchor and managing editor of NBC Nightly News, the evening news program of the NBC television network, a position he assumed in 2004...
of NBC Nightly News
NBC Nightly News
NBC Nightly News is the flagship daily evening television news program for NBC News and broadcasts. NBC Nightly News has aired from Studio 3B, located on floors 3 of the NBC Studios is the headquarters of the GE Building forms the centerpiece of 30th Rockefeller Center it is located in the center...
.
Mike Gravel appeared with the seven other contenders for the Democratic nomination for President. He stated that the Iraq War had the effect of creating more terrorists and that the "war was lost the day that George Bush invaded Iraq on a fraudulent basis." He maintained that an end to the war could be effected by a bill passed in the House and a Senate filibuster on such a bill defeated by a daily vote on cloture, but that the will to do so was lacking. Further, he suggested a bill requiring the president to withdraw from Iraq on pain of criminal penalties. He said the recent threat of a pre-emptive nuclear strike in the "war on terror" was immoral and would be dropped under a Gravel administration, and that America has no important military enemies and it is the influence of the military-industrial complex that has conditioned Americans to think of the world in terms of enemies. He characterized the CIA overthrow of democracy in Iran in the 1950s lies as the root of U.S. problems with that country. Overall, he said that all American armed forces who died in Vietnam died in vain and American armed forces in Iraq were dying in vain. Regarding his fellow candidates, he said, "I got to tell you, after standing up with them, some of these people frighten me — they frighten me."
Media stories about the debate said that Gravel was responsible for much of whatever "heat" and "flashpoints" had taken place. Gravel gained considerable publicity by shaking up the normally staid multiple-candidate format; The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
video of his responses in the debate was viewed more than 225,892 times, ranking seventeenth in most views for week and first among news and politics clips; his name became the fifteenth most searched-for in the blogosphere
Blogosphere
The blogosphere is made up of all blogs and their interconnections. The term implies that blogs exist together as a connected community or as a social network in which everyday authors can publish their opinions...
; and his website garnered more traffic than those of frontrunners Hillary Rodham Clinton
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton is the 67th United States Secretary of State, serving in the administration of President Barack Obama. She was a United States Senator for New York from 2001 to 2009. As the wife of the 42nd President of the United States, Bill Clinton, she was the First Lady of the...
, Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
, or John Edwards
John Edwards
Johnny Reid "John" Edwards is an American politician, who served as a U.S. Senator from North Carolina. He was the Democratic nominee for Vice President in 2004, and was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004 and 2008.He defeated incumbent Republican Lauch Faircloth in...
. Gravel appeared on the popular Colbert Report on television on May 2, and his campaign and career were profiled in national publications such as Salon.
All of this did not help his poll ratings: a May 2007 CNN poll showed him with less than 0.5 percent support among Democrats.
In late May 2007, two wordless, avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
campaign videos, "Rock" and "Fire", created by Otis College of Art and Design
Otis College of Art and Design
Otis College of Art and Design is an art and design college in Los Angeles, California.The school's programs, accredited by WASC and National Association of Schools of Art and Design, include four-year BFA degrees in illustration, fine arts, graphic design, architecture, landscape design, interior...
staff Matt Mayes and Guston Sondin-Klausner, were released on YouTube and became hits. The first, nearly three minutes long, showed Gravel staring at the camera silently for more than one minute, then throwing a large rock into a lake and slowly walking away, with a sole graphic showing the campaign website. The second, nearly eight minutes long, briefly showed Gravel walking through a forest collecting wood and looking at the resultant campfire, then for the remaining seven minutes just showed the fire burning, with the website graphic superimposed. These videos would eventually gain over 480,000 and 140,000 views respectively. "Rock" was given airtime during an episode of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.
WMUR-TV
WMUR-TV
WMUR-TV is the ABC-affiliated television station for the state of New Hampshire that is licensed to Manchester. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 9 from a transmitter on the south peak of Mount Uncanoonuc in Goffstown. Owned by Hearst Television, the station has studios...
, CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
, and the New Hampshire Union Leader
New Hampshire Union Leader
The New Hampshire Union Leader is the daily newspaper of Manchester, the largest city in the state of New Hampshire. As of September 2010 it had a daily circulation of 48,342 and the circulation of its Sunday paper, the New Hampshire Sunday News, was 63,991. It was founded in 1863.It was called...
hosted both Democratic and Republican debates in Manchester, New Hampshire
Manchester, New Hampshire
Manchester is the largest city in the U.S. state of New Hampshire, the tenth largest city in New England, and the largest city in northern New England, an area comprising the states of Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. It is in Hillsborough County along the banks of the Merrimack River, which...
, at Saint Anselm College
Saint Anselm College
Saint Anselm College is a nationally ranked, private, Benedictine, Catholic liberal arts college in Goffstown, New Hampshire. Founded in 1889 by Abbot Hilary Pfrängle, O.S.B. of Saint Mary's Abbey in Newark, New Jersey, at the request of Bishop Denis M. Bradley of Manchester, New Hampshire, the...
. The Democratic debate was Sunday, June 3, starting at 7 PM EDT and lasting two hours, commercial free. The moderator was Wolf Blitzer
Wolf Blitzer
Wolf Isaac Blitzer is an American journalist who has been a CNN reporter since 1990. Blitzer is currently the host of the newscast The Situation Room and was the host of the Sunday talk show Late Edition until it was discontinued on January 11, 2009...
, host of Late Edition
Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer
Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer was a Sunday talk show hosted by Wolf Blitzer on CNN and broadcast around the world by CNN International. The show's slogan was The last word in Sunday talk and comments made on the show were often featured in the following Monday's news headlines.The show, launched...
and The Situation Room
The Situation Room
The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer is an afternoon/early evening newscast on CNN and CNN International hosted by Wolf Blitzer that first aired on August 8, 2005. The show replaces three politics and hard news programs: Judy Woodruff's Inside Politics, Crossfire and Wolf Blitzer Reports.At first,...
. He was joined by Tom Fahey
Tom Fahey
Tom Fahey is the State House Bureau Chief of the New Hampshire Union Leader, for which he writes the "State House Dome" column. He is a regular guest on New Hampshire Outlook on New Hampshire Public Television....
of the Union Leader and Scott Spradling from the local NH television station WMUR. The first half of the debate was a directed question and answer, with candidates at podiums, as in the first debate, responding to questions from Fahey and Spralding.
On March 17, 2007, CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
, the New Hampshire Union Leader
New Hampshire Union Leader
The New Hampshire Union Leader is the daily newspaper of Manchester, the largest city in the state of New Hampshire. As of September 2010 it had a daily circulation of 48,342 and the circulation of its Sunday paper, the New Hampshire Sunday News, was 63,991. It was founded in 1863.It was called...
and WMUR-TV
WMUR-TV
WMUR-TV is the ABC-affiliated television station for the state of New Hampshire that is licensed to Manchester. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on VHF channel 9 from a transmitter on the south peak of Mount Uncanoonuc in Goffstown. Owned by Hearst Television, the station has studios...
had formally decided to exclude former Senator Gravel from debates between Democratic Presidential candidates they would be sponsoring in New Hampshire. The decision was decried as "censorship, unbecoming a free society", and on 1 May 2007 the decision was reversed, and Mike Gravel was invited to be a participant. The venue was Saint Anselm College
Saint Anselm College
Saint Anselm College is a nationally ranked, private, Benedictine, Catholic liberal arts college in Goffstown, New Hampshire. Founded in 1889 by Abbot Hilary Pfrängle, O.S.B. of Saint Mary's Abbey in Newark, New Jersey, at the request of Bishop Denis M. Bradley of Manchester, New Hampshire, the...
and the debate was nationally televised on CNN.
Gravel reiterated many of his past foreign policy points during the debate, and emphasized that Biden, Clinton, Dodd, and Edwards voted for the resolution under which the invasion and occupation of Iraq were undertaken and Edwards co-sponsored it. Gravel claimed that the history of Southeast Asia after U.S. withdrawal showed Iraq withdrawal would not necessarily be dire, and that the insurgency in Iraq was successful because it had the support of the Iraqi people. He said that the fact that the other candidates knew, or should have known, that there were "two sets of books" being kept on intelligence from Iraq, and that they voted the resolution that authorized the war in spite of that fact, indicates that morality plays no part in their political decisions and that lack of moral judgment ought to keep them from the presidency.
Two of eight candidates, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, were accorded greater talk-time than the moderator. Barack Obama was accorded the greatest talk-time at 16 full minutes, 2.85 times the talk-time accorded Mike Gravel, who was accorded the least talk-time at 5.62 minutes.
On June 28, 2007 in Washington, D.C., PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
held and televised a debate at Howard University
Howard University
Howard University is a federally chartered, non-profit, private, coeducational, nonsectarian, historically black university located in Washington, D.C., United States...
, an historically black college
Historically Black Colleges and Universities
Historically black colleges and universities are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before 1964 with the intention of serving the black community....
. The moderator was Tavis Smiley
Tavis Smiley
Tavis Smiley is a talk show host, author, liberal political commentator, entrepreneur, advocate and philanthropist. Smiley was born in Gulfport, Mississippi and grew up in Kokomo, Indiana. After attending Indiana University, he worked during the late 1980s as an aide to Tom Bradley, the mayor of...
. All eight candidates discussed various topics including education, poverty, unemployment, racial discrimination, and health in the black community. The debate drew a record crowd of celebrities, such as Harry Belafonte
Harry Belafonte
Harold George "Harry" Belafonte, Jr. is an American singer, songwriter, actor and social activist. He was dubbed the "King of Calypso" for popularizing the Caribbean musical style with an international audience in the 1950s...
, Al Sharpton
Al Sharpton
Alfred Charles "Al" Sharpton, Jr. is an American Baptist minister, civil rights activist, and television/radio talk show host. In 2004, he was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. presidential election...
, Dorothy Heights, Jesse Jackson
Jesse Jackson
Jesse Louis Jackson, Sr. is an African-American civil rights activist and Baptist minister. He was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988 and served as shadow senator for the District of Columbia from 1991 to 1997. He was the founder of both entities that merged to...
, Terry McMillan
Terry McMillan
Terry McMillan is an American author. Her interest in books comes from working at a library when she was sixteen. She received her BA in journalism in 1986 at University of California, Berkeley. Her work is characterized by strong female protagonists.Her first book, Mama, was published in 1987...
, Judge Hatchett
Judge Hatchett
Judge Hatchett is a nationally-syndicated American television program produced and distributed by Sony Pictures Television. It starred The Honorable Glenda Hatchett and was modeled after other "court shows" such as Judge Judy and the long running The People's Court, as well as containing elements...
, and Mark Ridley-Thomas
Mark Ridley-Thomas
Mark Ridley-Thomas , often referred to by his initials, MRT, is a member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors for District 2, who succeeded Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke...
.
Gravel's points in the debate included that the "war on drugs" was a failure. He asserted that the prison population of the US had increased 1285% over the past 35 years and that 70% of that population is African-American. Gravel compared the legal basis for the war on drugs to Prohibition, claimed that it made criminals of people who otherwise were not criminals, and that they were disproportionately African-American. Gravel asserted that the money spent on the war in Iraq could have built 4 million houses thus helping victims of hurricane Katrina, or financed 21 million four-year college scholarships, or hired 7.6 million new teachers. Gravel said that the income tax code was especially open to corruption. That the tax code was now so complicated and corrupted that no one alive understood it. He said that with his alternative, progressive sales tax proposal everyone would know what everyone else was paying in taxes. Gravel said that equal justice before the law would only be possible if the people were empowered as lawmakers. Gravel asserted that Free Trade Agreements benefited corporate management and shareholders but hurt most people on both sides to the agreement.
This was the first debate during which all the candidates were accorded equal time. The earlier debates were heavily biased toward the 'Top-tier' candidates.
By the second-quarter 2007 close, the committee had $31,141 in cash on hand, and had collected a total of $175,229 in net contributions during the entire 2008 election cycle.
Third quarter
On July 23, 2007 in Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston is the second largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It was made the county seat of Charleston County in 1901 when Charleston County was founded. The city's original name was Charles Towne in 1670, and it moved to its present location from a location on the west bank of the...
, the CNN-YouTube Presidential Debates
CNN-YouTube presidential debates
The CNN-YouTube presidential debates were a series of televised debates in which United States presidential hopefuls field questions submitted through the social networking site YouTube. The Democratic Party installment took place in Charleston, South Carolina and aired on July 23, 2007. The...
took place for the Democrats, on the campus of The Citadel
The Citadel (military college)
The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina, also known simply as The Citadel, is a state-supported, comprehensive college located in Charleston, South Carolina, USA. It is one of the six senior military colleges in the United States...
. All questions were selected from among, and posed as videos submitted via YouTube by members of the public; the debate was moderated by Anderson Cooper
Anderson Cooper
Anderson Hays Cooper is an American journalist, author, and television personality. He is the primary anchor of the CNN news show Anderson Cooper 360°. The program is normally broadcast live from a New York City studio; however, Cooper often broadcasts live on location for breaking news stories...
of Anderson Cooper 360. YouTube and Google
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
streamed the event live. It was also simulcast on CNN en Español
CNN en Español
CNN en Español is CNN's Spanish language news channel. On March 17, 1997, CNN launched CNN en Español, a 24-hour Spanish-language news network for the Hispanic American and United States marketplace.-Mexico programming:...
.
Two of eight candidates, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, were accorded greater talk-time than the moderator. Barack Obama was accorded the greatest talk-time at 15.18 minutes, 3.64 times the talk-time accorded Mike Gravel, who was accorded the least talk-time at 4.17 minutes. Gravel responded to audience applause when he had complained of a lack of airtime and said: "Thank you. Has it been fair thus far?" Detractors began to liken Gravel to "the cranky uncle who lives in the attic," or "the angry old guy that just seemed to want to become angrier."
On August 4, 2007, the Yearly Kos Presidential Leadership Forum was held in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Illinois. This informal discussion was attended by seven of the eight presidential candidates, with Joe Biden not attending due to votes in Congress. New York Times Magazine writer Matt Bai
Matt Bai
Matt Bai writes the “Political Times” column for the New York Times and is a frequent contributor for the Times Magazine, where he covered both the 2004 and 2008 presidential campaigns. Bai often explores issues of generational change in American politics and society...
and DailyKos Contributing Editor and Fellow Joan McCarter moderated. The debate was broken down into Domestic Policy, Foreign Policy, and Philosophy and Leadership. Candidates were allotted 90 seconds for each question with 45 second rebuttals, although the time limits were not strictly enforced. After the debate, breakout sessions were held where convention goers could question each candidate individually.
Mike Gravel expounded upon the shortcomings of representational government, concluding with, "So the only answer is for you to realize that the answer is not up here on the dais, the answer is with you, the American people, to acquire lawmaking powers." He reiterated that the U.S. Senate had the power to shut down the Iraq War with a series of forced cloture votes if they so chose. And he talked about the effect of the concentration of the media and of money in politics, saying "You gotta keep in mind that all politicians sort of walk in the mud. You know their head may be up here but they walk in the mud. And you have to understand that, because of the way the system is structured, you have to raise money. We're raising hundreds of millions of dollars on this dais for these people to talk to you, when we all know that money is the corrupting agent of politics, and lo and behold the media, which is now controlled in this country by five corporations, is telling us that these people who raise the most, who technically are the most corrupt, are the ones that should get to be elected."
On August 9, 2007, Mike Gravel participated in an LGBT network Logo
Logo (TV channel)
Logo is an American digital cable television channel owned by Viacom's MTV Networks division. Launched in June 2005, the channel's programs are geared towards the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community...
hosted debate focusing on LGBT
LGBT
LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...
issues, moderated by Human Rights Campaign
Human Rights Campaign
The Human Rights Campaign is the United States' largest LGBT advocacy group and lobbying organization; according to the HRC, it has more than one million members and supporters...
President Joe Solmonese
Joe Solmonese
Joe Solmonese is president of the Human Rights Campaign of the United States and its affiliate the Human Rights Campaign Foundation. He was appointed to this position on March 9, 2005. A native of Attleboro, Massachusetts, Solmonese lives in Washington, D.C...
and singer Melissa Etheridge
Melissa Etheridge
Melissa Lou Etheridge is an American rock singer-songwriter and musician.Etheridge is known for her mixture of confessional lyrics, pop-based folk-rock, and raspy, smoky vocals...
in Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
. Mike Gravel was originally excluded from this debate, the reason given that his campaign had not raised enough money to qualify for participation. Rallying from Gravel's supporters reversed this decision.
On August 19, 2007 in Des Moines, Iowa
Des Moines, Iowa
Des Moines is the capital and the most populous city in the US state of Iowa. It is also the county seat of Polk County. A small portion of the city extends into Warren County. It was incorporated on September 22, 1851, as Fort Des Moines which was shortened to "Des Moines" in 1857...
, ABC News
ABC News
ABC News is the news gathering and broadcasting division of American broadcast television network ABC, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company...
in conjunction with the Iowa Democratic Party
Iowa Democratic Party
The Iowa Democratic Party is the local branch of the Democratic Party in the state of Iowa.-Current elected officials:Iowa Democrats are in control of the Iowa Senate, one of the state's United States Senate seats, and three out of the state's five United States House of Representatives seats. ...
held a debate streamed on This Week
This Week (ABC TV series)
This Week is ABC's Sunday morning political affairs program.The Sunday morning talk show has aired on Sunday mornings on ABC since 1981; the program is initially aired at 9:00 AM ET, although many stations air the program later, especially those in other time zones...
moderated by George Stephanopoulos
George Stephanopoulos
George Robert Stephanopoulos is an American television journalist and a former political advisor.Stephanopoulos is most well known as the chief political correspondent for ABC News – the news division of the broadcast television network ABC – and a co-anchor of ABC News's morning news...
.
During the course of the debate Gravel reiterated many of his stances against the Iraq War. Asked if he believed in the efficacy of prayer Gravel replied that he believed in love, that love implements courage, and that courage fosters all the other virtues useful in life. Gravel observed that many of the people who pray are the same ones who want to go to war and thus to kill fellow human beings. Gravel said that more love between individual Americans, individual Iowans, would enable more individual courage, and that more courage would enable Americans to grapple with the problems of governance. Gravel also questioned Americans' view of their country as "Number 1" in the world.
Five of eight candidates, Joe Biden, Bill Richardson, John Edwards, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, were accorded greater talk-time than the moderator. Barack Obama was accorded the greatest talk-time at 13.17 minutes, 2.7 times the talk-time accorded Mike Gravel, who was accorded the least talk-time at 4.88 minutes. Moderator Stephanopoulos noted that Gravel polled a statistical zero percent support in the state, meaning less than 0.5% support. In a poll asking who did the best in the debate, Gravel placed seventh among the eight candidates. National opinion polls of contenders for the Democratic nomination continued to show Gravel with one percent or zero percent numbers.
On September 9, 2007, Univision
Univision
Univision is a Spanish-language television network in the United States. It has the largest audience of Spanish language television viewers according to Nielsen ratings. Randy Falco, COO, has been in charge of the company since the departure of Univision Communications president and CEO Joe Uva...
hosted a forum in Spanish at the University of Miami
University of Miami
The University of Miami is a private, non-sectarian university founded in 1925 with its main campus in Coral Gables, Florida, a medical campus in Miami city proper at Civic Center, and an oceanographic research facility on Virginia Key., the university currently enrolls 15,629 students in 12...
's Bank United Center in Coral Gables, Florida
Coral Gables, Florida
Coral Gables is a city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, southwest of Downtown Miami, in the United States. The city is home to the University of Miami....
and moderated by Univision's anchors Jorge Ramos and Maria Elena Salinas
María Elena Salinas
María Elena Salinas is the co-anchor of Noticiero Univision with Jorge Ramos, the most watched newscast by American Hispanics. She is considered one of the most recognized and influential female Hispanic journalists in the United States.Her parents immigrated to the United States from Mexico in...
. Joe Biden did not participate in the debate. During the course of the forum Mike Gravel stated that it was wrong that the father of (Pfc. 3rd Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment) Armando Soriano (age 20, of Houston), killed in Iraq (1 Feb 2004, in Haditha
Haditha
Haditha is a city in the western Iraqi Al Anbar Governorate, about 240 km northwest of Baghdad. It is a farming town situated on the Euphrates River at . Its population of around 100,000 people is predominantly Sunni Muslim Arabs...
), was about to be deported. Along with the other candidates Gravel committed to immigration reform in his first year as president. Gravel then charged that the national immigration issue was in fact a case of scapegoating immigrants for other systemic problems in the US, in education and health care for example. Gravel said he was embarrassed that the US was building a wall on its southern border. Gravel charged that CAFTA and NAFTA were the real causes of many of the problems on both sides of the US borders but confessed that he thought remedying those acts would have to await the enactment of the National Initiative for Democracy and the empowerment of US citizens as legislators. Gravel said that instead he would reach out to Hugo Chavez in Venezuela and to Castro leadership in Cuba as well. Reminded that health problems had forced Gravel into bankruptcy, Gravel was asked how he would apply his personal experience to the problem of health care. Gravel outlined his plan for healthcare vouchers, paid for out of general revenues, to be applied against premiums of up to five private plans and one government plan, each with identical defined benefits, each mandated to allow freedom of choice of provider.
All candidates were accorded equal talk times at the Univision forum.
A September 11, 2007 Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
/Bloomberg poll found that, among registered South Carolina
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...
voters who plan to vote in the Democratic primary or usually vote for Democrats, 2% would vote for Gravel "if the presidential primary were held today". Candidates Chris Dodd, Dennis Kucinich
Dennis Kucinich
Dennis John Kucinich is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1997. He was furthermore a candidate for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States in the 2004 and 2008 presidential elections....
, and Bill Richardson each got 1% of respondents to that question. Additionally in the same poll of South Carolina voters, in response to the question, "Regardless of your choice for president, who do you think has the best chance of beating the Republican candidate in November…?" Gravel polled 2%, compared to 1% for Joe Biden
Joe Biden
Joseph Robinette "Joe" Biden, Jr. is the 47th and current Vice President of the United States, serving under President Barack Obama...
and Bill Richardson, and 0% for Chris Dodd and Dennis Kucinich.
During mid-September 2007, Yahoo!, in partnership with The Huffington Post
The Huffington Post
The Huffington Post is an American news website and content-aggregating blog founded by Arianna Huffington, Kenneth Lerer, and Jonah Peretti, featuring liberal minded columnists and various news sources. The site offers coverage of politics, theology, media, business, entertainment, living, style,...
, produced a "mashup debate" with Charlie Rose
Charlie Rose
Charles Peete "Charlie" Rose, Jr. is an American television talk show host and journalist. Since 1991 he has hosted Charlie Rose, an interview show distributed nationally by PBS since 1993...
interviewing the candidates. Segments were recorded on September 12, with the "mashups" posted on September 13.
On September 20, 2007 in Davenport, Iowa
Davenport, Iowa
Davenport is a city located along the Mississippi River in Scott County, Iowa, United States. Davenport is the county seat of and largest city in Scott County. Davenport was founded on May 14, 1836 by Antoine LeClaire and was named for his friend, George Davenport, a colonel during the Black Hawk...
, PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
held a forum focused on domestic issues, specifically health care and financial security. It was moderated by Judy Woodruff
Judy Woodruff
Judy Woodruff is an American television news anchor and journalist.Woodruff is a Board Member at the IWMF .-Broadcast journalism career:...
, and was a joint venture between IPTV
IPTV
Internet Protocol television is a system through which television services are delivered using the Internet protocol suite over a packet-switched network such as the Internet, instead of being delivered through traditional terrestrial, satellite signal, and cable television formats.IPTV services...
and AARP
AARP
AARP, formerly the American Association of Retired Persons, is the United States-based non-governmental organization and interest group, founded in 1958 by Ethel Percy Andrus, PhD, a retired educator from California, and based in Washington, D.C. According to its mission statement, it is "a...
. Barack Obama rejected PBS's invitation. Mike Gravel and Dennis Kucinich were excluded from the debate on the grounds that they did not have at least one paid staff member or office space in Iowa.
On September 26, 2007 in Hanover, New Hampshire
Hanover, New Hampshire
Hanover is a town along the Connecticut River in Grafton County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 11,260 at the 2010 census. CNN and Money magazine rated Hanover the sixth best place to live in America in 2011, and the second best in 2007....
, MSNBC
MSNBC
MSNBC is a cable news channel based in the United States available in the US, Germany , South Africa, the Middle East and Canada...
held a debate at Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...
in conjunction with New England Cable News
New England Cable News
New England Cable News is a regional 24-hour cable news television network owned and operated by NBCUniversal serving the New England region of the United States. It is very similar to CNN in structure and style, but focuses more on regional news. The channel is also similar to Northwest Cable...
and New Hampshire Public Radio
New Hampshire Public Radio
New Hampshire Public Radio is a public radio network serving the state of New Hampshire. NHPR is based in Concord and operates seven transmitters and six translators covering nearly the whole state. All signals carry the same programming, which comprises news and talk shows on weekdays and a mix...
. During the course of the debate Gravel reiterated many of his familiar positions on Iraq. When asked his opinion Gravel stated that anyone old enough to fight and die for the nation ought to be able to drink alcohol legally.
Asked if he would tax gasoline to reduce national consumption Gravel said that he would tax all carbon based fuels to eliminate the politicians' and bureaucrats' playing favorites in the implementation of such a scheme. As well, he offered that he thought it futile to try to get the Congress to pass such a law, that it would instead require his proposed National Initiative and the empowering of the people to do so. Further he said that the nation could eliminate gasoline as an energy source in 5 years and all carbon based fuels in 10 years if it could just summon the will to do so, substituting wind generated electricity, for instance, for nuclear reactors as a source of power.
None of the eight candidates were accorded greater talk-time than the moderator, who accorded himself 19.42 minutes of talk-time. Hillary Clinton was accorded the second greatest amount of talk-time at 17.62 minutes, 4.1 times the talk-time accorded Mike Gravel, who was accorded the least amount of talk-time at 4.33 minutes.
A September 27–30 , 2007 American Research Group Poll showed Gravel with 2%, tied with Joe Biden
Joe Biden
Joseph Robinette "Joe" Biden, Jr. is the 47th and current Vice President of the United States, serving under President Barack Obama...
and ahead of Dennis Kucinich
Dennis Kucinich
Dennis John Kucinich is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1997. He was furthermore a candidate for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States in the 2004 and 2008 presidential elections....
.
By the end of the third-quarter 2007, the committee had $17,526.55 in cash on hand, and had collected a total of $379,794.85 so far during the 2008 election cycle.
Fourth quarter
On October 1, 2007, Gravel was interviewed on PBSPublic Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
. He described himself as an ordinary guy, and would be more likely to take the train than fly in a private jet. He explained that other leading nations, including Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, spend just 3%–4% of their budget on defense, while the US defense budget is more than all other nations combined. He then rhetorically asked: "What are we afraid of?" He explained that the defense budget is associated with the military industrial complex. He stated that the US military is internationally competitive, but the US schools and health care system are not. Gravel said that Ralph Nader
Ralph Nader
Ralph Nader is an American political activist, as well as an author, lecturer, and attorney. Areas of particular concern to Nader include consumer protection, humanitarianism, environmentalism, and democratic government....
once referred to him as a "breath of fresh air".
On October 19, it was announced that Gravel was excluded from the next Democratic debate – October 30, 2007 in Philadelphia to be televised on NBC News and MSNBC and held at Drexel University
Drexel University
Drexel University is a private research university with the main campus located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. It was founded in 1891 by Anthony J. Drexel, a noted financier and philanthropist. Drexel offers 70 full-time undergraduate programs and accelerated degrees...
– with the debate sponsors or the Democratic National Committee
Democratic National Committee
The Democratic National Committee is the principal organization governing the United States Democratic Party on a day to day basis. While it is responsible for overseeing the process of writing a platform every four years, the DNC's central focus is on campaign and political activity in support...
saying Gravel's campaign had not met fund-raising, polling, or local campaign organizational thresholds. For the Philadelphia exclusion, Gravel blamed corporate censorship
Corporate censorship
Corporate censorship is censorship by corporations, the sanctioning of speech by spokespersons, employees, and business associates by threat of monetary loss, loss of employment, or loss of access to the marketplace.- TV Guide debate :...
on the part of sponsor owner and alleged military-industrial complex
Military-industrial complex
Military–industrial complex , or Military–industrial-congressional complex is a concept commonly used to refer to policy and monetary relationships between legislators, national armed forces, and the industrial sector that supports them...
member General Electric
General Electric
General Electric Company , or GE, is an American multinational conglomerate corporation incorporated in Schenectady, New York and headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut, United States...
for his exclusion.
Senator Gravel mounted a counter-gathering and debate against a video screen a short distance away, at Philadelphia's "World Cafe Live" at the same time as,
and two blocks from, the Democratic Presidential Debate from which he was excluded. The debate was shown on a large screen, with Senator Gravel providing a running commentary and later answering audience questions. The event was called "An Alternate October 30th" and initially announced on Gravel's YouTube page.
However, Gravel's exclusion continued for almost all of the subsequent Democratic debates, and he had thus lost his easiest publicity.
At some point, none of the major polls were including Gravel's name in their polling. Despite poor polling numbers, Gravel had positive support among young people and Internet users, however his lowest support comes from the constituency. Blind polls suggested that he would garner much more voting support if his positions were more well known.
For the fourth quarter of 2007, Gravel reported no money raised. Following Gravel's exclusion from most of the Democratic debates, and consequent impairment to his monetary turnover, his supporters began organizing "mass donation days" to help the campaign gain momentum and necessary funds, in the manner of Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul
Ron Paul
Ronald Ernest "Ron" Paul is an American physician, author and United States Congressman who is seeking to be the Republican Party candidate in the 2012 presidential election. Paul represents Texas's 14th congressional district, which covers an area south and southwest of Houston that includes...
. Such planned days included:
- October 30, 2007, in response to the exclusion of Gravel from the debate Philadelphia held a day later;
- December 5, 2007, the anniversary of the Repeal of ProhibitionRepeal of ProhibitionThe Repeal of Prohibition in the United States was accomplished with the passage of the Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution on December 5, 1933.-Background:...
(this day yielded upwards of $10,000 from donations); - January 1, 2008, using the phrase "Gravel Resolution for Revolution" as a catchphrase and way to publicize; and
- January 27, 2008, the anniversary of the end of U.S. participation in the Vietnam War, in light of Gravel's efforts as a senator.
Caucuses and primaries 2008
Gravel did not compete in the initial January 3, 2008 vote, the Iowa caucusesIowa Democratic caucuses, 2008
The Iowa Democratic Presidential Caucus occurred on January 3, 2008, and was the state caucuses of the Iowa Democratic Party. It was the first election for the Democrats of the 2008 presidential election. Also referred to as "the First in the Nation Caucus," it was the first election of the primary...
, choosing to focus on the New Hampshire primary
New Hampshire primary
The New Hampshire primary is the first in a series of nationwide political party primary elections held in the United States every four years , as part of the process of choosing the Democratic and Republican nominees for the presidential elections to be held the subsequent November.Although only a...
instead, and received no Iowa state delegates. Nevertheless, he was still subjected to a false report from Keith Olbermann
Keith Olbermann
Keith Theodore Olbermann is an American political commentator and writer. He has been the chief news officer of the Current TV network and the host of Current TV's weeknight political commentary program, Countdown with Keith Olbermann, since June 20, 2011...
of MSNBC
MSNBC
MSNBC is a cable news channel based in the United States available in the US, Germany , South Africa, the Middle East and Canada...
that he had pulled out of the race afterward, as had fellow Democratic candidates Chris Dodd and Joe Biden
Joe Biden
Joseph Robinette "Joe" Biden, Jr. is the 47th and current Vice President of the United States, serving under President Barack Obama...
. Later that night, Gravel's campaign issued a press release and YouTube video denying this and making it clear that Gravel intends to continue his campaign and that he does not intend to drop out of the race for presidency. Keith Olbermann later apologized to the Gravel campaign stating that a man named Alex Colvin, Gravel's press secretary, contacted MSNBC news at approximately 11:30 PM. MSNBC double-checked the source and believed the man was who he said he was, and was subsequently read on the air.
New Hampshire primary
The New Hampshire primary is the first in a series of nationwide political party primary elections held in the United States every four years , as part of the process of choosing the Democratic and Republican nominees for the presidential elections to be held the subsequent November.Although only a...
held on January 8, and gained some media attention for a pre-election appearance at Phillips Exeter Academy
Phillips Exeter Academy
Phillips Exeter Academy is a private secondary school located in Exeter, New Hampshire, in the United States.Exeter is noted for its application of Harkness education, a system based on a conference format of teacher and student interaction, similar to the Socratic method of learning through asking...
where he told students that using marijuana was safer than drinking alcohol
Alcohol
In chemistry, an alcohol is an organic compound in which the hydroxy functional group is bound to a carbon atom. In particular, this carbon center should be saturated, having single bonds to three other atoms....
. In the primary he received 402 votes out of some 280,000 cast, or 0.14 percent. Gravel said he would take some time off from campaigning to deal with a respiratory infection. He subsequently resumed campaigning.
On January 15, 2008, Gravel received 2,363 votes out of 593,837 votes cast in the Michigan primary
Michigan Democratic primary, 2008
The Michigan Democratic Presidential Primary took place January 15, 2008. Originally, the state had 156 delegates up for grabs that were to be awarded in the following way: 83 delegates were to be awarded based on the winner in each of Michigan's 15 congressional districts while an additional 45...
, or 0.40 percent.
Campaigning was light in the Democratic primary due to an intra-party dispute removing several top candidates' names from the ballot.
Gravel did not reach viability in any of the Nevada caucuses
Nevada Democratic caucuses, 2008
The Nevada Democratic Presidential Caucuses took place on January 19, 2008 after having been moved from a later date by the Nevada Democratic Party...
in the state on January 19, 2008, and as a result, received no delegates.
On January 26, 2008, Gravel received 214 votes out of 532,468 votes cast in the South Carolina primary
South Carolina Democratic primary, 2008
The 2008 South Carolina Democratic presidential primary took place on January 26, 2008. Senator Barack Obama of Illinois won the primary's popular vote by a 28.9% margin....
, or 0.04 percent.
On January 29, 2008, Gravel finished 8th in the Florida primary, with a little over 5,000 votes. He finished behind 4 candidates who had already withdrawn.
This primary too was affected by an intra-party dispute causing several candidates not to campaign.
By the end of January 2008, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and Gravel were the only remaining Democrats from the initial debates still running. Gravel vowed to stay in the presidential campaign until November.
On March 11, 2008, Gravel continued to remain in the Democratic race but additionally endorsed a Green Party
Green Party (United States)
The Green Party of the United States is a nationally recognized political party which officially formed in 1991. It is a voluntary association of state green parties. Prior to national formation, many state affiliates had already formed and were recognized by other state parties...
candidate for president, Jesse Johnson
Jesse Johnson (politician)
Jesse C. Johnson, Jr. is an Executive Committee member and former chair of the environmentalist Mountain Party, the West Virginia affiliate of the Green Party. He has twice been his party's candidate for Governor of West Virginia, and once for a Senate seat...
, saying he wanted to help Johnson prevail against Green Party rivals Cynthia McKinney
Cynthia McKinney
Cynthia Ann McKinney is a former US Congresswoman and a member of the Green Party since 2007. As a member of the Democratic Party, she served six terms as a member of the United States House of Representatives. In 2008, the Green Party nominated McKinney for President of the United States...
and Ralph Nader
Ralph Nader
Ralph Nader is an American political activist, as well as an author, lecturer, and attorney. Areas of particular concern to Nader include consumer protection, humanitarianism, environmentalism, and democratic government....
. As March neared a close, Gravel had almost no fundraising and was only on the ballot in one of the next ten Democratic primaries.
Switch to Libertarian Party 2008
On March 26, 2008, Gravel announced that he had abandoned his bid for the Democratic Party nomination and would seek the presidential nomination of the Libertarian PartyLibertarian Party (United States)
The Libertarian Party is the third largest and fastest growing political party in the United States. The political platform of the Libertarian Party reflects its brand of libertarianism, favoring minimally regulated, laissez-faire markets, strong civil liberties, minimally regulated migration...
, stating “I look forward to advancing my presidential candidacy within the Libertarian Party, which is considerably closer to my values, my foreign policy views and my domestic views.”
As a Libertarian candidate, Gravel found more support than he had as a Democrat, placing second and third in two April 2008 straw poll
Straw poll
A straw poll or straw vote is a vote with nonbinding results. Straw polls provide dialogue among movements within large groups, reflecting trends like organization and motivation...
s.
In the May 25 balloting at the 2008 Libertarian National Convention
2008 Libertarian National Convention
The 2008 Libertarian National Convention was held from May 22 to May 26, 2008 at the Sheraton Hotel in Denver, Colorado...
in Denver, Gravel finished fourth out of eight candidates on the initial ballot, with 71 votes out of 618; he trailed former Congressman and eventual winner Bob Barr
Bob Barr
Robert Laurence "Bob" Barr, Jr. is a former federal prosecutorand a former member of the United States House of Representatives. He represented Georgia's 7th congressional district as a Republican from 1995 to 2003. Barr attained national prominence as one of the leaders of the impeachment of...
, author Mary Ruwart
Mary Ruwart
Mary J. Ruwart, Ph. D. is a research scientist and libertarian speaker, writer, and activist. She was a leading candidate for the 2008 Libertarian Party presidential nomination and is the author of the award-winning international bestseller "Healing Our World."-Biography:Born in Detroit, Ruwart...
, and businessman Wayne Allyn Root
Wayne Allyn Root
Wayne Allyn Root is an American politician, entrepreneur, television and radio personality, author and political commentator. He was the 2008 Libertarian Party vice-presidential nominee. In June 2009 Richard Winger wrote he was the front runner for the 2012 Libertarian Presidential nomination...
. Gravel's position did not improve subsequently and he was eliminated on the fourth ballot. Afterwards he said, “I just ended my political career. From 15 years old to now, my political career is over, and it’s no big deal. I’m a writer, I’m a lecturer, I’m going to push the issues of freedom and liberty. I’m going to push those issues until the day I die.”
Endorsements
Gravel had the endorsement of campaign finance reformCampaign finance reform
Campaign finance reform is the common term for the political effort in the United States to change the involvement of money in politics, primarily in political campaigns....
activist Doris Haddock
Granny D
Doris Haddock was an American political activist from New Hampshire. Haddock achieved national fame when, between the ages of 88 and 90, starting on January 1, 1999 and culminating on February 29, 2000, she walked over 3,200 miles across the continental United States to advocate for campaign...
and received financial contributions from actor Mark Ruffalo
Mark Ruffalo
Mark Alan Ruffalo is an American actor, director, producer and screenwriter. He starred in films such as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Zodiac, Shutter Island, Just Like Heaven, You Can Count on Me and The Kids Are All Right for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best...
.
Noted academic and political dissident Noam Chomsky
Noam Chomsky
Avram Noam Chomsky is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, and activist. He is an Institute Professor and Professor in the Department of Linguistics & Philosophy at MIT, where he has worked for over 50 years. Chomsky has been described as the "father of modern linguistics" and...
also endorsed Senator Gravel.
Campaign and milestones
- Gravel for President
- Gravel2008 Youtube Channel
- Sen. Mike Gravel for President 2008 Blogspot
- Announcement of Candidacy. National Press Club, 17 April 2006
- First Interview following Announcement. National Press Club, 17 April 2006
- Gravel2008 on MySpace.com - official
Interviews
- Blue State Observer — Interview
- Blue State Observer — Scones with the Senator
- Interview with Mike Gravel — The Eisenthal Report: Part 1, Part 2, Analysis
- Interview with Mike Gravel — CitizenPowerMagazine.net
- Mike Gravel on Antiwar Radio with Scott Horton
- Mike Gravel video interview: part 1, part 2, part 3, and part 4.
- Answering a question about gays in the military
- Conversation' With Mike Gravel
- Mike Gravel on CNN Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer
- Washington JournalWashington JournalWashington Journal is an American television series on the C-SPAN network in the format of a political call-in and interview program. The program features elected officials, government administrators and journalists as guests, answering questions from the hosts and from members of the general...
interview and call-in on C-SPANC-SPANC-SPAN , an acronym for Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network, is an American cable television network that offers coverage of federal government proceedings and other public affairs programming via its three television channels , one radio station and a group of websites that provide streaming...
— part 1 part 2 part 3 part 4. Wide range of issues are discussed. - Interviewed by Harold ChannerHarold ChannerHarold Hudson Channer is a talk-show host on public-access television cable TV network Manhattan Neighborhood Network, or MNN. He is the longest-running producer for the network, having done over 2,200 interviews over 40 years...
. Discusses Louis O. KelsoLouis O. KelsoLouis Orth Kelso was a political economist in the classical tradition of Smith, Marx and Keynes. He was also a corporate and financial lawyer, author, lecturer and merchant banker who is chiefly remembered today as the inventor and pioneer of the Employee Stock Ownership Plan , the prototype of...
, Binary EconomicsBinary EconomicsBinary economics is a heterodox theory of economics that endorses both private property and a free market but proposes significant reforms to the banking system. The aim of binary economics is to ensure that all individuals receive income from their own independent capital estate, using...
, National InitiativeNational initiativeNational initiative refers to proposals within the United States to allow for ballot initiatives at the federal level. Currently, this is being proposed by Mike Gravel, a former U.S. Senator, and The Democracy Foundation, a non-profit non-governmental organization...
, and the interplay between the National Initiative, and Binary Economics. The two being the different faces of the same coin. - Bernie WardBernie WardBernie Ward is a former American radio personality. Formerly a radio talk show host with KGO 810 AM in San Francisco, California, Ward is now serving a seven-year prison sentence for the online distribution of child pornography...
Program KGO Radio San Francisco May 23, 2007