Mike Gravel for President 2008
Just when it seems all hope is lost, just when you think the voice of reason has been silenced by money-infected media and just when you think there are no choices, along comes a guy like Mike Gravel. Who on earth is Mike Gravel I hear you ask? It's a reasonable question since this man hasn't been seen in political circles in the US in 30 years and now he's standing for the office of president in the US for the Democrats.
The primaries don't happen until early 2008, but a riveting live TV debate between the Democrat hopefuls should be enough to make the Republicans sit up and consider that they've got a fight on their hands. While Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton smiled and said they thought the war in Iraq was downright awful, it was also revealed that they voted to continue funding it. The war issue aside, Obama's performance was truly wooden. One commenter in the press astutely pointed out that while he is capable, Barack Obama was no Martin Luther King. Clinton herself projects a hard-ass image and emitted just about as much testosterone as the other seven candidates on the stage. One can only question her u-turn on the Iraq issue. Is she another flip-flop?
Remember John Edwards? He just missed out last time to Kerry. He gave a convincing trial-lawyer performance the other night even if he did have a hard time explaining why he twice spent $400 from campaign contributions to be nicely coiffured. Edwards is real dark horse material and could cause an upset.
But the real star of the show was one Mike Gravel who has been the talk of the blogosphere in the past few days. Senator of Alaska for two terms, Gravel is more famously known for his opposition to the second Vietnam War draft and for stopping nuclear warhead tests in the 1970s.
Gravel received very little time to talk in the MSNBC debate but when he did speak, he spoke with more conviction and focus than all of the other candidates. One his policies was that he would attempt to criminalise the war in Iraq, something which drew cries of derision from his opponents and the television media.
He may end up with a paltry share of vote, but Gravel will do his best to make the others feel uncomfortable enough to reveal their weaknesses. We got a glimpse of this when Gravel asked Obama who the US were going to nuke. Obama's response was that he wasn't going to use nuclear weapons in the near future. Hopefully, Gravel was not being prescient that we are all safe just for a while.
tags:mikegravel
Published by Colm.
The primaries don't happen until early 2008, but a riveting live TV debate between the Democrat hopefuls should be enough to make the Republicans sit up and consider that they've got a fight on their hands. While Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton smiled and said they thought the war in Iraq was downright awful, it was also revealed that they voted to continue funding it. The war issue aside, Obama's performance was truly wooden. One commenter in the press astutely pointed out that while he is capable, Barack Obama was no Martin Luther King. Clinton herself projects a hard-ass image and emitted just about as much testosterone as the other seven candidates on the stage. One can only question her u-turn on the Iraq issue. Is she another flip-flop?
Remember John Edwards? He just missed out last time to Kerry. He gave a convincing trial-lawyer performance the other night even if he did have a hard time explaining why he twice spent $400 from campaign contributions to be nicely coiffured. Edwards is real dark horse material and could cause an upset.
But the real star of the show was one Mike Gravel who has been the talk of the blogosphere in the past few days. Senator of Alaska for two terms, Gravel is more famously known for his opposition to the second Vietnam War draft and for stopping nuclear warhead tests in the 1970s.
Gravel received very little time to talk in the MSNBC debate but when he did speak, he spoke with more conviction and focus than all of the other candidates. One his policies was that he would attempt to criminalise the war in Iraq, something which drew cries of derision from his opponents and the television media.
He may end up with a paltry share of vote, but Gravel will do his best to make the others feel uncomfortable enough to reveal their weaknesses. We got a glimpse of this when Gravel asked Obama who the US were going to nuke. Obama's response was that he wasn't going to use nuclear weapons in the near future. Hopefully, Gravel was not being prescient that we are all safe just for a while.
tags:mikegravel
Published by Colm.
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