Gravel on the offensive

At the last two debates, you may have noticed something missing -- the entertainment.  Mike Gravel is no longer being invited to participate in Democratic debates, and he is lashing out, realizing his campaign is near an end:

Reading from a script, Gravel spent most of time railing against hisfellow candidates, the Democratic Party and various corporations fornot allowing him on the debate stage. Gravel was particularly irkedthat none of the seven candidates at the debate “thought to protest theobvious unfairness of keeping me out of the debates.” Instead heoffered debate commentary earlier in the evening through a video livefrom the Paris Hotel on the Strip to his campaign Web site.

Dinner coordinators took an Academy Awards-esque approach to gettingGravel off the stage, cueing his theme music (“Power to the People”)when he passed the seven-minute mark. While most candidates used thetime to rev up the crowd or outline an agenda, Gravel (when he wasn’tupbraiding his own party) was more gloom and doom, predicting a nuclearconfrontation with Iran. “You will feel this weight. You’re going tofeel that world depression. You’re going to see a nuclear confrontationand God knows where it will end. No, you will feel it. The drums ofwar, you can hear them beat,” Gravel warned. He also condemned theentire Washington establishment, saying, “It’s all about money, power,and greed.”

Gravel talked at length about the problems, but offered little inthe way of solutions. He did say he wanted to repeal the “corrupt”income and corporate taxes, but was honest about his prospects. “Youknow, I can’t deliver them either. There is no money.” While Gravelreceived some scattered applause when he voiced opposition to the Iraqwar and called for health care for all, the crowd wasn’t enthused. Thiscrowd of party loyalists — and likely caucus-goers –wanted more redmeat and less apocalypse. This is Vegas after all.

Chris Dodd or Joe Biden may be next.

Comments

[gravel kucinich paul nader]

Colbert gravel kucinich paul nader perot carter [conyers?rangel?] united for truth elicit fear smear blacklist.

The people know too much,
democracy rising democracy now.
Rage against the machine.

Honesty compassion intelligence guts.

No more extortion blackmail bribery division.
Divided we fall.

[Matthias]

Yiehaaaa! http://www.pollster.com/blogs/poll_abcpost_dem_iowa_caucus.php

[Michel]

Puke! I want out of following politics! You are doomed. Doomed! And I'm not just saying that to sound like Gravel ;) I'm just saying, Gravel deserves, say, >1% support? I mean, we are talking about the US having 1% thinking Bush is the greatest president of all time...

What does Gravel do? Well, ask him any question, he knows his stuff. If you asked 99.9% of anyone these questions, they'd really not know what you're even talking about. And his ideology is not crazy out of whack. Ron Paul is more out of whack, for example, and yet he's the most reasonable republican candidate. Gravel may be negative, but then, that's just him being honest. Certainly he talks the way I feel a lot of the time. So that is unpopular, to be honest? >1% is all I ask. Hell, they must have smudged that somewhat. I mean, you can't poll about anything and get <1% consistently. Maybe they conveniently dropped him out of the poll the way they dropped him out of the debates.

The US votes for what they want to hear, not what they need to hear (to alter a quote from Obama a bit). The media has the US trained to want nothing more than entertainment and joy all the time. That's a great way to learn to quickly ignore a problem the moment you learn there is one. Where is your will, America?

Taking Gravel out of the equation, I'm supporting Obama this election, but it isn't for his inspirational language. I know that deep down, he's got a lot of Gravel in him, outrage at how the system works. And I know Obama also has a fair bit of corruption in him, but who else will Americans vote for apparently? Working within the world and the ways it functions which I disagree with, he's all we've got. If anything, I hope he can, in 4 (or 8) years, make America more aware of what is *really* going on, such that a Gravel-type person would poll at least 5%. Sure, I'll accept Gravel not being the top candidate, because he lacks refinement, and I think that is unavoidable, but <1%, that's horrible.

Why is it your media is controlled by 6 dudes? I get it in Canada, and it all seems to be getting more and more bland. Even the writers in the writers strike are taking interviews in the picket lines and telling it how it is, that their output is heavily moderated by the corporations that own them.

Of course, what do I hope to accomplish by posting a comment like this in a quickly fleeting post on tbs? I guess this is just self-therapy at this point.