The democratic nomination contest now officially became a two way contest between Clinton and Obama as the third remaining candidate, gadfly, Mike Gravel just witched his party affiliation. This week Maurice Gravel joined the Libertarian Party.
http://www.lp.org/...
Because of his time in the U.S. Senate, Gravel was invited to many of the early Democratic debates. During the debates he suggested a bill requiring the president to withdraw from Iraq on pain of criminal penalties. He also advocated positions such as opposing preemptive nuclear war. 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." 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." Gravel also acted as a quixotic foil in many of the debates by sometimes acting irrationally.
National opinion polls of contenders for the Democratic nomination continued to show Gravel with one percent or zero percent numbers. Beginning with the October 30, 2007, Philadelphia event, Gravel was excluded from most of the debates, with the debate sponsors or the Democratic National Committee saying Gravel's campaign had not met fund-raising, polling, or local campaign organizational thresholds.
Gravel did not compete in the Iowa caucuses, but focused his attention on the second 2008 vote, the New Hampshire primary. There he received about 400 votes out of some 280,000 cast, or 0.14 percent. He has fared no better in subsequent states. 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. In March 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.
Apparently, Gravel changed his mind little than a month later. When announcing his party switch on March 25 Gravel declared:
''I'm joining the Libertarian Party because it is a party that combines a commitment to freedom and peace that can't be found in the two major parties that control the government and politics of America. My libertarian views, as well as my strong stance against war, the military industrial complex and American imperialism, seem not to be tolerated by Democratic Party elites who are out of touch with the average American; elites that reject the empowerment of American citizens I offered to the Democratic Party at the beginning of this presidential campaign with the National Initiative for Democracy.''
I think Gravel will now go after the Libertarian party's nomination. Perhaps a Gravel-Barr ticket or a Barr-Gravel ticket is in the offering?
Funny that the main stream press hasn't noticed it yet... Although he brought little to the debate and nomination contest, some of his views regarding Iraq were in tune with this community. Apprarently his native Alaskan libertarian streak took over and made him decided to abandon the Democratic party... But Gravel was a man of the past. The future of Alaska's Democratic Party doesn't lay with him. It lays with people like Berkowitz and Begich.