The incredibly dynamic and charismatic orator Mike Gravel gave his concession speech from Nome, Alaska on Saturday morning.
Though Gravel made his teeming crowd of dozens wait more than thirty seconds due to the tardy arrival of his motorcade (okay - his Geo Metro), he made up for it with an effusive, full-throated endorsement of Barack Obama. "Today, I urge us to put this somewhat, kind of, sort of longish primary process behind us and to devote our energies and passions to electing Barack Obama the next President of the United States. I know all three of my supporters will be incredibly bitter at my leaving this race... but I urge all of them to abstain from voting for John McCain."
Following a kinda rousing ovation (consisting of some half-hearted handclaps and rolling of the eyes of the audience members, who were only there because they were promised a free Heineken), Gravel left the quiet stage and drove off, immediately leaving the Democratic party to join the Libertarians.
Just after the speech, the pundits put in their two cents as to why a candidate with every conceivable advantage at the beginning of the primary - financial, brand name recognition, organization - didn't triumph in the end. George Stephanopolous mused over Gravel's choice of friends. "Why would he have a friend who got a parking ticket that one time in '73 and didn't apologize? That really cost him the Nashua vote." Chris "Tweety" Matthews said it was because he only got the white working class voters who were the precise age of 54 and a half and two months in Eastern Iowa who prefer tea to coffee. "Tough break," he muttered.
But what was the real reason he lost? Obama was just always a step ahead in the delegate count. It is ironic that towards the end of the primary, Gravel seemed to find his "voice" and became a stonger campaigner in the process. Having ended up just a few delegates shy of the nomination (well, about 2,000 or so), Gravel put in a spirited late charge in states like West Virginia and Kentucky and put to rest the notion that his was a quixotic quest to win the race to the White House.