Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Mike Gravel's delegates have a decision to make

Earlier today, former U.S. Senator and 2008 Democratic candidate for President Mike Gravel announced that he is joining the Libertarian Party.

From an email -
The fact is, the Democratic Party today is no longer the party of FDR. It is a party that continues to sustain war, the military-industrial complex and imperialism -- all of which I find anathema to my views.

{snip}

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.

Of course, the Libertarians do have some questions about those "domestic views".

From a Washington Post article -
"Andrew Davis, a spokesman for the Libertarian Party, said...while the party's membership agrees with his stances against the war in Iraq and the military draft, among other issues, it differs with his stances in favor of universal health care and higher spending on public education."

The title of this post is mildly sarcastic - as most readers know, Gravel doesn't *have* any delegates.

In essence, all he's done today is to go from being a marginal candidate in a major party to being a major candidate in a marginal party. And even there, he's a 'major' candidate in that party only until Ron Paul decides he's not getting enough attention as a Republican and rejoins the Libertarians.

Later!

1 comment:

Thane Eichenauer said...

Luckily Ron Paul is beyond any club, Republican Party, Libertarian Party or otherwise. He favors freedom and a commitment to limited government. Any club membership is strictly secondary. That Mike Gravel's commitment to ending the US foreign occupation is greater than his commitment to the Democratic Party is admirable.