While most Democratic hopefuls have cleared the path to the White House for the three titans, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John Edwards, the blue party has yet to shake the last couple of stragglers. Most notably former U.S. Alaskan Senator Mike Gravel is still kicking, but fading fast.
No one has heard much from Gravel in the last couple weeks. Though he was the first known candidate of either party to enter the 2008 presidential race 2 1/2 years before Election Day, Gravel has since fallen off the map.
Democrats are not inviting him to debate events anymore. The most recent comment from Gravel was about how fellow Democratic competitor Dennis Kucinich is hypocritical for complaining that candidates John Edwards and Hillary Clinton failed to mention his exclusion from MSNBC’s Jan. 15 debate when Kucinich failed to mention Gravel’s exclusion during MSNBC’s Philadelphia debate in October.
While Gravel definitely is not making head-weigh in campaigning–he’s dead last in the Democratic race–at least he is making headlines. On January 6, he told a group of students to choose marijuana over alcohol during a visit to Phillips Exeter Academy. Gravel said, “I’m sure a lot of you have tripped out on alcohol. It’s a lot safer to do it on marijuana.” Later he told the students, “If you’ve got a problem with coke, go to a doctor, get a prescription and get it filled at a drug store.”
Gravel has not been shy about his support for the decriminalization of marijuana, but perhaps his most recent controversial words are the reason he has been laying low lately. Then, again, if Gravel can throw out more entertaining nuggets of insight like:
“Go get yourself a fifth of Scotch or a fifth of gin and chug-a-lug it down and you’ll find you lose your senses a lot faster than you would smoking some marijuana.”
Bloomberg called for a major national investment in public works projects during his latest news conference with California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell in South Central Los Angeles on Saturday. The visit is the third time in the past six months that Bloomberg has traveled to California, which “at 55 has the largest number of electoral votes.”
On Friday, the mayor met privately in Austin, Texas, with noted ballot-access expert Clayton Mulford, who ran Ross Perot’s two independent bids for president, after a public appearance with seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong and former U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona to discuss health care. Texas, which has some of the toughest rules for getting on the ballot as a third-party candidate, is second only to California with 34 electoral votes.
Bloomberg is staying mum so maybe we should consider all his non-preparation mere curiosity about what it takes to get on the ballot in November. Meanwhile, a source close to the mayor told CNN, “Bloomberg will decide by early March whether he will pursue an independent bid for the White House.”
The race for president is not official to me without third party candidates buzzing around the chosen Republican and Democratic party candidates once the primaries are over. They provide a little more color to the campaign trail when red and blue starts getting stale.
Fortunately for everyone–or unfortunately for major party candidates–Ralph Nader might be making another bid for the White House. The consumer advocate has run in the past four presidential elections. He is most notoriously known by critics as the man who sucked away enough votes from then Democratic Vice President Al Gore in the 2000 campaign to help George W. Bush win the White House. Fast forward eight years and we all know how that story ends.
Nader, 73, told a Montreal radio show that he will “decide in about a month” whether he will throw his hat in the ring. Who is ready for another three-ring circus and thinks Nader should enter the race? I thought so. I’ll bring the popcorn.
Do you remember the season finale of “Law & Order” last year when Nicole Bailey, the ex-wife of a prominent former senator is found brutally murdered at home? The senator cooperates with Detectives Ed Green and Nina Cassady, but of course they question his innocence after finding the widower in a compromising position with another family member’s dead body. A media frenzy insues after his indictment for both murders.
In the episode, District Attorney Arthur Branch, played by Fred Dalton Thompson, advises the prosecution in the high profile case. Wait, is that the same Fred Thompson who is the fourth place Republican candidate in the presidential race? The one and the same. Thompson served as the fictional district attorney from 2002-2007.
I have a feeling Thompson may be reevaluating his decision not to renew his contract with the long-running series. His poor showing at the South Carolina Republican primary Saturday has spurred talk that he might retire from the race soon. The former U.S. senator from Tennessee and Law & Order alumnus obtained only 16% of the vote behind John McCain and Mike Huckabee. Traditionally the winner of South Carolina goes on to win the party’s nomination, but with the GOP not yet having a clear front-runner, Thompson might be sticking around for a couple more contests. He is expected to say something definitive on Tuesday.
But Bruce Oppenheimer, a Vanderbilt University political science professor, said Thompson’s candidacy at this point was only to help McCain. The two were close allies while they served in the Senate. Others point to Thompsons defeated sounding speech after South Carolina as an indicator that the primary was the final curtain call for the former actor:
“My friends, we will always be bound by a close bond because we have traveled a very special road together for a very special purpose,” Thompson said.
Case closed? Pundits are saying look for Thompson to say something more definitive Tuesday.
Ron Paul placed second after former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney in the Nevada caucuses Saturday. Paul, the U.S. House member from Texas won 14 percent of the vote from his Republican adversaries.
“He finished ahead of John McCain, Fred Thompson and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani by gathering 6,084 votes or roughly 14% of the turnout for the Republican Primary.”
In reality the ”win” is hardly a victory. Paul is currently in fifth place with a total of six delegate pledges from the Republican party after six state caucuses. That number is laughable compared to the 72 delegates Romney leads the GOP candidates with. Yet Paul’s six delegates still puts him in a better position than former mayor of New York Rudy Giuliani. As of Saturday’s South Carolina primary, Giuliani is claiming two delegate pledges. For now.
Curiously enough, certain media outlets overlooked Paul’s success. A writer for the Political Machine blog on AOL news found this video. Pay attention to the bottom right-hand corner that shows the votes and percentages as they are counted.
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