Former Alaska Senator Launches 2008 Bid (Mike Gravel)

[sabra]

http://www.examiner.com/Politics-a80147~Former_Alaska_Senator_Launches_2008_Bid.html

Former Alaska Senator Launches 2008 Bid

WASHINGTON - A former Democratic senator from Alaska and outspoken critic of the Vietnam War announced on Monday his long-shot bid for the presidency in 2008 and a plan to reshape U.S. democracy.

Mike Gravel, a 76-year-old self-described maverick, said he wants to give citizens the direct power to make laws based on popular votes, not exclusively through elected members of Congress.

"Our three branches of government have become like an unstable chair, a three-legged chair," Gravel said. "The founders could not have envisioned how much money and special interests would corrupt the political process. Giving us Americans legislative power will put forth the fourth leg of our stool and make it stable."

...

"I believe America is doing harm every day our troops remain in Iraq - harm to ourselves and to the prospects for peace in the world," Gravel said. "I would remove our troops expeditiously, without contingency. President Bush's mistake is not worth the life or maiming of more American soldiers."

[Greeby]

1. Even though I doubt he'll make it

At least he has ideas worth talking about. And it makes a change from all the Super-Hillary talk

[stevietheman]

2. I have mixed feelings about Mike Gravel.

As somebody who is enthusiastic about making our democracy "more direct", I like his input into that movement. However, I do believe that his National Initiative for Democracy (NI4D) was developed in an undemocratic manner, that is, without sufficient public input during its development process. Further, I think that we need to expand citizen-sponsored ballot initiatives to the states that don't have them (e.g., Texas and New York State) before moving on to considering this for the federal level.

From what I've been able to gather about him personally, and even alluded to by his self-nom for V.P., this man may well be so self-centered that the American people will more likely laugh at his candidacy than anything else.

But the bottom line for me is that this will move the issue of direct democracy into the limelight for a period of time, and that is a plus as far as I'm concerned.

By the way, for those of you interested in issues related to "direct democracy", I administer a discussion board for just that purpose: D2 Discussion Zone -- please feel free to check it out and even register to join in the discussion.