Gravel Speaks at Emerson

Calling his campaign an attempt to empower the American people, Democratic presidential candidate Mike Gravel spoke to the Harvard Democrats in Emerson Hall on Friday about his views on the 2008 election.

Gravel, who represented Alaska in the U.S. Senate from 1969 to 1981, blasted the American media for refusing to take his campaign seriously and accused corporate America of backing candidates who would bend to its will.

At this point, Gravel is the only other active candidate for the Democratic nomination besides Harvard Law School alumnus Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton—though he has not yet won any delegates.

“If you don’t have any visibility, you can’t get any contributions,” Gravel said. “Since there is no one in the corporate world who will help me, my funding dried up pretty quickly.”

But Gravel said he believed that with the withdrawal of other candidates for the Democratic nomination, he was beginning to receive more attention from the media.

He added that the media’s focus on the race between Clinton and Obama is not in the best interest of the American public.

“I’m running because I want to empower the American people with the power to make laws,” Gravel said. “Power is lawmaking.”

Gravel, a strong advocate of direct democracy, is the founding member of the National Initiative for Democracy, a non-profit corporation devoted to giving the American people the ability to make laws through propositions—similar to the current system used in states like California.

When asked what he thought his chances were for winning the Democratic nomination, Gravel replied, “I’ve been a Democrat all my life and have been proud to be one. Anything is possible in politics. Who knows? I might still be able to win the Democratic Party nomination.”

In an interview after the speech, Gravel said that he had no intention of endorsing the Democratic presidential nominee if he did not receive the party’s nod, adding that he would consider running on the Libertarian Party ticket or as a member of another third party.

In his speech, Gravel condemned Obama for lacking concrete policies. Gravel also said that he feels he is more charismatic than Obama.

Gravel was as harsh on the Republican candidates, saying after the speech that he viewed John McCain as a “warmonger” and was “disturbed” by the religious inclinations of Mike Huckabee.

Audience members expressed support for Gravel’s speech in general, though they questioned some of his methods and political ideas.

“Sen. Gravel’s speech today highlighted a strong Democratic candidate with innovative policy ideas and, most importantly, the courage to implement them,” said Jonathan M. Padilla ’11, secretary for the Harvard Dems. “However, I have some qualms about Gravel’s direct democracy initiative. I’ve seen direct democracy in California lead to a Byzantine-like bureaucracy.”

Meryl H. Federman ’11 expressed similar reservations.

“Sen. Gravel has interesting political theory ideas,” she said, “but I’m not sure about the idea of people over government when both are really intertwined.”

—Staff writer Prateek Kumar can be reached at kumar@fas.harvard.edu.