I'm always fascinated by the psychology of long-shot candidates, particularly those without a natural, personal constituency. It makes sense for Dennis Kucinich to run, as he raises his profile among progressives. Sharpton's effort had an internal consistency as well, helping him elevate his role as a leader in the African-American community. But Mike Gravel? I had assumed he was a single-issue candidate fighting to increase the visibility of his national referendum idea. And while that may have been true at the start, an interesting profile of Gravel over at Salon suggests it's no longer his motivating force:
"In order to get [the national referendum] enacted, a friend of mine suggested, 'Gravel, you've got to run for president.' I was not interested at first," Gravel says. "And then I realized that this could be an opportunity to make it known, so I told friends that I was running for president, and they were all excited ... But I didn't really think I could win. Around January of '06, I was looking at the other candidates, and I started to say, 'I don't know if I can win, but I sure can beat them.'"
Meanwhile, Gravel's personal experience with both bankruptcy and health costs is...interesting:
Gravel is running for president despite a post-Senate résumé, a financial history and a medical chart that might give a more introspective man pause. His single-minded pursuit of the national initiative, as well as three surgeries in 2003, one to install rods in his back and two for neuropathy, drove him into bankruptcy in 2004. In his filing, Gravel listed $85,000 in credit card debt and virtually no assets beyond a car.
Most politicians would think twice about running for president in 2008 if they had declared bankruptcy four years earlier. This one, however, doesn't mind discussing his bankruptcy in detail. "After [the National Initiative] had done a conference, raised some money for that, didn't have enough money, I started using credit cards. I had about five, six credit cards. So when I really had a bad year healthwise, there was concern about my wife, because she might be liable for what had occurred, and it was all done for the National Initiative. And she said, 'Well, maybe you should think about bankruptcy.'" Gravel had watched one of his business concerns go bankrupt two decades before. "I had been there. I didn't want to mess with that again. And then I thought about it: 'My God, isn't this interesting? I'm going to get these six credit card companies who have been predators on normal people. I'm going to get them to contribute to the National Initiative.' And I filed bankruptcy just in a heartbeat, and that was it."
Without knowing the details of his financial situation, it's a bit tricky to separate what's bluster and post hoc rationalizing, but it sure sounds like Gravel is saying his bankruptcy was an essentially fraudulent act triggered by his dislike of credit card companies. Now, it's not that I lack sympathy for the targets, but that seems an odd admission.
