Mike Gravel in the 2008 Presidential Race: The Hard Line Voice on Iraq, Healthcare and Tax Reform

Mike Gravel is mad as hell and he's not going to take it anymore. Lucky for Gravel he's an elder statesman from Alaska who can get riled up just short of the Howard Dean yelp. In many ways Gravel is perhaps a direct contrast to President Bush's years in office as far as foreign policy, constitutional rights and environmental issues.

As an official 2008 presidential candidate Gravel is up against, Senator Joe Biden, Senator Hillary Clinton, Senator Christopher Dodd, John Edwards, Representative Dennis Kucinich, Senator Barack Obama and Governor Bill Richardson. In many ways, Gravel is the democratic underdog, but it's a challenge this 72 year old man can handle. As a senator for Alaska for twelve years, Gravel accomplished much in his senate years, including a one man filibuster to end the draft during the Vietnam War.

Additional to his role in ending the draft in '71, Gravel is also well known for prompting the release of secret military/government documents about Vietnam into public record. It went down in history as the Pentagon Papers, of which 4,100 pages were named the Senator Gravel Edition. Gravel has returned to his maverick ways after almost three decades out of office. He posed a challenging voice to the Nixon administration then, as he challenges the Bush administration today. Gravel is even being criticized some for his confrontational debate style in the democratic primary campaigns, a bold voice for truth to some, or an audacious comic relief to others.

His key issues include immediate troop withdrawal from Iraq with aggressive diplomatic solutions, as well as diplomacy in Iran, Israel and Palestine. While advocating for the end of income tax replaced by a national sales tax, he has proposed a Carbon tax to help assuage global warming. The carbon tax proposed by Gravel is a sign of a leader who can adapt to political change, having been the Senator who initiated the congressional oversight of the Alaskan Oil pipeline. With programs like Universal Healthcare Vouchers, he wants to further it so that citizens have rights to enact laws in a national initiative for direct democracy.