GRAVEL, SEN., MIKE

Until the first Democratic presidential debate on April 26, 2007, former Alaskan senator Mike Gravel had campaigned in almost total obscurity since becoming the first Democrat to declare candidacy more than a year before. All that changed with a few provocative remarks he made from the debate stage with his seven better-known rivals looking on. The response to his antiwar fervor from the established media and the blogosphere overwhelmed his shoestring campaign. Within days after the debate, his performance was viewed more than 220,000 times on YouTube, and his website was getting more hits than any other candidate's. In this candid, anecdotal portrait, Gravel expounds on his views of the military-industrial complex, the imperial presidency, postwar US foreign policy, and corporate America; critically assesses figures he worked with, such as Jimmy Carter and Ted Kennedy; and reveals his personal finances and private life. Mike Gravel is most prominently known for releasing the Pentagon Papers-the secret official study revealing the manipulations of successive US administrations that misled the country into the Vietnam War. In 1971, he waged a successful one-man filibuster for five months that forced the Nixon administration to cut a deal, effectively ending the draft in the United States. His publications include The Senator Gravel Edition: The Pentagon Papers, Jobs and More Jobs, and Citizen Power, Joe Lauria is an investigative journalist who writes on international politics and business.

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