Gravel Is Ramping Up His Campaign - He’s Even Got A “Scandal” Too
April 30, 2007 | Permalink
After his performance at the Democratic debate, Sen. Gravel has reinvigorated his campaign, which has been relatively inactive for the past few months. Among the flurry of activity are issues worth noting.
The sponors of the next Democratic debate (CNN, WMUR TV and the New Hampshire Union Leader) have excluded Sen. Gravel from the event. Despite the statement being issued on March 16, the Gravel campaign is only recently fighting back. On April 28, the Gravel campaign initiated a petition campaign with the hopes of compelling the sponsors to reconsider Gravel for the debate; to date, they’ve acquired 5,418 “signatures.”
Although, as I’m sure Sen. Gravel is aware - with increased publicity comes increased scrutiny. Accordingly, Lynn Davidson at Newsbusters takes issue with a recent post on Sen. Gravel’s blog. Gravel’s blog republished a post from the the site “Wake Up From Your Slumber” (WUFYS) entitled, “Meet the Next President of the United States.” However, the same author who wrote the Gravel story, also published some seemingly anti-Semitic posts (just a few examples: 1, 2, 3). I’m sure there could be a debateas to whether the posts on WUFYS are anti-Semitic, anti-zionist, neither or both (I’m not getting involved in that debate), but frankly, from a political perspective, it doesn’t matter much. The content of WUFYS is clearly controversial and many in the Jewish community would take offense to it. As a presidential candidate, it is not a wise move to associate yourself with such contentious organizations, especially when you’re a fringe candidate. Vetting the content WUFYS is fairly easy and someone from the Gravel campaign should have done that before re-publishing any of their content on Sen. Gravel’s blog. This is the problem with not having a strong organization - mistakes like this can happen frequently and make it nearly impossible for a fringe candidate to rise to the top.
My advice to Sen. Gravel…
- Take advantage of the extra press attention you’re getting - it won’t last long.
- Tighten up your staff so the attention isn’t spoiled with negative discussion
- Admonish the statements made on WUFYS and remove their post from your blog
- Sit down with us at 2008 Central for an interview
Hello!
My name is Eli Israel, and yes, you probably guessed it, I’m very much Jewish. I’m also a soldier in Iraq, and I’m also a HARD CORE Mike Gravel supporter. Here’s my “advice” to you. Deal with reality and stop trying to spin things into something they are not. Senator Gravel is probably one of the LEAST anti-semitic or racist people anyone will ever meet. Those of us who actually listen to his message know that. Just because he has a supporter out there who has some faults, does not reflect poorly on Senator Gravel. If I can live with it, you should surely be able to. The important thing is who Senator Gravel is. Not who one of his supporters is. Having a supporter like me should balance it out a little bit, don’t you think? Additional “advice”…Further improve your analytical skills by realizing that Senator Gravels followers are not some crazy fringe group of uneducated “neverhaves”. And that his popularity has only just begun. Further, lay off his staff. That’s just a low blow. They are mostly volunteers and have done a better job than most of their payed counterparts. Also realize that Senator Gravel and his campaign and his supporters are FAR above the cover and conceal media game that has become all to popular. Whether they remove the posting or not, does not change the fact that Mr. Gravel is a good man who accepts everybody, even if they are confused and anti-semitic. Maybe one day the Jew Hater, myself, and President Gravel can all sit down for coffee and find common ground. That sounds like a level of maturity that is sadly missing from, well, everybody but the Gravel campaign. Oh, and one last piece of advice. Realize that it is you, that should be hoping for an interview. Your ways are old, Sir. Someone like you probably thinks that Hillary Clinton is a strait talker. It’s been so long since this country has heard truth, that now that someone has begun speaking it, the reaction has been to try to critique and conform it. It’s not going to happen, Sir. Have a nice day! E I
He’s right. Shape up your line of thinking. It’s that closed-minded type of thinking that sinks this country further into the toilet bowl.
Eleonai, Dan (and others):
Let me begin by making it clear that I was not suggesting that Sen. Gravel is an anti-Semite or anything evenly remotely close to that.
I was simply pointing out two things:
That the Senator is enjoying some new found media attention. This is essential to any presidential campaign, especially a smaller campaign like the Senator’s.
I was also pointing out that with increased media attention, brings increased scrutiny.
I was also not making a judgment about writings at WUFYS. Rather, I was pointing out that the writings are controversial and could be construed as offensive. I was saying that from a political perspective, it is not wise to associate oneself so closely with content that could be offensive.
A presidential campaign requires enormous discipline. It also requires the campaign to be very careful not to allow others to infer the wrong message about the candidate. If someone was unfamiliar with Senator gravel and then read on the Senator’s own blog the widely publicized endorsement of someone who may be controversial, that potential Gravel supporter could be turned off.
Relax folks, read the entire post. I wasn’t criticizing the Senator himself or his positions. I was simply saying that his campaign made a mistake by re-publishing the post from WUFYS.
Keep in mind, that unlike a lot of other sites and news organizations, 2008 Central has always covered Gravel’s campaign. His fight to be allowed to participate in the next debate is interesting and worthy of being discussed, which is why we discussed it.
We’re fair. Others aren’t. Criticize them first.
The mistake of the Gravel campaign is similar to the mistake the Edwards campaign made in not commenting on the previous posts of the bloggers Amanda Marcotte and Melissa MeEwan.
Associating yourself as a campaign with controversial posts like that, even indirectly, is far too risky politically.
wow - what a delightful debate - and about my site of all things!
For the record, I am NOT an anti-semite or “Jew Hater.” Indeed, I AM A SEMITE. Not Jewish, but nevertheless, very semitic, and I’ve always gotten along with Jews - who aren’t zionists.
Anyway, I admit my site is controversial. But, hey - it goes with the territory - israel’s conduct is controversial.
There may even be a few contributors here and there who get out of hand and every now and then exhibit some intolerance. No one is perfect and when it comes to the Middle East, emotions run high especially when innocent people are regularly killed.
Needless to say more than 9 out of 10 times those innocents are Palestinians not israelis.
While, it is equally tragic when an innocent israeli gets killed, the fact is - it does not happen often.
Not that I want it to. But, of course, I demand the SAME security for Palestinians that israelis expect for themselves.
Anyway, israeli conduct is not what I want to discuss. You could go to my website to see what I think about that.
I had no idea that Gravel published my post at his site. It was a pleasant surprise, but it wouldn’t matter to me if he pulled it down.
I wrote the post because I am genuinely impressed with him as a candidate and I am trying my best to see that he wins - or at the very least gets the exposure that he deserves and that America needs.
He has a way of telling the truth that can really reinvigorate Americans and give us hope for the future.
LGF and NewsBuster.org are clearly trying to torpedoe his campaign.
It’s good to see that it’s not working.
Thanks for having this great discussion about the incident.
I’ve gotten accustomed to being accused by Zionists of being anti-semitic, but it is always refreshing to see people discuss the issue rationally. And if you take the time to read my posts, I am confident that you will arrive at a very different conclusion.
Peace.
Well it seems like our presidents Bush and Clinton had very clean dossier because they passed the public scrutiny and made it to the WH. How is it that public did not know that Bill had addiction to young temps and Bush had addiction to alcohol. Hmm…ah yes I got it they were not mentioned timely on CNN, FOX, MSNBC etc. Still after utter moral fiasco of both previous presidents you would like to imply that senator Gravel is in danger of being rejected on premise of posting bloggers link on his website. Hahaha..that is really Hilarious :)) Man if public scrutiny is impartial and honest within mainstream media networks you would not have any of your previous presidents elected. I don’t agree on everything that sen. Gravel is standing for but I can tell you that he would be better president than any was in the last 100 years. I see remarks like this as intellectual intimidation. An if you want to see true anti-Semites go watch Fox news for it is full of enormous hatred for Semites unless you are refusing genealogical part of middle east history. They call Semites Islamo-fascist and anti-Semites. And blinded pro-Zionists elsewhere call even anti-Zionist Jews as anti-Semites. Come one lets be real and stop “playing games” like sen Gravel said and pass honest and straight laws that ordinary people can understand without paying for some institutional attorney to explain it to them. Why it is candidate politically unfit if he has supporters in every corner of population. What sen Gravel says is closer to Constitutional republic than all other candidates combined. His only sin is that he is being honest about improper US and Israeli policies in ME and here we go now he is smeared although in evasive language as being potentially anti-Semite. Just Hilarious…:)
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