Gravel for President

If we were to embrace the cold, clammy reality that neither Hillary Clinton nor Barack Obama is going to manage to carry the Democratic nomination, and if we were to suppose ourselves Democratic primary voters, I think we'd be well-served to take another look at former Senator Mike Gravel (D-AK).

I offered Gravel some good-natured chiding during the debate on Thursday (including wondering whether this man, 6 years John McCain's senior, was even aware of his whereabouts as his performance occasionally devolved into nonsensical curmudgeonry), but his appearance on CNBC this morning has inspired me to peer beneath his doddering exterior.

Sure, Gravel wants the U.S. to negotiate with Hamas, and yes, he wants us to abandon almost all of our nukes, and I'll grant you that he supports socialized medicine, and okay, he advocates immediate surrender in Iraq, but that hardly distinguishes him from anyone else among the Dems' new field of pseudo-socialist defeatists.

What does make Gravel more (ahem) middle of the road than his fellow lefty Presidential viers is his refreshingly pro-growth tax policy.  I dare say it's more ambitiously pro-growth than plans put forth by any of the mainstream Republican candidates to date.  It calls for no less than the wholesale elimination of all corporate and individual income taxes and the institution of a federal sales tax.

Bravo, Senator.

On his campaign site, Gravel discusses the benefits of this "Fair Tax" system, where he offers a few obligatory morsels of populist, eco-minded, anti-fat-cat rhetoric to the economic "progressives" that pervade his party's primary voter rolls, but some of the bullets suggest he does truly possess that most basic understanding of the impact of fiscal policy on economic behavior that every other Democrat running seems determined to eschew.

• Creates jobs and economic growth in the U.S. by reducing operating costs to companies.
• Encourages international investment in the American economy.
• Makes U.S. goods more competitive overseas and more affordable at home, thereby increasing job creation while reducing our balance of payments deficit.
• Changes the American economy – the largest economic entity in the world – into the largest tax haven in the world, enticing international investments in the American economy. Also creates a level of growth (estimated at 10%) and prosperity that will permit the nation to lower government debt and balance the budget, better finance education, health care, transportation, and the rebuilding of our national infrastructure.

Yes, that's the spot.  That's the spot right there.  Where did a Democrat learn to talk like that?  It's almost spiritual.

It's possible Gravel's always held these rare and praiseworthy views and no one's known about it because, well, he's Mike Gravel and he had less than $500 in his campaign coffers as of the last filing.  Anyway, this morning's CNBC interview was the first I'd heard of his wondrous fiscal sensibilities and the interviewers seemed similarly taken aback by such unbridled reason spilling out of a Democrat.

If Gravel wanted to distinguish himself from the progressive herd during last week's debate, he should've hammered this home at every occasion.  The other candidates didn't seem overly concerned with answering the actual questions posed, so he probably could've run pretty far with it.  Unfortunately, Gravel has been excluded from the New Hampshire Democratic debate being co-hosted by CNN, so he may not get a second bite at that apple, but if ever there were a compelling third-tier candidate Hail Mary issue, this would be it.

So while neither I nor my occasional co-blogger is a registered Democrat, this blog hereby officially endorses Mike Gravel for the Democratic nomination - notwithstanding his many foolish and dangerous foreign and domestic policy positions - as the least of 8 evils.