Democratic Candidate Mike Gravel Re-Launches His Presidential Campaign as a Libertarian

Mike Gravel, who was running for the Democratic nomination for the Presidency, has decided to leave the Democratic Party and run as a Libertarian.

That may be what he should have done in the first place. He couldn't get any traction against Democratic heavyweights Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama; he captured less than 1% of the Democratic primary delegates so far.

He endorsed a Green Party candidate three weeks ago as a Democrat; now he's running as a Libertarian himself. Is he withdrawing his endorsement of the Green Party candidate too?

This move, while very interesting, will probably not have the same type of results for Gravel that it had for Joe Lieberman when Senator Lieberman got drummed out by the far left anti-war movement in his party during his re-election bid for the Senate. Lieberman switched to being an independent and handily beat both major party candidates.

I certainly won't vote for Gravel as he's too far to the left for my taste. But it will be interesting to see if he's the candidate that disenchanted Democrats flock to (if they don't go to McCain) if their preferred choice (Clinton or Obama) loses the Democratic nomination. I will be watching this with great interest.