From The Progressive
By Matthew Rothschild

Ralph Nader embraced Senator Mike Gravel Tuesday morning.

Nader actually introduced Gravel at the Take Back America conference in D.C., and lavished praise upon him almost as if Gravel were a Nader stand-in.

“Mike Gravel understands what very few candidates are willing to understand,” said Nader, who came on stage to a scattering of clapping and booing. “If we do not have a shift in power in this country from the few to the many, if we do not make the domination of just about everything by giant corporations a major issue in the campaign, we will be engaging in rhetorical charades, slogans, clichés, and self-censorship.”

Nader said Gravel is unlike the other candidates. “They don’t tell you what they think,” he said. “They tell you what their antennas tell them to think.”

Nader drew applause when he praised Gravel for opposing Bush’s Iraq War, which Nader called “that criminal endeavor.” Nader also said that Gravel “understands the equities in the Israeli occupation of Palestine.”

Nader noted that the mainstream media is preoccupied with how much funding the candidates. They view candidates “like a corporation,” obsessing about the next quarterly report.

“If money is the index of electoral politics, our democracy is gone,” Nader said.

Read more Gravel