Mike Gravel forms exploratory committee

[Mr. Morden]

Whichever of the kids are running the Senator Mike Gravel Twitter account is using it to go after the other candidates:

https://twitter.com/MikeGravel/status/1108226341005086720

https://twitter.com/MikeGravel/status/1108234681856786432

#KillerKamalaHarris?

[Mr. Morden]

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/gravel-2020-810542/

Splinter shed some more light on the campaign Wednesday morning, reporting that [the exploratory committee is] the brainchild of New York high school student David Oks.

Gravel staffer and Columbia University freshman Henry Williams later confirmed several details to Rolling Stone about the campaign. Williams said that he and Oks, who in 2017 ran for mayor of Ardsley, New York, along with another student, Elijah Emery, have been communicating with the former senator for the past week and a half after hearing about him on the leftist podcast Chapo Trap House. Williams said Gravel is interested in running. “Over several conversations he articulated what he wanted to put out there and that he was interested in starting an exploratory committee,” Williams says.

“The senator has all these issues he wants to get into the public debate,” Williams adds. “That’s the premise of the campaign and of getting his name out there as something that could raise these issues and that could get him on the debate stage. We asked him whether he would be all right with us taking over his social media and testing the waters. We worked with him on a series of policy issues that were important to him, and wanted to phrase those in a way that would get traction on Twitter.”

Williams says that the campaign went viral organically after the initial “#Gravel2020” tweet Tuesday night, and that as of Wednesday morning the account is adding “20 or 30 followers a minute.” Williams, Oks and Emery are currently working on putting a staff together and charting out how to proceed should Gravel decide to make a run. “Like Andrew Yang, Pete Buttigieg and other smaller, outsider candidates, the goal really is the message and getting his signature policy, particularly foreign policy, out there.”

[Mr. Morden]

Tried to throw a dollar his way but unfortunately the donation page is not working yet. I suppose because Mike has not really declared.

No, that's not it.  He does have an exploratory committee now, so he can accept donations just like Buttigieg, Messam, and Weld can.  But it sounds like this was leaked before the kids running his campaign were ready, so they literally just haven't set up the webpage to accept donations yet (but presumably will in the coming days).  IIRC, this also happened with Gabbard, where she spontaneously decided to announce her candidacy on CNN before there was a donation page set up for her.

[Mr. Morden]

Who?

You're too young it seems, let me educate you:  Watch this

Can't forget his 2007 debate performance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dsXO8vxYQM

[Mr. Morden]

Does Gravel actually want the presidency? So given he is acknowledging he'll drop out, what happens if he somehow gets a lot of momentum and an actual chance of winning? Does he stay in then and go big or drop out before things go too far?

If he gets a lot of momentum, I suppose he will run with it like Trump did, and it may launch him to the White House. Yes, it seems far-fetched, but we now know that Trump only launched his campaign at first to increase his name recognition, asset value, and to secure some television deals............until he started outperforming his sixteen primary opponents.

Gravel is not the narcissist that Trump is, but if his grassroots progressivism launches him to the nomination, I don't see why he wouldn't accept it and choose a younger VP with executive experience. Gravel/Inslee? Gravel/Buttigieg? Gravel/Hickenlooper?

Well, he's not going to choose an older running mate. Bernie is over a decade younger.

LOL, that's for certain. A Gravel/Sanders ticket would definitely propel me to the polls.

He should pick an older running mate, like Fritz Hollings, who's now 97 years old.  He could pull a Ted Cruz and announce his running mate early, since Hollings would probably help with the South Carolina primary.