A Democratic Dark Horse Who Isn't Afraid to Take the Lead

The candidate, seated with his wife and drinking Fiji water, granted some pre-announcement interviews. "She'll make a great first lady," he assured one reporter.

Gregory Fossedal, one of the campaign volunteers, introduced Gravel as "a true American folk hero," a "re-Founding Father" and, "as of today, in the 2008 election, the front-runner." The laughter was heavy.

Gravel went immediately to the need for a constitutional amendment allowing nationwide ballot initiatives -- thereby creating a fourth branch of government. "Our three branches of government have become like an unstable chair," he said, perhaps forgetting that stools do quite nicely with three legs.

The obstacles to his candidacy hardly need a mention. There's the problem of near-zero name recognition unless, as he puts it, "you're a political junkie" who remembers his two terms in the Senate from 1968 to 1980, and particularly his finest hour, when he read the Pentagon Papers at a hearing. There's the lack of paid staff, and his "extremely modest" war chest allows for little travel and no campaign rallies. "We haven't matured to that point," he acknowledges.

Nor does Gravel offer a geographic advantage. A Massachusetts native, he lost the Democratic primary in his 1980 reelection bid in Alaska and decamped for Virginia a few years later.

But he has the critical asset of the long-shot candidate: nothing to lose but his pride. Approaching his 76th birthday, he could become a late-night television laughingstock. "You subject yourself to that," he admitted. "My wife was very fearful of that."

And what he lacks in name ID he makes up for with big talk ("We're attempting to change the paradigm of human government!") and twinkle-in-the-eye bravado. "I'll carry the blue states and I'll carry the red states," he vows. "I'll enjoy the perks of the White House, no question."

Mentioning expectations that Clinton could raise $200 million for a candidacy, Gravel boasts: "She's going to need every bit of it to get around me." Perhaps, but Clinton probably won't need to save money by riding Metro to her announcement speech, as Gravel did yesterday.