You may not realize it, but former Alaska senator Mike Gravel has been campaigning for President since 2006, the first Democrat to throw his hat in the ring. He served two terms in the Senate from 1969 to 1981 and made a name for himself opposing the Vietnam war. He has recently voiced similar opposition to the Iraq war and advocates negotiations with Hamas to push for a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In his first Democratic debate, he said of his fellow candidates, "I got to tell you, after standing up with them, some of these people frighten me Ñ they frighten me." But for now, the future of the Gravel campaign looks shaky. In addition to being excluded from most recent Democratic debates, he received 400 votes out of 280,000 cast in the New Hampshire primary - or 0.14% of the vote.

OPPOSES the "war on terror" - "We are mischaracterizing terrorism. Terrorism has been with civilization from the beginning. And it will be there to the end. We're going to be as successful fighting terrorism as we are fighting drugs with a war. It doesn't work. What you have to do is to begin to change the whole foreign policy. This invasion brought about more terrorists. Osama bin Laden must have been rolling in his blankets how happy he was over our invading Iraq."

SUPPORTS health care vouchers - "We would issue vouchers to every single American. And the vouchers, you don't pay for them, they're issued to you. You sign up every year for them. And the vouchers will have a very modest co-pay, a very modest deductible, but that's it. Everybody gets the same product universally in the United States of America. And then if you want more than the product you got, you pay for it. The vouchers are set up for risk on an individual basis, not on a collective this fits all, because if you're young, you probably don't have a cost of more than $3,000. When you're my age, it could be $150,000-$180,000 in one year. One of the facets of the plan would be to keep in place Medicare and Medicaid and phase them out over time. Because plans to put everybody on Medicare aren't going to fly financially and just can't be met."

OPPOSES the war in Iraq - "Given the extreme importance of any decision to go to war, and I am anguished to say this, it's my opinion that anyone who voted for the war on October 11 - based on what President Bush represented - is not qualified to hold the office of President."

SUPPORTS negotiations with Muslim countries to resolve Mideast conflicts - Senator Gravel believes we must begin to treat other countries as equals. This means respecting the will of the people in those countries. He advocates unilateral talks with all foreign governments - including Iran, Syria, and North Korea. Gravel says the U.S., its allies, and regional actors should sponsor direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, including Hamas, to forge a two-state solution. "Stop and think here. Why do we think that we can rule that country? This is American imperialism you're hearing up here. And that hasn't worked and it will never work. We're trying to make the Iraqis the fall guy, not our stupid mistakes. Oh, it's the Iraqis won't stand up. I'll tell you what. Pull everybody out and turn to the Iranians, who helped us defeat the Taliban initially. So if we don't bring the Iranians to help us, or the Syrians, or Saudi Arabia, of course it's going to be a disaster."

OPPOSES the use of torture - Since announcing his candidacy in April 2006, Senator Mike Gravel has been unequivocal in his views on the practice of torture. He has called upon Congress to outlaw the abhorrent act. In a public letter dated March 1, 2007, Gravel said: "The Constitution is very clear that prisoners of war are the responsibility of the Congress. The Bush administration has unlawfully taken that power without constitutional justification. The Congress has been derelict in its duty to see that enemy combatants are treated humanely within the guidelines of the Geneva Conventions, and has been equally neglectful in its response to the president's unlawful use of torture." He has pledged that if elected President he would ÒvanquishÓ the Military Commissions Act of 2006, by which the writ of habeas corpus has been suspended for detainees designated "unlawful combatants."

SUPPORTS actions to help end global warming - Gravel advocates an environmental policy based upon reducing green house gases; protecting and cleaning up fresh water resources; and protecting and enhancing ecosystems that are significant "carbon sinks." He also supports capping global warming with a Global Carbon Tax, which would be used to fund international research and development to develop commercially viable energy technologies. As for transportation, he supports Euro IV-CAFƒ standards and increased hybridization; a crash program for hydrogen-powered vehicles; mass-transit, high-speed intercity rail (maglev); and electrification of rail trunk lines for freight.