Digging Mike Gravel

Mike Gravel may be the crazy grandfather in the Democratic presidential primary, but he's also a potential rallying point for a whole bunch of folks who voted Nader in 2000 and think Kucinich is a toothless joke. He's had some solid appearances lately - particularly on the Colbert Report and during the Democratic debate, where he was a jolt of energy in an otherwise soporific event. He's also already encountering some pushback from the mainstream media and politicos, who want to exclude him from future debates - an opportunity to make hay and consolidate a (very minor) grassroots uprising if ever there was one. In short, Gravel's got nothing to lose and a lot to gain, so his campaign isn't nearly as risk averse as those of the front runners. That makes him an interesting petri dish for testing new strategies, and his supporters are rising to the challenge.

Case in point is the use of Digg by Gravel supporters and Students for Gravel. Every single blog post on the Students for Gravel site has a "Digg" button. They're using it to increase Gravel's profile online, and it's probably going to work. Gravel is dominating the 2008 elections page on Digg, and some articles about the candidate are bubbling up to the front page of the site. It helps that the Digg community is somewhat contrarian/libertarian, and very much a culture of subcultures. Gravel, as an outspoken outsider against an unpopular war is a natural candidate for a place like Digg. It probably makes it easier to move Gravel stories up the queue, but it also potentially taps into a new supporter base.

Digg is in all the major newspapers this week because of the hex key drama. Lots of new folks will be visiting the site, and tooling around. Now, maybe they'll get introduced to Mike Gravel.