I’ve met a very small number of the performers on the countdown, but this is I think the first time one of the songs is named for someone I’ve met. I covered former Alaska US Senator Mike Gravel during the 2008 presidential primary campaign in New Hampshire, when he was one of about 400,000 people running for the White House.
Gravel’s campaign was very low-budget and light on events; if I remember right, the few he did in New Hampshire were mostly because his sister lived in the state and he could stay with her instead of booking hotel rooms. The little attention it got came from stuff he did on video, like the time during a debate when he asked future president Barack Obama “Tell me, Barack, who do you want to nuke?” (An incredulous Obama answered, “I’m not planning to nuke anybody right now, Mike.”) Or the video he made where he stared at the camera for a minute or two, not saying anything, and then picked up a rock and dropped it into a lake.
And then there was his appearance on the early YouTube series Red State Update, which out-weirded them all (well, maybe not the rock ad). An actual presidential candidate, one who’d been up on the debate stage with the heavy hitters, dressing up as Santa Claus, spiking the punch and pretending to throttle one of the main characters, all to a parody version of “Do They Know It’s Christmas?”