Remember this video of Mike Gravel staring into your soul and then throwing a rock in a lake? It had a companion that consisted of (1) Gravel gathering twigs, and (2) a fire made of those twigs burning for seven minutes.
Weird and inexplicable, right? That’s what I thought too until I found on MSNBC, via Wonkette, Gravel explaining the videos in brazenly cantankerous fashion.
“What people like you don’t understand — which I think is hilarious — is this is a metaphor,” Gravel said Monday, lecturing guest host David Shuster during an appearance on MSNBC’s “Tucker.”
You didn’t understand two videos that looked like they were made by two dudes who got hopped up on acid, read a bunch of Foucault, and decided to make a crazy dreamscape campaign video? Listen closely to Mike Gravel: this means you’re dumb.
Anyway, here’s the explanations for the spots. Of the rock one, Gravel says, “The point of the spot is not the rock but the ripples it leaves in the water.” Gravel is making waves. That doesn’t explain the several minutes of staring directly into the camera, but whatevs.
Of the fire spot, the candidate says, “Branches are what people acquire in the way of wisdom… And then he reaches down and acquires a little more experience, a little more wisdom. Reaches down, picks up a little more wisdom. And then goes out and starts a fire.”
“What does a fire represent?” Gravel asked rhetorically. “Fire represents light, heat, warmth. It’s the sustenance of life.”
Makes sense, I guess. Except for the part about “branches are what people acquire in the way of wisdom.” I always thought those were “degrees.”
So, anyway, yeah — how about Mike Gravel, everybody?
