Marianne Williamson understands all about miracles, and she still chose to throw her hat into the ring, running for the Congressional seat that Henry Waxman has held for nearly four decades. In fact, she declared her candidacy before Mr. Waxman announced he'd end his congressional career at the end of this session.

The spiritual teacher who taught A Course in Miracles to millions, authored 10 books that help people across the globe nurture their spiritual selves and be better humans may need to create her own miracle to win this thing.

The fact that she's truly progressive and would make a wonderful Congress member be damned.

California's open primary system, in effect since voters unfortunately approved it in 2010, has all candidates running in one primary, and sends the top two vote-getters to the runoff.

Although that may sound good on the surface, reality proves the opposite- that the two major political parties can and probably do use their power to keep qualified candidates out of the race to insure they get one of their "approved" candidates in the top two.

This doesn't bode well for third party candidates. Although she says she's a "life-long" Democrat, Marianne Williamson is running as an Independent.

I had the chance to talk with her this morning. I asked why she decided to challenge Henry Waxman who, although far from perfect, is one of the more progressive members of Congress, and for her thoughts on the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership, the Keystone XL pipeline, campaign finance reform, and more.

My friend Howie Klein tweeted today:

@nicolesandler-what time will you have @marwilliamson on? She reminds me of Bernie Sanders politically; Martin Luther King spiritually #CA33

— Howie Klein (@downwithtyranny) February 5, 2014

Pretty high praise. Listen and judge for yourself. If anyone can pull out a miracle on election day, it's Marianne Williamson!