Much to the chagrin of Democrats, and an uneasy reminder of 2000, Nader has announced that he will be running for President this year, in spite of no Green Party support.
If Nader wanted to be nice he would limit his campaigning to states where Bush is the likely winner and tailor his speeches with anti-Bush rhetoric.
At least he doesn’t have the Green Party backing. That should help to limit the damage.
I think it’s ridiculous how selfish the guy is. Yeah, maybe the differences aren’t that large between the Dems and Republicans, but does he really want another four years of Bush?
What I found interesting was that he felt the Ralph Don’t Run people are personally trying to force him out of the race because they don’t want more than two parties – when it should be painfully obvious to him that the only reason the Green Party won’t support him is because they understand the gravity of a unified front against Bush.
I think Nader has every right to run if he wants to. It isn’t even selfish if he doesn’t see that much difference between the parties. The Dems blamed him for their loss, but it was their own fault for running Gore, who couldn’t even carry his home state and who had very little appeal to many Democrats such as myself.
That said, I don’t think Nader will be a big factor this time around. Too many of us are in “anyone but Dubya” mode.
That’s kinda how I feel as well. In 2000 there wasn’t much to get excited about especially if you were in full-on reformer mode. I got behind John McCain during the primaries and even worked the phones for a day, even though I’m not a Republican, but I ended up voting (without much enthusiasm) for Gore. I can certainly empathize with people who wanted to cast a protest vote for whatever reason. It’s easy to think what you do won’t really make a difference aside from registering discontent. In this, rather rare, case it did make a very telling difference.
This time around if people are really as upset with Bush as they should be they’ll get behind the main chance to defeat him. Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me. The same logic that’s driving the mainstream media to do its job this time around will probably focus the thinking of the voting public.
I’m all for more than two parties in a race. I think its better to give options to voters. I just don’t think its a good idea this year.
For the record, I did vote for Nader in 2000. Feel free to blame the last four years on me. :P
If the media really sinks their teeth into Nader, and gives him the grilling he should have received in 2000, he’ll be toast. Nader still scares me more than Bush…
http://www.realchange.org/nader.htm
I frickin’ worked for this stereotype, twice, in Silicon Valley. They’re lunatics…
Don’t forget the whole “hangs out with crazy sectarian nutjobs” thing:
Yeah, Nader’s got some serious PR vulnerabilities.
If Judge Moore, yes the 10 Commandments guy, runs for President (on the Consitution Party ticket), I think he’ll balance out Ralph Nader. The Force will remain in balance.
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040223/ap_on_el_pr/nader_15
Nader has got a long way to get to the ballot.
Hey, that’s a great idea!