February 25, 2008
Ralph Nader Rides Again! (Bill Press)
Just when you thought there was no way Democrats could lose this election … here we go again …
Ralph Nader decides to run, as an independent candidate, for the third time.
Let me tell you, I used to be a big Ralph Nader fan. No wonder. In his heyday, he was a mighty, effective champion of consumers in this country. But today, he’s nothing but a colossal, misguided, egomaniacal nutcase.
Nader says he’s running because people are disenchanted with both major parties and their candidates. Hello … What planet is he living on? Doesn’t he know Democrats are turning out in record numbers in this year’s primaries? And does he really think he’s more exciting than Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama?
Ralph Nader’s living in the past. The problem is, he could, once again, destroy our future. Remember: There’s no doubt Ralph Nader cost Al Gore the election in 2000. The election was so lopsided in 2004 he didn’t have any impact. But if it’s close again this year, Nader could be the difference between moving forward or four more years of Bush-Cheney policies.
Unfortunately, Ralph Nader cares more about what’s good for Ralph Nader than what’s good for America. And it’s the same for anybody who’s stupid enough to vote for him.
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Ralph Nader's contributions to Americans have been magnificent in the consumer protection area.I so wish he would have remained in that arena and ignored the politics.If he would work on predatory lending,credit card practices ,and banking practices he would be on a postage stamp honoring him not a political stump with us yawning when he speaks.
Go back to your roots Ralph that is where America needs you now after years of Bushscum allowing the rape allowing the raping of middle America;s wallets.
Comment by Linda M — February 25, 2008 @ 11:14 am
Did Ralph Nader cost Al Gore the election? There are many who believe it. There are also many who believe that Ross Perot cost the elder Bush the election. Anyway, I love third party candidates. The Communist Party endorsed the Democratic Party candidate this year so that pretty much states it all. I would never vote for Ralph Nader but I love to see him run.
As far as the concept of living in the past that's both Hillary and Obama. Their decided lack of faith in people as expressed in their desire to dramatically in increase the size of government is fascinating. They are not about change. They are a return to the failed policies of the Great Society.
I also have a question. What makes you believe the election is going to be that close?
Comment by Robert Rosencrans — February 25, 2008 @ 11:41 am
"Let me tell you, I used to be a big Ralph Nader fan. No wonder. In his heyday, he was a mighty, effective champion of consumers in this country. But today, he’s nothing but a colossal, misguided, egomaniacal nutcase."
Mr. Press, Nader's main claim to fame is helping to create our out of control litigious society. He is the same egomanaical nutcase that he has always been
Comment by Dan Rebillard — February 25, 2008 @ 11:43 am
Ralph Nader has every right to seek the presidency, as he did in 2000 when he was demonized for causing Gore's defeat. There was plenty of blame to go around for Gore's losing Florida up to and including the Supreme Court.
If we learned nothing else from that 2000 election, it should have been the future of the Supreme Court. Any Democrat who doesn't mind having additional justices in the mold of Roberts, Alito, Scalia and Thomas serving lifetime terms on the nation's highest court might just as well vote for Nader.
Much of what Bush has broken or messed up can be repaired in relatively short order. But his appointments of Roberts and Alito amount to a Bush legacy with which our children and grandchildren will have to live. McCain singled these two as models for the kind of justices he would nominate. Today we are a single Supreme Court vote away from judicial obsequiousness to reactionary religious fundamentalists and corporate welfare royalty.
Nader is far from a fool. He knows full well that he cannot win the presidency, but his appearance on the ballot could well account for a generation of regressive and reprehensible jurisprudence.
Comment by H. N. Burdett — February 25, 2008 @ 2:41 pm
Yes, it's kinda funny: the Democratic Party is running Marxist candidates and it's still not good enough for Ralph. Come on Ralph, get with the program, don't you know that when we have Communism in America it will be just swell for the "consumer"? I mean every Communist country really treated the consumers so well, you know with all the wonderful, safe products and no pollution an everything. Well, don't you? Oh, so sorry, I guess you don't. Well get lost anyway because you're not very exciting. And old. And you know we need to keep the old jokes for the Repugs, you, you…you damn consumer advocate. What the hell do you want anyway? Stop interfering with the master plan!
Comment by Igor R. — February 25, 2008 @ 2:44 pm
Ralph has definitely become the old joke in politics. It's time he hung up his tie before he screws Americans into another four years of Bush politics.
Anwyay: I wanted to invite you to cross link with our political magazine: ToTheCenter.com.
We're launching a blog roll and would love to list you there too. With over 500K readers a month, I thought cross linking would be mutually beneficial. We saw that you're listing a lot of other political magazines such as us so we hope you'll list us too.
Comment by john — February 25, 2008 @ 3:20 pm
Go Ralph Go. If you are the one who screws America into another four years of Bush politics, screw buddy screw. After all, we could have had the man who invented the internet and now is close to freezing out his ass on his global warming inconvenient lie. Now that would have been a screw job. Thanks for saving us. What fools the likes of john and Linda M are, from one who got sucked in by Perot, resulting in the biggest travesty that ever serves as President; the liar Bill Clinton, who Hillary wasn't smart enough to dump and it is costing her now. I guess we on the right could cry about Ron Paul, but then we don't cry. We just fight for what's RIGHT.
Comment by John B — February 25, 2008 @ 7:03 pm
If Mr. Nader would at least acknowledge how he influenced the 2000 election, and set his mind to helping the Democrats repair the damage done by the Bush adminstration, he would at least retain a little respect.
As it is, he likely won't even get the 0.3% of the popular vote he got in '04, particularly if Senator Obama is the Democratic nominee, and he will fade into obscurity for another 4 years.
Comment by Derek D. — February 26, 2008 @ 12:12 am
Why don't you give it a rest with your voter-suppression propaganda, Mr. Press. If Ralph Nader represents so much of a complete zero as you maintain, then your preferred candidates have nothing to fear from him. As for third-party candidates in general, the Democratic Party loved Ross Perot just fine when he badly split the Republican ticket and twice handed Bill Clinton two mere plurality victories and two terms as President of the United States — which he and his self-described "field general" wife spent pretty much capitulating to everything the rabid Repugnant Ones demanded of them. A second term for former Republican President George H. W. Bush wouldn't have proven nearly as disastrous for the Democratic Party as the two, politically androgynous co-presidential terms of the Clinton Partners in Pathos.
If Ralph Nader didn't stand for everything even faintly Liberal that the Democratic Party has betrayed over the last sixteen years, no one in the Democratic Party establishment would give Ralph Nader the time of day. Your vicious and vitriolic tirade against Ralph Nader, Mr. Press, says more about your own lack of confidence in the "exciting" Senator You-Know-Her (currently suffering from demented post-menopausal schizophrenia) than anything remotely true about Ralph Nader. The Democratic Party can easily marginalize Ralph Nader by simply adopting his anti-corporate-crime agenda (which "populist" John Edwards had no trouble stealing from him). That the Democrats show every sign of betraying the "left" again just as soon as one of their "exciting" (or "excitable") candidates secures the nomination (so they they can scurry ever-rightward towards the mythical "center") explains the cautionary presence of Ralph Nader in yet another campaign. You do not seem to understand this.
Put simply for your limited comprehension, Mr. Press: If candidate Obama lurches to the right upon nomination, Ralph Nader's candidacy will gain some votes. If, on the other hand, candidate Obama helps drag the country back leftwards away from the current crypto-fascist oligarchy that it has become, then Ralph Nader may not even get my vote this time around. Everything depends on whether candidate Obama brings pride, dignity, and competence back to the "liberal" label or "triangulates" safely rightward in yet another "Democratic Party" betrayal of everything FDR built in my mother's greatest generation.
Your precious Democratic Party disenfranchised this Vietnam Veteran in California during the 2004 election by successfully keeping Ralph Nader off the ballot. I wrote in his name anyway, not that anyone bothered to count it. John "I can do Tora Bora better" Kerry carried the state anyway. Then he lost to an AWOL stud hamster from Texas with seriously unresolved manhood issues. Ralph Nader had nothing to do with that pathetic performance, either.
So I've had it with your lame-assed, anti-democratic vote suppression campaigns. You vote for whom you want and I will vote for whom I want. I might vote for Senator Obama if he stops apologizing for us "liberals" but I will never vote for "Buffaloed Girl," "Nancy the Negotiator," or any other Democratic Party candidate stupid enough to let a dyslexic dwarf chimpanzee make a monkey out of her while sending our descendents the unpaid bill for yet another enormous blank rubber check made out to endless Warfare Welfare and Makework Militarism.
I know Ralph Nader and what he represents. I will not abandon him or what he represents until presented with another candidate for public office who offers me better and — even more importantly — celebrates every American's right and duty to run for office themselves if they so desire. I do not fear Democracy, Mr. Press, but you apparently do. You ought to have a bit more confidence in it. If you did, Ralph Nader wouldn't bother you in the least. For how could we American voters possibly make a mistake when offered three such "exciting" candidates as you timid corporate Democrats and the reactionary corporate Republicans claim to have placed before our consideration? Apparently, you have no more confidence in us voters than you do in "Democracy."
Comment by Michael Murry — February 26, 2008 @ 4:04 am
OK. Reality folks. Nader did not cause Gore's loss. Gore caused Gore's loss! Perot did not cause Bush 41's loss. Bush 41 caused it. A majority of the American people rejected Bush 41 because of his apparent lack of focus on the then crashing economy. Carvel was right then, it was "the economy stupid!" A majority of Americans rejected Gore because they fundamentally rejected the liberal mush he spouted. And my sense of things now is that they will ultimately reject the liberal mush gushing from either Barak or Hillary in this new go-round.
Comment by Bill — February 26, 2008 @ 8:11 am
Nader again? You should be me. I live in CT as does Nader and Joe Lieberman and Dodd. Lieberman is supporting a Republican, Dodd had taken up residency in Iowa putting CT money in another economy, and lastly we have Ralph Nader.
There was a time Nader devoted his life and did a wonderful job of it being a consumer advocate. I never buckle up without a thought to him. Unfortunately he has become an embarrassment. I hope he will reconsider and stop. He hasn't a snow ball's chance, so why upset the apple cart?
His legacy will go from consumer advocate to silly old man. Sad, very sad.
Comment by Rose Hann — February 26, 2008 @ 1:31 pm
Thanks Bill. You're absolutely right.
I have a feeling you would enjoy reading Follet's On Wings of Eagles. Perot would have worked unlike Nader.
Comment by John B — February 26, 2008 @ 3:05 pm
"I voted for the peace candidate, Lyndon Johnson, and got war."…Gore Vidal
The Democratic party did not represent me in 1968 and does not represent me now.
I fear these Obama kids are in for a big disappointment when their friends continue to have their lives ruined by this war
and the economic disaster it
is causing and will continue to cause.
My advice to them is buy stock in Haliburton and never volunteer.
Comment by godlessclif — March 17, 2008 @ 5:10 am