Posted on 02/24/2008 7:15:41 AM PST by jdm
Barack Obama can now point to someone running to his left as evidence of his moderateness. Ralph Nader has announced that he will run for President in 2008, giving Democrats another potential headache in the fall, albeit a small one:
Ralph Nader has announced plans to run again for the US presidency. The anti-establishment consumer advocate made the announcement in a televised interview on Sunday. ....
"I'm running for president," Mr Nader said as he announced the move on NBC's Meet the Press.
He said most Americans were disenchanted with the Democratic and Republican parties - who were not discussing the urgent issues facing American voters
Democrats, he said, were "complicit" and if they did not win by a "landslide" this year, "they should just close down".
Nader managed to make the 2000 race a lot more interesting than anyone predicted. Although he only captured 3 million votes nationwide, he took more than the gap between George Bush and Al Gore in Florida -- ensuring Gore's defeat. In 2004, however, Nader didn't account for any change in the results as Bush beat John Kerry in his successful re-election bid.
How much impact will Nader have this time? Probably none at all. Unless Hillary Clinton pulls off a miracle, the Naderites of 2000 have aligned themselves enthusiastically with Barack Obama. Having Nader attack him from the Left won't hurt Obama's prospects in the middle, where he needs to draw more heavily than John McCain.
The bigger worry for Obama is Michael Bloomberg. The billionaire mayor of New York City ay still launch a vanity run for the White House, and he would challenge both McCain and Obama for the center. However, given Bloomberg's nanny-state tendencies, he will likely draw far more support from Obama than from McCain. If both Nader and Bloomberg enter the race, Obama could get squeezed from both sides.
If nothing else, Nader's presence will provide a few laughs as he gets reviled for blocking Obama's path to victory, even if it's just a small roadbump.
Those 250,000 moderate democrats who voted for Bush would have voted the way they did regardless of whether Nadir was in the race. Virtually every one of Nadir's votes came directly from Gore's nutball base.
Not only did he respond to all of my questions with silly bumper-sticker platitudes, he out-and-out smelled! I'm serious - I don't think the guy bathes or brushes his teeth regularly.
Nader really does have some serious personal hygiene issues, more so than any other public figue that I interviewed in my 35 year broadcast career.
So, you’re saying Nadir’s not clean and articulate?
[Nader really does have some serious personal hygiene issues, more so than any other public figue that I interviewed in my 35 year broadcast career.]
I researched nuclear opposition in the 90’s for the nuclear industry and traced most of it to Nader’s groups. He is a decentralist anarchist, a subtle but very nasty deviation from your normal flat out communist. Nader and Hillary know very much how disruptive their politics are. Obama is just an empty suit communist.
False. Gore did not appeal to the Nader socialists. Some other socialist would have got the votes. If Democrats want the socialist vote, they have to move the party platform left. If they do that, they lose conservative Democrats to the Republicans.
The feeble Nader will NOT move Obama one inch to the left. Obama is as far left as is safe for any presidential candidate to be......and he won't go too much further just to garner the miniscule amount of votes that Nader will receive.
In fact, when Obama starts running against McCain after the primaries, he'll move more centrist. Right now, in the primaries, he's playing to the wild and wooly (but faithfully voting) leftist hordes in order to beat Hillary.....and doing a good job of it.
Leni
Wonder which party. Doesn’t Cynthia McKinney have the greens locked up?
Many variables, but the vote for Nader exceeded the margin and most pundits say that Nader’s vote came from the dems. When the margin is narrow you can pinpoint several causes.
"What's all this talk I hear about Nadler running for President? Why in the heck would anybody vote for that loudmouthed fatso Gerald Nadler anyway?"
"What's that? Ralph NADER? Well that's different. Nevermind."
Let’s help Ralph Nader....especially in the close/important states like OH, PA and FL......
http://www.votenader.org/index.html
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