Hard to believe that anyone could be this much of an egomaniac, or a masochist, but I guess the allure of intermittent media coverage for a man whose every action in politics now tarnishes his reputation a little bit more was too great to overcome:
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.
Mr Nader was accused by many Democrats of handing the presidency to George W Bush in the November 2000 elections. He ran again unsuccessfully in 2004.
I’m sorry, but this is getting as bad as when George Romney (Mitt’s dad for you youngin’s) Harold Stassen was always running for President every four years. Nader is becoming a joke. In 2000, three million people voted for him. In 2004, only 463,653 gave their heart and soul to him. There is no chance that this year he will attract even that many people to his campaign. His sell by date was over in November 2000. I wish he had the sense to realize that and work for change in other ways. He could be a force for the adoption of a more progressive agenda by the Democrats, but not as a Presidential candidate.
His presence also diminishes the potential for truly new progressive voices in the Green party or elsewhere to arise. As long as he persists in his Quixotic fantasy that his is the only true progressive voice in US politics, he stifles the potential development of the Greens into a truly national party that can compete with Democrats and Republicans. Especially now with the cratering of the GOP, there is an opening for growing the reach of a progressive third party from the left that could influence the national conversation, particularly on environmental and economic issues, but not with Nader as it’s spokesperson.
He’s now beyond tragedy or comedy at this point. He’s moved into the realm of farce. And that is a sad ending for a man who accomplished so much good in his life.
See also Phronesis’ diary about Nader HERE.
I don’t see why you’re so dismissive. Haven’t you noticed the vitriol directed toward Hillary? If she becomes the nominee (not likely, but still possible), I can see a lot of progressive types voting Nader.
His time is past as a political candidate. As an advocate for progressive policies he could do much more good.
isn’t it ‘threquel’?
He is getting to be like one of those mass murderers in the horror movie genre that just never die completely.
well, he’s on now, and he’s talking about single-payer. From that standpoint I am with him 100%. I’m not sure how this helps us get single payer though.
If he can get more traction for single-payer than Kucinich did, maybe it will cause Obama to “consider” it as an alternate path for congress to consider once he becomes president – using that public interest as justification. Sounds good to me.
Steven D,
Thanks for this but the 2008 run makes it a quad (IV). I recall that Nader ran in:
1996 Green Party candidate
2000
2004
2008
GOP will cheer. In a 3-way race. Hmmm it’s a value distraction.
I’ve already said that since the Clinton campaign has decided back in December that race-baiting tactics were A-OK, that wouldn’t give them a 3rd term. But there is no way in hell that I’m going to vote for freakin’ Nader. I’d do the same thing if my options are Clinton, McCain and Nader for president: Leave that bubble blank.
what’s significant to me is that Meet the Press chooses the moment of Obama’s victory (okay, it’s still 9 days off) to have a guy on to talk about how both Democrats suck.
That seems like a deliberate smack-down to the Democrats’ momentum.
More like typical infotainment programming to me. That and the fact the beltway elites stopped loving Democrats after the Civil War.
pretty impressive on MTP. Many on the left think of Obama, like Bush, as all hat and no cattle.
If Obama will stand up against the special interests as powerfully as Nader has, Ralph’s campaign won’t matter.
He will have a very big problem getting on ballots, unless the Greens are again gullible. He needs a party for most states’ ballots. He got on MTP, and threatened the Democrats. Stick a fork in him.
I hope the Greens have learned their lesson. Nader as a candidate is toxic.
Well, I think it’s probably good. Those who could never bring themselves to vote for a black man (but they’re not racists, of course) now have somewhere other than McCain to put their vote. He won’t add up to much though and he’d most likely draw more from McCain than Obama.
based on your premise
“Those who could never bring themselves to vote for a black man (but they’re not racists, of course) now have somewhere other than McCain to put their vote.”
Exactly. Nader’s vote count will be quite telling: – the type of nation that we are deep down. Think the Bradley effect.
Re: Nader sucking all of the air out of the Green Party. I used to be a registered Green back in the early 90s. I would switch registration to vote in the Dem. primaries, then switch back. I the late 90s, I was a DTS voter. I’ve been a solidly registered Democrat since ’99.
One of the reasons for my changes was the lack of viable candidates. Keep in mind that I was active in my local Dem. parties, even while registered Green or DTS. In general, I detest having to work with Democrats as a group because there’s usually a lot of talk and action takes a while to get going until someone (me) takes the reins. With the Greens it was like hanging out with pot-addled philosophy majors who are finding themselves. It was painful, mostly because they’ve all been so sheltered. They know the issues, but reality was far away. The few times a good Green candidate came on the scene, these Greens would waste good time tearing down the candidate because of one issue or another.
I remember one guy running for school board or councilman. He was a very good candidate and there was no reason not to vote for the guy. One lady said, “I live next to him and his family doesn’t recycle. That was all it took. No one would support him. No one even bothered to check if it was true. Of course, the lady’s brother-in-law was running for the same spot, but she neglected to mention that. That was my last straw with the Green Party.
Over the years, I have voted for Green Party candidates for some offices here in Los Angeles. Some of these people are really good for gov’t. But they always defer to Nader, as if he’s the figurehead for the party, not someone who just came in and kind of usurped the titled.
Well, I guess I get to defend both Nader and George Romney in the same comment.
First of all, I don’t know where you got that idea about George Romney running every four years and becoming a national joke. He ran once, in 1968. He started out as a serious candidate, appealing to the liberal wing of the Republican party (there was such a thing at the time), but dropped out early in the race. In trying to explain his flip-flopping on Vietnam, Romney said that he had been misled by the lies of the Johnson Administration. Many Democrats today say much the same thing about their initial support for Iraq. The press, however, destroyed Romney for his flip-flop, and especially his remark that he had been “brainwashed” by Administration propaganda.
I’m glad that there will an alternative to McCain-Obama in November. I voted for the Democrat in 2000 and 2004, but after the spectacle of eight years of Democratic nonperformance as an opposition party, I have no intention of voting for them again.
I don’t know why, but it bothers me to stay home on election day. I’d rather vote for Nader.
Right you are about Romney. I had him confused with Harold Stassen for some reason. My bad. Fixed above in the main text.
Ego, Ego, Ego and nothing more. He jumps into the campaign a year late, when he can say “oh, there’s no candidate that supports my position.” Ego. Gets to meet with Tim R. on Meet the Press. Ego. Uses the Green Party to meet his own needs. Ego.
I think there should be a day where we just mark a time and all try to hop on to his web-site and crash his server. However, knowing Nader his ego would tell him he’s wildly popular.
if you’d like to give ralph a piece of your mind, you can do it here: Contact us
w/ caveats:
my missive was short: just go away, please.
ha!
I would like to see LaRouche v. Nader in a steel cage death match….
….world would be a better place.
Ralph Nader has never held any political office; he’s never so much as served on a school board. He’s running for president because he feels entitled to the job. He feels superior to most other people. While he probably would not be the kind of disastrous president that Bush has been, he is, just like Bush, an arrogant shithead. He did plenty of good things in the past, but today he’s just a shithead.
Cynthia McKinney should be the Green presidential candidate. She would have coasted to the nomination, too, had it not been for Nader. Somehow, he showed up on the California Green primary ballot before he had even declared his candidacy. He won 61% of the vote in CA, a figure likely based purely on name recognition. How did he even get on the ballot?
McKinney is a hard-nosed, intelligent, six-time congresswoman. The former Democrat gives the Greens some DC credibility that even Nader can’t match. She could build the greens in a way Nader wont. Nader’s candidacy is bad for the Greens.