Well it is another presidential election cycle, and what election for president would be complete without Ralph Nader (CNN) throwing his hat into the ring once more for a drive to irrelevancy. Rather than trying to prove his mettle during the normal primary season, he continued his penchant for late timing theatrics by announcing his presidency campaign last night on Meet the Press.
If Ron Paul was the symbol of non attention in the party primaries so far, Ralph Nader has decided to pick up the mantle for the general election. In his time, Nader was the consummate consumer advocate, and probably did more than anyone alive to promote safety of consumers over corporate greed. However, as he enters his fourth straight presidential campaign, almost everyone is agreed (except Nader), that his best and most influential times are well behind him.
Many in the Democratic party are still upset that they think he cost Al Gore the election in 2000 in a close race by derailing that small percentage of Democrat votes in Florida that could have made the difference between Gore and Bush being elected.
At 74, and after four miserable attempts at running before (5 if you count that write in campaign), you really have to wonder if Ralph is doing this for anything other than pure ego anymore. If you go to his website at you can get a list of what he has put “on the table”. Of course “open up the Presidential debates” would be one of his first priorities since he isn’t likely got get many invitations. And you have to like his “Impeach Bush/Cheney” position. And I’m not quite sure what “Work to end corporate personhood” even means.
If he thinks that political consultants “have really messed up Hillary Clinton’s campaign”, you have to wonder what brilliant political consultants came up with his plan to run for president once again. Obviously not the sharpest tacks in the box if you ask me.
If nothing else, it will give us political junkies something to analyze and talk about when the race between the GOP and Democrat nominees hit some slow spots
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Nader gets on the horse again
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2 comments:
This is good news for McCain, as Nader is more likely to pull independent voters form the "hate corporate America" Dem side of the track.
McCain independents, trend toward an appreciation of McCain's "truth to power" maverick rep and his focus on sound fiscal and foriegn policies, and would not likely be drawn to the uber-leftist Nader.
It will be interesting to see, but at this point, I think he has seriously over stepped on this run. Quite honestly, I'll be suprised if he can actually draw enough independents from either McCain or Obama to really show any effect.
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