For me, the most important issue is "Cut the huge, bloated, wasteful military budget".  I think "Work to end corporate personhood" is a good one too -- but there are plenty of other progressive issues he could have mentioned (like infrastructure, green collar jobs, manufacturing)...but don't hyperventilate, he'll get about as many votes as the socialist workers party candidate.

Nader, Florida, Hanging Chads, the Supreme Court. Its like Deja Vu all over again.

The eons of time and nature was good to us down here. It was not until we become civilized that destroying our habitat become fathomable or fashionable.

It is too bad. There are tens of thousands of people out there who have escaped death or maiming because of Nader. Too bad he can't find another role for himself in his later years.

Randy Cunningham

Randy Cunningham

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NADER: NOW THE SLANDER BEGINS AGAIN
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SAM SMITH - AP started it in their lead story on Ralph Nader's announcement that he is running for president: "He is still loathed by many Democrats who call him a spoiler and claim his candidacy in 2000 cost the party the election by siphoning votes away from Al Gore in a razor-thin contest in Florida."

More on that below, but even if what the Democrats said were true, the behavior of the party in the years that followed 2000 did absolutely nothing to correct the situation. For example:

• The Democrats could have supported and worked for instant runoff voting which dramatically changes the effect of third parties on elections and politics.

• They could have avoided gratuitously angering Green voters through such cheap tricks as redistricting Maine's one Green state legislator.

• They could have adopted some Green policies, much as European major parties do when pressed by from the left or right.

• They could have stopped being so consistently indistinguishable from the Republicans.

• Obama could have said he would add one or more Greens to his cabinet just as promised he might with one or more right wingers.

None of this happened.

I supported Nader's run in 2000 but, for pragmatic reasons, suggested he not run in 2004. In my memo on the topic, I argued that just because you had something righteous to say didn't mean that standing in the middle of an interstate at rush hour was the best place to argue it. The drop in returns for Nader and the Green candidate, David Cobb, supported my thesis.

At the same time, I believe that anyone who feels there is something wrong with their neighborhood, city, state or country not only has the right to run for public office but honors that office by doing so. To criticize someone for exercising this right is repulsively anti-democratic and, when the target is Nader or the Greens, reflects the political trust fund baby mentality of the Democratic Party, living off the hard efforts of its past and doing little or nothing for the present and future.

The party of denial needs to look at its own defects and not seek salvation in blaming others for exercising their constitutional rights. Deceive yourself once or twice and you can chalk it up to political error. Deceive yourself thrice and you really need therapy.

When he is clearly so effective outside of government, why this continual attempt to get the top job in government?  And why only President; why not Mayor, Governor, Senator?

I don't blame Nader for the loss to Bush in 2000 - I said at the time that Gore should have been able to beat Bush hands down, and a couple of percentage points to Nader were just an annoying distraction over the real problems; the electoral college, hanging chads, and an American public who votes for "likability" over policy.

In spite of my respect for Nader's career in consumer advocacy, I don't have a lot of respect for his decisions to run for President.  At this point, it seems like merely pandering to his own ego (as others have said); a national soap-box from which to preach your faith.  Hell, if I had millions of dollars to burn, I could run for President too, and, for a little while, people would listen to what I had to say, and some may even agree - but that doesn't mean I'd be any good at the job.  And I'd have more respect for myself if I put those millions to good use (famine relief, urban renewal, protecting biodiversity, invest in renewable energy, scholarships to college....).  

Kaela,
you are absolutely right: If Ralph Nader means what he says, he should have been busy preparing a legion of people to run for local and state positions, and should himself have been prepared to run for a lower office.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

Randy

Randy Cunningham

Depends, no it does not depend on a vote count, they both probably wear Depends or will have to before they are out of office.

I do not want another Predident contending with Alzheimer's the last two years of his term. Not a PC thing to say, well I guess not but you got to have somebody not from the Jurassic age with some fresher Idea's.


The eons of time and nature was good to us down here. It was not until we become civilized that destroying our habitat become fathomable or fashionable.

McCain is bush-lite, it won't be that bad.  Can he really invade Iran?  We'll see.

http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog

<<
The band Abba wants John McCain to stop using their songs at his campaign rallies.  Yeah.  When asked about it, McCain said, "Who cares about Abba?  Kids today are into the Bee Gees."
>>

Ha!  And I thought I was behind the times!  Even I know that kids today are listening to Duran Duran and the Police.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

Obama and Hillary both champion saving the rain forest all the sudden, I know its a good liberal cause that will open check books. Good cause period I should say.

I know its chic and in vogue but maybe someone, Nader, will point out to them we are losing thousands of acres of Appalachian deciduous forest every year also.

They treat the area like some backwater third world country so maybe if someone sent the peace corps down here and discovered us again they might could save a forest here in the good ol U.S.A.

I know its deciduous and just helps the planet breath spring though late fall but we suck up some Co2 down here. It would also be more environmentally friendly because of all the jet fuel you would save saving a forest in country.

We could learn some natives to use blow guns and put some piranha in the river to make them feel more at home.

I think they both are more flash than substance, environmental coinsciousness begins at home. I wonder if Nader knows where appalachia is?

The eons of time and nature was good to us down here. It was not until we become civilized that destroying our habitat become fathomable or fashionable.

Climate stabilization has to be our first priority. Anything we do that keeps fossil fuel supporters in power is cutting the threads of the web of life.

Nader should not run for president and pull support away form the democratic candidates with a realistic chance of winning.

Unfortunately, I don't think that it's going to do any actual good as far as getting his ideas across (which is too bad, because they are good ideas) or garnering actual votes.  At this point he's become a caracature of himself and nobody takes him seriously.  

People who are excited about a candidate won't vote for him, but he may get votes from folks who feel that they are otherwise given the choice of the lesser of two evils.  

He won't steal my vote from either of the Democrats in the race for President.

-- Chris Yoder

Nader's "spoiler" role has been exaggerated. If Gore and Kerry lost by a few votes, that reflects the lack of difference between the two parties. We do not have to vote for him, but we do have to defend his right to run and get an independent/third party candidate heard.  The American party system is locked in monolithic stagnation.  Yes, Nader is stubborn and even a bit foolhardy. But that stubborn foolhardiness is at the heart of his enormous contribution to our life, our freedom, and our safety for the last fifty years.

      Do you think Nader will get any coverage?  We saw the media completely avoid Kucinich, Dodd, even Ron Paul.  What makes you think the corporate media will give one minute of coverage to anti-corporate Nader?  

      If Nader does get coverage, I will be pleasantly surprised.  And if that results in the Democrats losing votes, so be it.  There's not much difference between Clinton, Obama or McCain anyways.  Neither of them want to get out of the war.  They all tout themselves as being green.  We all should know what a big lie that is.  

      While it is true that the development of a viable third party is seemingly impossible, why do we tend to wait until the 11th hour (see: Nader) to push for a voice of the people?  Howard Zinn is right, we need to start with zealous education.  Election reform would be nice too.  

The dopey, wooden delivery of both, and the never ending pedantic overcomplication of Kerry.  Those were election losers all on their own.  Gore menced poor lil duuhbya in a debate, I remember noting that we could lose it with more of that kind of idiocy.

Do you think Barack would ever do that?  Or use a line like Hillary's xeroxed "xerox" line.   Clearly some aid wrote it and Hillary spoke it.  Yikes.  A clearly hypocritical attack on his "plagirism".  And then ending with the Bill C, Edwards, and more platitude line.

And bill comparing barack's perfprmance in South Carolina to jesse's?  Then Hillary touting LBJ, with some insane juxtaposition analogy between her and Barack?  The  "little more room in the bunghole area" presdient.  Yech!

And not explaining her healthcvare plan or modifying it so that the impression of poor people hounded for insurance premiums by the government is dispelled?  

Mistakes.  Easily spotted and avoided by people like Barack.  And Bill C., until the BJ inmcident.

And where were democratic party lawyers in Ohio in '04?  

Don't blame Nader or his supporters for this  incredible incompetence.

http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog

But being right doesn't automatically equate to running for President. First, it makes you a latter day don Quixote, tilting at corporate windmills. Are the corporations going to stand by while their arch-enemy runs for high office?

Second, should Nader somehow win and somehow curb the power of corporations, is that going to cure the ills of the world? Some, but there are as many real and potential problems as there are people on this planet.

Third, should the impossible happen and Nader gets elected, how does he expect to get his bills to go through Congress with no party support behind him? There is no Nader Party, and the Green Party is just about as irrelevant in national politics as Nader has become.

Nader is the Mr. Spock of politics. He thinks everything should be logical, and it's logical to be your brother's keeper because that's invariably a win-win proposition. But it isn't always, and anyway, logic plays far less of a role in everyday life than guys like Nader would like to think.

Ralph, we love you, you do great things, you're a good guy, but you're just not a man beloved by the electorate. You're good enough, you're smart enough, and, doggone it, a lot of people do love you. But, in a land where smarminess is important in a politician and most voters are suckers when it comes to believing accomplished liars in high office, you will never be a politician and you will never be elected to high office. What is even worse is that you will never get a soap box by running. After all, who owns the media? The corporations. In terms of media coverage, look what has happened to you in the past and look what happened to John Edwards just recently. The corporate media will pay little or no attention to candidates attacking them and their brethren.