WP: An Outsider Tries to Shake the 'Spoiler' Label

[kskiska]

(snip)

Nader, 70, has every intention of playing a pivotal role in the 2004 presidential election, but his campaign is dogged by doubts, dissension and disorganization. The consumer activist is indefatigable, and his supporters are worshipful. But the pall of the 2000 election, in which many Democrats believe Nader tipped New Hampshire and Florida to George W. Bush, hangs heavily over the campaign.

In private, four of Nader's five supporters around the table said they will vote for Democrat John F. Kerry if polls in late October show Nader tipping the state to President Bush.

At Nader's previous campaign stop in a small conference room at Suffolk University in Boston, his top Massachusetts aide said he had tried to rent a larger meeting space at Fleet Center but was told the facility did not want to offend Democrats who were preparing to host their national convention there in July.

And at a California fundraiser, Nader said, two contributors were so fearful of the backlash from Democrats that they showed up in disguise.

"A lot of people get ostracized if they talk to us," Nader said in an interview at Cafe Luna on P Street in Washington, where he often meets reporters and conducts campaign business while his headquarters is being readied. At the California event, he said, "three people I've worked with for 25 years didn't come. These are people I've funded, groups I've started."

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6711-2004Jun25.html

Come to think of it, wasn't Reagan the oldest guy to run for office at 68?

[Frances]

1. So now Nader is the victim?

And all those dead Americans and Iraqis in Iraq--what are they?

There would be no Iraq war if Nader hadn't been so determined to punish the Dems in 2000.

[Bucky]

2. Reagan was 69 in 1980; Dole was 73 in 1996

I think Dole in '96 was a couple months older than Reagan was in 1984. If he'd been elected to two terms, Dole would've left office in 2005 at the age of 81, but I think I recall him once pledging not to serve two terms. For all the difference that made.