Nader seeks elusive backing as he ponders run for White House

[T_i_B]

UK Guardian interview with R*lph N*d*r. Make of this what you will.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections2004/story/0,13918,1119993,00.html

A leftwing bookshop cafe is the perfect place in George Bush's Washington for a conversation about the possibility of a progressive run for the US presidency: it is quiet and virtually deserted.
In a city of steaks and sushi, it also serves Ralph Nader's sort of food - simple vegetable soups with brown bread, although to his disappointment the lentil is off the menu on this occasion. Nader makes do with split-pea and settles down to explain why American progressives should not make do with the Democrats at this year's elections.

"I don't believe in being held hostage to the electoral college," he says. In any case, the Greens are not going to decide whether to field a presidential candidate until the summer, and that, in Nader's view, is far too late.

Dressed in an overcoat and jumper, he is as reassuringly rumpled as ever, compared with the self-conscious slickness of the other candidates, but he appears more hunched and a couple of degrees less sharp than he did in 2000. His sentences meander more and he says Republican when he means Democrat and vice-versa - a freudian slip, perhaps, as he portrays them both as subsidiaries of a single corporate-run party.

Not only would Nader be campaigning without a party banner or organisation this year, he also has to contemplate the candidacy of Howard Dean, the current frontrunner in the Democratic primaries, who has excited young voters, used the internet to powerful effect and tapped into a deep well of leftwing anger at the state of the country - all trademarks of the 2000 Nader campaign.

[bluestateguy]

1. Is Ralph Nader enjoying his Bush taxcut?

That granola munching, sushi sipping, coffee house dwelling little turd!

[patricia92243]

2. Nadar should be tarred and feathered, run out of town on a rail, and ..

whatever other bad slogan applies here!

[ClintonTyree]

3. Save it Ralph.........

"I don't believe in being held hostage to the electoral college," he says. In any case, the Greens are not going to decide whether to field a presidential candidate until the summer, and that, in Nader's view, is far too late.

We're all being held hostage by your tremendous ego that got us into this mess in the first place. Save it. Go away. If you really care about this country and this planet, go away.

[LibertyorDeath]

4. Someone PuLeeze take this dip shit out back

and explain what 4 more years of bush will FEEL like.

Fuck!

[tedoll78]

5. I know it's not a nice thing to say..

but I'm going to be very happy when he retires from politics. The accomplice.

[nightperson]

6. "Elusive backing", indeed.

Understatement of the year! LMAO, but I have a sick sense of humor, and I know that while Bush is as usual ahead in the polls this is an obscene waste of time. Perhaps this will be darkly instructive to the young and others about how wacked-out some people claiming to be "more truly progressive than thou" can get if they're famous, wealthy, and living in some strange place in their heads. When I first heard about this I was outraged, but I think it's a good sign for the party that I'm currently just so amused that he still "doesn't get it" at all. I seriously doubt that he'll run, but what a madman! He truly has donned his:tinfoilhat: and left the serious political arena completely behind. Good riddance! A sad troll best ignored. If you really want him to go away, don't give him the cheap attention he so obviously craves. It is fun slamming him, though, and hard to avoid-his name is now a derogatory and evocative noun and verb!

[The Zanti Regent]

7. Hey Ralph, tell my nephew there's no difference between Bush and Gore

My nephew lies in Walter Reed, a quadraplegic thanks to YOU!

Your damnable ego sent him to Iraq and turned him into caddle fodder for your pal Bush

My nephew is 23 years old, his life is ruined thanks to you.

Go to his bedside and utter that bullshit again, He WILL educate you, you worthless god-damned dogturd!

[Skittles]

8. you know it, Zanti

I'm so f***ing sick of Nader and his ego. People like your nephew are paying the ulimate price.

[Terwilliger]

9. Ralph Nader for President

he makes a better choice than most of the current Dem nominees

[The Zanti Regent]

10. Even Kucinich?

Kucinich could kick Nader's ass with both legs tied behind his back

[Eric J in MN]

11. I wish Nader would just ask his followers to vote for

I wish Nader would just ask his supporters to vote for whichever major-party candidate he thinks would be better for consumers.

Same with the Green Party and whichever major-party candidate they think is more environmental.

NY State used to have a party called "The Liberal Party," which would nominate a candidate who was also the nominee of the Republicans or Democrats.

[T_i_B]

12. From the article

Looks like Nader's star is on the wane if you ask me.

This time even the Greens have been ambivalent about him. Some wanted another candidate, and some wanted him to restrict his run to "safe" states, where he could not affect the outcome in the electoral college that ultimately elects the president. Many of the senior staff from the family of activist organisations he founded in Washington have privately urged him not to run.

Michael Moore, the radical author of a string of popular anti-establishment books and films who stood by his side four years ago, put his weight behind last autumn's push to draft General Clark into the Democratic race.

Micah Sifry, a radical writer and another erstwhile supporter, fears that a Nader campaign would be an act of self-absorption and ultimately self-destruction.

"Apart from risking the re-election of Bush, it would only hurt Nader," argues Mr Sifry. "Barring an unforeseen shift in the contours of the election, he would do far worse than the 2.7m votes he got in 2000. This is not his year."

[Z-axis]

13. Nader-bashing remains unseemly

What's all this grousing? Because you think his sticking to progressive principles gets a little in the way of electioneering?

Nader still exposed more of the workingw of government/corporate corruption that most progressives ever knew existed. He took his chances, paid his dues, did his homework and told it like he saw it, at great risk to himself.

So what's with the ridicule? He gets in the way a little? Maybe he's a little too old for the game; a little confused? Well, maybe we need to move him to an 'emeritus' position and see that he has what he needs. But disrespect the man? Do we really want to be the party without manners? That would be a real shame. Give him his due. If even a fraction of the progressive number had his guts there would be a disabled, single-mother,iiiiiiiiiooooooooo black woman in the WH by now, and she wouldn't be bailing out the whores of wall-street.

z-axis

[KG]

14. it's also mind-less.

but amusing to see the same epithets appear like clockwork whenever RN's name is posted on DU. :)

[Dogmudgeon]

15. Nader's manners

Why do so many Democrats lack manners toward Ralph Nader? Check out some of his accusations about Gore and the Democratic Party.

Most of us have principles. Plenty of us have guts. Some of us even have brains.

To paraphrase Ralph Nader: "Ralph Nader hurt Ralph Nader."

I'm focused on getting the Idiot Bastard Son out of the White House.

--bkl