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Download | Play (h/t Bill)
It’s official:
RUSSERT: Will you run for president as an Independent in 2008?
NADER: Let me put it in context, to make it a little more palatable to people who have closed minds. 24% of the American people are satisfied with the state of the country, according to Gallup. That’s about the lowest ranking ever. 61% think both major parties are failing. And according to Frank Luntz’s poll, the Republican, 80% will consider voting for an independent this year. Now you take that framework, of people feeling locked out, shut out, marginalized, disrespected and you go from Iraq to Palestine to Israel. From Enron to Wall Street. From Katrina to the bungling of the Bush administration to the complicity of the Democrats in not stopping him on the war, stopping him on the tax cuts, getting a decent energy bill through and you have to ask yourself, as a citizen, should we elaborate the issues that the two are not talking about? And the…all the candidates, McCain, Obama and Clinton, are against single-payer health insurance. Full Medicare for all. I’m for it. As well as millions of Americans and 59% of physicians in a forthcoming poll this April. People don’t like Pentagon waste, the bloated military budget, all of the reports in the press and the GAO reports. A wasteful defense is a weak defense. It takes away taxpayer money that can go to the necessities of the American people. That’s off the table, to Obama and Clinton and McCain. The issue of labor law reform: repealing the notorious Taft-Hartley act, that keeps workers who are now more defenseless than ever against corporate globalization from organizing to defend their interests. Cracking down on corporate crime. The media—the mainstream media—repeatedly indicated how trillions of dollars have been drained and fleeced and looted from millions of workers and investors who don’t have many rights these days.
And pensioners. You know, when you see the paralysis of the government, when you see Washington D.C. be corporate-occupied territory—every department agency controlled by overwhelming presence of corporate lobbyists, corporate executives in high government positions—turning the government against its own people, one feels an obligation, Tim, to try to open the doorways, to try to get better ballot access, to respect dissent in America in terms of third parties and independent candidates. To recognize historically the great issues have come in our history—against slavery, women’s rights to vote, and worker and farmer progressives, through little parties that never ran…won any national election. Dissent is the mother of assent. And in that context, I have decided to run for President.
It was a simple yes or no question, Ralph. His “context for closed minds” frankly offends me. I don’t disagree with anything that he said (other than citing Frank Luntz. I mean, come on!), and I am a big believer in having viable third, fourth and even fifth parties to help break the gridlock in Washington DC, I’m even a registered third party voter. That said, I have to ask: Where have you been, Ralph? What have you done in the last eight years (and I’m willing to hold the Democrats responsible for some–but not all–of the ongoing mess, but let’s lay the onus for how messed up everything is squarely on the shoulders of the Bush administration) to help make third parties more viable and allow them a voice on the national stage? How is showing up more than a year into presidential politicking with just a few months left helpful to the validity of third parties?
Making independents more meaningful isn’t an eleventh hour appearance on a talking head show. It takes years of sustained effort and commitment, something I haven’t seen Nader do. So the question must be asked: who is this run really for?
No Trackbacks To “MTP: Nader Throws His Hat In The Ring“
No Nader here yet!
http://politics.charityads.org
I wonder if they will have him?
HE LOST ME WITH LUNTZ!
It’s astonishing that this asshat still thinks he needs to run. The constituency he spoke to in 2000 (I’m one of them) has largely cast their lot with the Senator from Illinois. So he’s wasting his time. He can’t run much further to the left of Obama without just being a joke (or, a bigger joke than he currently is).
And if he was trying to build that constituency’s loyalty to himself, he has started MONTHS too late. Obama’s ground organization is going to pound him and McCain to a pulp.
Mr. Nader, check your ego at the door, and if you can’t then get the fuck out of the building.
Nader is the Corvair of American politics.
Nader has the blood of tens of thousands on his hands. He is responsible for Bush being able to steal the election. He and his followers are on another planet.
Oh god. Please no.
but he does say what many people feel.
I’m disappointed in this guy, again. As an Obama supporter, I can say that I’m cautiously more optimistic about American politics going forward than I have ever been in my lifetime. Nader sucks for trying to screw things up, again.
i used to admire nader, but not since he helped put us in this
cesspool. he is as delusional now as bush and mccain.
please crawl back in your hole and you know which one i mean……….
What a narcissistic buffoon!!!
So, what was said about Edwards, considering the fact that Nader said he WOULDN’T RUN if Edwards was nominated?
Nader announces his anti-fascist candidacy on NBC, owned by GE, a defense contractor benefiting from war.
GE, one of the handful of companies that snapped up our once-semi-fair media and turned it into a propaganda machine for the right-wing.
He had any number of avenues to announce his candidacy, and he chose a network that is part of the fascist problem in the United States.
Who and what is Nader? Why does he get a free pass to snake his way into elections every four years, without being called on the carpet for his blatant hypocrisy and lies?
Nader isn’t about building viable third parties. That takes commitment and hard work.
He’s about showing up every 4 years and grabbing some facetime.
Naders’ ego-tripping aside, I’ve never bought into blaming him for 2000. There is well-documented and inarguable evidence of deliberate voter fraud upon the part of Republican operatives, in both 2000 and 2004. The whole “hanging chad” thing was a side show. The real vote fraud occurred in in the use of caging lists and such to strike potential Democratic voters from the rolls before the election even occured.
It was widespread, systematic and deliberate. And it shows the fundamental disrespect for our own democracy that is at the core of conservatism.
I agree with you, Ralph.
DUMBOCRATS are closed-minded media-driven cattle.
Ralph Nader, ‘Unsafe at Any Age’
“Making independents more meaningful isn’t an eleventh hour appearance on a talking head show. It takes years of sustained effort and commitment, something I haven’t seen Nader do.”
That’s such an excellent point, and one that I hadn’t thought of until now. Nicole, you do our bay area proud.
I’d like to throw his head in the ring.
First, I apologize for the cross post. I wonder if Ralph this year will be able to muster the same financial support from previous donors. From the S.F. Chronicle, 7/9/2004: “Among those who have given recently to Nader are Houston businessman Nijad Fares, who donated $200,000 to President Bush’s 2000 inaugural committee; Richard J. Egan, the former ambassador to Ireland, and his wife, Pamela, who have raised more than $300,000 for Bush; Michigan developer Ghassan Saab, who has given $30,000 to the RNC since 2001; and frozen food magnate Jeno Paulucci, and his wife, Lois, who have donated $150,000 to GOP causes since 2000 alone.”
oh, ralph. your time has passed. we believed in you in 2000, especially when it seemed the worst we could realistically get instead would be gore. how wrong we were.
OK, remember 2000? With no Nader we have Gore as President, even with Katherine Harris et al.
Imagine a world without George Bush as President.
Nader could spoil the democratic bid again.
Let’s eliminate Nader before he can do damage.
SAY NO TO NADER
http://www.nader.org/
I used to respect this guy. Now, he brings up the same level of rage as Dick Cheney when I hear the name Ralph Nader. WHAT A DESPICABLE HUMAN BEING.
kitebro @ 5:
once again someone ignores the facts:
1) Nader has every right to run
2) people have a right to vote for whomever they choose
3) Scalia overruled the recount
4) Al Gore could have appealed it but did not under advice of carville and co.
2000 is NOT nader’s fault.
Take it up with:
Scalia, who should have recused himself because his son was a bush operative
Diebold, hackable to this day.
the Fla St. Police,
the Florida Sec of State
the fla Attorney General
the Fla Gov
the people who blocked access to the polls
the fucking hanging chads.
the democratic party, who keep LIEberman, Harold Ford and James Carville in their fold
Note to Time Magazine, for your next Person of the Year issue find the 3 people who voted for Nader in 2008 and let them share the cover. Perhaps a one word caption for each like “Blind”, “Deaf”, and “Dumb”.
Go for it, Ralph! There’s two votes in this household for you.
“If the Democrats can’t landslide the Republicans this year, they ought to just wrap up, close down, emerge in a different form.”
Truer words were never spoken.
NO, not again! He helped hand Bush the “elections” in 2000 and 2004. Now he’s complaining about Bush and the Democrats!?
Jesus! Another loser candidate. And they wonder why I won’t vote for Prez this year. I need a long 10 month nap. Or a long drug induced bender.Please do not put a firearm withen arms reach of Me-I am not responsible for my actions.
Ralph has had his day, god bless him. Now he’s jumped the shark and he’s heading into the Lyndon Larouche wilderness. I’m sure he’ll get plenty of republican money, but I don’t think he’ll move enough votes in any direction to matter.
Most of the people who in the last couple of elections stuck their heads up their asses and shouted “There’s No Difference!” have finally figured out that there is a HELL of a difference and won’t make the same mistake again.
Ralph will get a vanishingly small percentage of the vote and people will probably throw rocks at anyone foolish enough to campaign for him in public.
I’m annoyed by this, but just can’t bring myself to be terribly worried. I just don’t believe it’s going to be close enough for him to make a difference this election.
Ranchero @ 16:
Ditto.
Nader is an ass. What the hell? Why is he doing this? Didn’t he learn anything from 2000? The repugs are trying to chip away at our base. If you vote for Nader this time around you need to be drawn and quartered.
Lollimom @ 12:
Don’t you love this Old Fools pitch of being the alternative to The “System”?
The bad thing about Nader running is that after Clinton or Obama gets BLOWN OUT in November like I have been saying they would for the past 2 years, DUMBOCRATS will blame the loss on Nader, and therefore, still not learn their lesson, that Clinton and Obama were always guaranteed losers, just like Dean and Kerry were in 2004.
Should have gone with Edwards, FOOLS, considering the fact that the GOP strategists didn’t think they could beat Edwards, but were perfectly fine with Dean, Kerry, Clinton, or Obama being nominated.
Keep giving the GOP what they want, and keep getting locked out of the White House, idiots.
Yawn
… so in order to save democracy, we can’t allow any one to run for president unless he or she tickles our fancy.
I don’t agree with the guy, but I believe one of the paramount of a democracy is that anyone should be free to run for any office. But it takes a special set of balls for any Dem to blame this poor old fool for the past 8 years.
As long as Dems continue to use a old jackass as their scape goat, nothing will change. Esp. since it seems that some Dems all they have to offer is insults and bully attitudes to anyone who does not toe in their party line. How progressive.
I had respect for this guy running the first time around and do not put blame on him for Gore loosing in 2000. There were much greater powers at work that made that happen. But now is not the time and never will be for him. He had his chance. The least he could do is endorse a candidate rather than throw his hat in the mix and further make the people who had respect for him before hate him further as a person.
Question…Will he be marginalized just as much or even more than Dennis Kucinich was by the media or will the media run stories on him as if he even has a chance just to ruin Obamas or Hiliary’s chances?
I love Ralph. He best represents what we all want, yet somehow everyone has been convinced they need to vote for the Great Equivocators. Fine. You’ll get a fraction of what is right with things the way they are-if anything at all.
Mark this:
We Won’t get single payer health care (Medicare for all), and what does end up in place will be expensive and bloated, and nearly impossible to fix or replace, once it’s in place.
We won’t leave Iraq-Not quickly, not thoroughly.
We’ll keep sucking off the right wing of the Israeli govt
Education and health care will be thrown over in favour of the military budget
Corrupt arseholes, never-ending hearings into their corruption, with little or no resolution.
Further weakening of the infrastructure
Punitive actions against countries who disagree with the US
And on and on. In other words, after the election, NO MATTER WHO wins it-Business as usual.
What a jackass. Like I said in 2000, if he wants to change the Constitution so that we have proportional representation, so if the Green get 10% of the vote, they also get 10% of the seats in Congress, I’m all for him. It would, of course, require him to get off his ass and do something between elections. But he’s counting on people to dumb to realize that our electoral system makes 3rd parties pointless. He was outraged this morning that we don’t have more parties, like Europe. Ralph understands he’s talking about a different system of gov’t, he’s betting a good chunk of the country slept through grade school civics.
And f**k sake, 2000 wasn’t his fault? Is politics about making voters feel like good people, or is it an attempt to accomplish some particular goals? Someone please ask him what his run in 2000 did to further his goals?
CoIntelPro @ 22:
In response, points 1 and 2 while correct, don’t negate the argument that Nader cost Gore the election. And points 3 and 4 could have been moot, had Gore perhaps picked up some electoral votes in another state that he lost to Bush because of votes to Nader. (Note: I don’t know the numbers on 2000 so that last statement is supposition, not fact.)
Though of course you are correct that the rest of the items listed are also responsible.
Why this egomaniac dares to compare the United States to the parliamentary systems of Europe to argue for his candadicy and the need for ideas and other choice is by its very nature self defeating.
Hey Ralph, we ‘aint Europe. The guy that gets 30-40 % in multi party elections wins! No coalition building to 50% required. Just go away.
That said, he gets .1% of the total vote or less this year.
If Nader had spent any time in the last eight years building a viable third party, instead of throwing Hail-Mary passes and accepting dirty cash and support from Republicans and reichwing orgs, them maybe I’d have more respect for him. As it is, he deserves no respect whatsoever for a number of reasons.
“GOP donors funding Nader Bush supporters give independent’s bid a financial lift”
“Nader defends GOP cash Candidate says he’s keeping money”
“Nader’s Republican pipe dream”
Look at the groups that Nader gets his support from: Citizens for a Sound Economy Foundation, a corporate front funded by Exxon, Hertz Corp., Philip Morris, Amoco, Bell Atlantic, Citibank, General Electric and General Motors and so on.
more: Organized Crime Ring: Killer Koch’s Citizens for a Sound Economy - (Nader’s buddies)
Let’s face it. Nader doesn’t give a rat’s ass about being viable or building a third party. This is just another way he can bleed the corporations and Republicans some more because he knows they will spend millions supporting his candidacy in the hopes he will be a spoiler to the Democrats, and that is all he has ever really cared about.
L.A. Confidential @ 30:
NO, I don’t.
This prick needed NBC like I need a neo-con president. He could have announced it on his website alone, and it would have made headlines instantly.
It made me cringe to hear his anti-corporate RHETORIC on a corporate network owned by GE!
Jeezuz, how stupid does he think we are?
The issue of labor law reform: repealing the notorious Taft-Hartley act, that keeps workers who are now more defenseless than ever against corporate globalization from organizing to defend their interests.
Could someone please explain to me how exactly workers organizing would protect them from outsourcing? I mean I know we all like to think of things in simpler terms than they actually are, but come on. Workers organizing and asking for better pay and benefits is supposed to make corporations less likely to ship their jobs elsewhere? In what fairy tail land does that make any sense at all?
Message to Ralph Nader
Actually…
Nader HAS been working hard for third party candidates and working tirelessly to spur dialogue about the corporate machine.
You can dislike him and choose not to vote for him, but to say he has been doing nothing for 8 years is a joke. Why not do a little research before you sound off?
So everyone who disagrees with Nader is one of the “closed minds”. How fucking condescending.
Nader has become the Harold Stassen of the progressive movement. Pathetic.
Nader has been completely silent for the last 7 years of the Bush regime. His thesis that there is no difference between the Democratic Party which he overgeneralizes as being in the pocket of big business, is overwrought and inaccurate. To make this point he must willfully ignore the Democrats who have stood up to the Bush regime on every issue from trade to taxes to torture, war and peace and the environment. He also willfully avoids talking about how Supreme Court appointments affect the very issues he claims to care about. With a Supreme Court stacked with far right anti-worker, anti-consumer, anti-regulation, anti-civil rights and liberties zealots from the Federalist Society every single topic he proclaims to care about will be null and void for the rest of our lifetimes. Any Nader supporter who doesn’t factor this into their decision to allow McCain to become the next President is tragically and profoundly naive.
Can Nader make the point that Gore would have unsigned Kyoto, appointed right wingers to the Supreme Court, invaded Iraq? The list goes on.
The notion that third parties are a m