The Nader Effect ...
Below is an editorial piece by Eleanor Randolph running in tomorrow's New York Times. I wonder what effect Ralph Nader might have on the presidential race. Tim Russert chided him on his perceived adverse role for Democrats in the 2000 presidential contest but Nader came back stridently that the outcome would not have been in question if Gore had carried his home state of Tennessee. Any thoughts on '08?
Ralph Nader: Going, Going, Not Gone
The real question about Ralph Nader’s political nadir is this: are we there yet? Once he was the hero of Americans who wanted safer automobiles, drugs, toys and food. Since then, Mr. Nader has been known for running and running and running — and now running again for president.
On NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, when the 73-year-old announced his candidacy for the fourth time, Mr. Nader tossed himself into the historical oddities bin with Harold Stassen (nine tries for the Republican nomination), Eugene Debs (five attempts with the Socialist Party) and Lyndon LaRouche (several tries with several parties).
Also-runners can make noise for a political cause or have a spoiling effect on one of the major party candidates that is greater than their impact on national policy. When Ross Perot ran in 1992, he spent a lot of his own money and ate into the Republican vote, helping President Bill Clinton get elected. His signature issues: curbing the national deficit and stopping jobs from leaving America. Seems almost quaint.
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Ralph Nader: Going, Going, Not Gone
The real question about Ralph Nader’s political nadir is this: are we there yet? Once he was the hero of Americans who wanted safer automobiles, drugs, toys and food. Since then, Mr. Nader has been known for running and running and running — and now running again for president.
On NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, when the 73-year-old announced his candidacy for the fourth time, Mr. Nader tossed himself into the historical oddities bin with Harold Stassen (nine tries for the Republican nomination), Eugene Debs (five attempts with the Socialist Party) and Lyndon LaRouche (several tries with several parties).
Also-runners can make noise for a political cause or have a spoiling effect on one of the major party candidates that is greater than their impact on national policy. When Ross Perot ran in 1992, he spent a lot of his own money and ate into the Republican vote, helping President Bill Clinton get elected. His signature issues: curbing the national deficit and stopping jobs from leaving America. Seems almost quaint.
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Labels: 2oo8 presidential campaign, Ralph Nader
Posted by Edward Headington @ 2/25/2008 10:35:00 PM
5 Comments:
Welcome to the blog Edward. You will have a bigger affect on local discourse compare to Nader.
The great socialist leader Eugene Debs may have never won the presidency but his ideas on social justice, social security, veterans benefits, the freedom to organize and join labor unions, ect, ect, were ahead of his time, but later during the Roosevelt era in the depression were put into effect and helped save our system of democracy when the country was on the verge of a revolution.
Debs was also one of the few Americans ever jailed on sedition charges for speaking out against US entry into World War One, one of the bloodiest and wasteful and ridiculous wars ever fought.
Who will he take from, Obama who's more left and like him, or Hillary?
That Joy-something on the View in the mornings with Whoopi, Hasselhof and the other black woman (call them the dumb thin blonde and dumb fat black evangelical gals) thinks he's SEXY.
Whoopi sensibly thinks Joy is out of her mind. So what d'ya think? like Rod Stewart wants to know.
Thanks Ralph for George II, Darth Cheney, Iraq, national bankruptcy, and all of the other ills visited upon us in the last 7 years.
Drop dead!
OK, George, it is time for Bush, redux.
Bring on th McCain administration...
Way to go George.
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