Ralph Nader announces candidacy for President on Meet the Press. Collective groan heard around the world.
Ralph, really. You’re killing me over here.
The consumer rights activist announced on NBC television’s Meet the Press that he was launching a third-party campaign for the White House because voters were disenchanted with the Democratic and Republican parties.
…In 2000, in the tightest presidential race in American history, Mr Nader ruthlessly targeted the liberal activist wing of the Democratic Party, picking up votes from disillusioned environmentalists, opponents of globalisation and radical feminists.
In all, Mr Nader gained 2.78 million votes in a contest that was eventually won by a margin of 537 votes.
In Florida, where a controversial recount gripped the attention of the world, 97,488 votes were punched in his favour.
The trauma of Mr Gore’s defeat in 2000 led to the creation of a “Repentant Nader voter” website, on which disconsolate Democrats confessed to voting for a candidate who had no chance of winning.
While Democrats have never forgiven him for splitting the liberal vote, Mr Nader refused to accept that his candidacy may have handed the presidency to George W Bush. Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
ASSCLOWN
Ralphie- agent for Bushies …. what a complete fucker …
does anyone know what’s up with this fucker inside his black diseased heart?
Is it narcissism?
Is it taking payments from Rove?
Is it a jealously and hatred for those closest to his status in the pecking order?
The Republican Party resume is such over the last four years that I don’t think the serious leftys will be swayed by Nader this time around. Too much at stake.
Isn’t this the guy that killed the US auto industry first attempt a building a 20mpg+ car.
Great foresite Ralph ;-)
*middle fingers up* Fuck the 2 party system, I’m voting for Nader!
Ralph has done some great things for consumers over many years and I respect him for his work. I supported him last time around for president but ultimately did not vote for him as I did not want the nutjob Bush in office. I hope Ralph does not screw it up again.
Go Nader!
Nader gave us GWB in my view.
Fuck him till he’s dead.
fool me once…uh…shame on me
uh…fool me twice…uhh…
won’t get fooled again!
Wow talk about drenching the loins with a bucket of ice water on a lazy Sunday morning. Here’s a guy who’s been completely out of his depth since ridding the nation’s highways of the Corvair scourge 40-odd years ago. He belongs on the gallows along with Rumsfeld and Rove. I wouldn’t stop to piss in his mouth if his teeth were on fire.
Nader’s greatest achievement.
good.all you know nothing asswipe haters fuck yourselves.
YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GO Nader!!!
I believe it was combination of the media, Nader, and BigAl’s inability to campaign effectively that cursed us with this ridiculous regime. Media starting calling the race as won by Shrub at about 6:00 PM ET as I recall, leading many MT/ PT voters to make a “statement” by voting for Nader (my theory). The trick this time is to remember what happened and not fall for this foolishness again.
Umm, like, lead in toys is my major issue this time around so I’m like really into Ralph for his pro-consumer views.
Screw this guy and his speach impediment. I dislike the 2-party system as much as the next dictator, but if there is to be a third party candidate let’s have one that is not a looney.
I get that he only runs to drive home his consumer activist and environmental issues. If only the media considered him serious and credible…then his voice would maybe get listened to.
“I believe it was combination of the media, Nader, and BigAl’s inability to campaign effectively that cursed us with this ridiculous regime.”
You can thank the supreme court too. There’s more than enough blame to go around, but cheesedick Nader’s insistence on continuing his vanity candidacy when it was clear that it had the potential to alter the result of the election was nothing more than inexcusable egotism.
…i’d say nader’s consumer rights advocacy was pretty much self-canceling up until the last election…
…but now, the fact that he still doesn’t seem to understand the negative influence he wields in regard to his actions, makes me question his sanity…perhaps, as john sez above, it’s simply a case of “inexcusable egotism”…
…but someone needs to sit nader down & explain the real facts of policy change & how it can affect living & dying…
Just send me a sase and your broken bottle is on the way.
Granted, Nader has had his good days. But he knows he’ll never win the presidency. All he is going to do is pull votes that would otherwise go to someone who has a real chance at putting a dent in the current fascist regime.
Step off Nader. Please..
If you believe that Nader simply ruins everything for the Democrats, then you may as well give in to the idea of a two party system run on massive amounts of money where those without tons of it will never get in.
All Obama could come up with for a reaction was “he seems to think pretty high of himself.” No shit. Look at his fucking resume for the last forty years.
GO NADER.
Why now? Why not 6 months ago? I agree on the point that he has been on the leading edge of consumer rights. No argument there, but what really gets me is he decides for a SECOND time to run for the highest office in the land.
Why not start a bit lower like taking that shitbag Pelosi’s job. She’s a bigger disappointment in so many ways.
Why not run to oust Der Governator? Like being the laughing stock from GWB wasn’t bad enough?
Why not work to get a third party started and have roots there, instead of having your candidacy fuck shit up again?
Seriously Ralph, what happened to ‘Think Globally, Act Locally?”
Do what you want and don’t compromise, but fuck, man… You can’t convert all the disillusioned in a day, and you sure as shit are going to make left-leaning people more disenfranchised if the Dem’s lose a pretty-sure thing. (You really believe McCain will win???)
I need some stronger coffee this morning.
this fuckstick has a ego as big as all outdoors. if he winds up puttin mc stain in office, douse him in gasoline, stuff his ass in a corvair & drive ’em into a wall. hilarity ensues.
fsck you to the nader haters.
kucinich is a democrat i could have supported, but i won’t vote for clinton or obama simply because they’re democrats and i tend to lean left. end of story. the democrat’s fake ass candidates are the reason bush won, pure and simple.
this presidential election shit pisses me off and i want to vote for someone different. stop blaming nader for the fact that the democrats are failing, he didn’t make them suck.
ideally a candidate for the people would get elected purely on their credentials and not have to spend a hundreds of millions of freakin’ dollars buying the office.
you hate guys like moore and nader, but don’t do anything about it except complain that they ruined the US. what a crock of shit.
just turned 35. born and bred in the US. maybe it’s time for me to throw my hat in. doesn’t really seem any more crazy, does it…eh?
Viva La Revolution!
Nader doesn’t deserve one fucking vote. Not one fucking vote.
Here is a guy who like him so much he worked for him.
jamesfallows.theatlantic.com/…ralph_nader_tragedy_to_farce.php
The blood of 100,000 Iraqis and a huge amount of damage to the environment are indirectly on Nader’s hands. He’s a Bush enabler of the first order.
Also the Green Party was slowly and progressively building a movement, and Nader has set it back 20 years through his own narcissism.
He’s a fucking douche. Of the worst kind. A demagogue who puts his own needs above the principles he supposedly is fighting for.
I think we all can agree that Nader is an egomaniac.
I think we can all can agree that if he REALLY wanted to advance a viable third party, he would have focused on getting more viable greens elected to positions where they can influence more left-leaning Dem’s to cross over to their side.
I think we might agree that Kucinich was not as viable a candidate as Edwards (my pick over the remaining two, but you go with what you get…) but that doesn’t mean Kucinich would have been a bad President. His wife is pretty fucking hot too.
I think Edwards was/is more left of the two remaining candidates.
Anyhow, the way to a viable and electable third-party candidate is NOT to do like Nader and suck all the air out of a room. The way to do it is to place liberals and green party members in places of influence so they can affect change from the base. When people would see what they are capable of THEN people might think “Hey… this 2 party bullshit STINKS! We should really look at those Green guys. They seem to be doing more things right.”
Sure Nader wants to do good, but he is really going about it the completely wring way. Period.
As for Michael Moore, his schtick is good, and he does bring a lot of important issues to light. The problem with him and Nader both is they are too interested in a massive change RIGHT FUCKING NOW, instead of focusing on building a decent base from which to start. You can’t expect sheeple to all collectively open their eyes and get shit done in one election cycle. america™ is really too fucking big for that to happen. Take gay marriage for example. Take Stem Cell research. Look at any sort of topic that lawmakers wave around in our faces as something to get in an uproar about.
Then look at what REALLY matters.
\rant.
I think it’s funny how alot of these people posting here “hate Bush” so much, but since you can’t get mad at him for running another time, you redirect this anger in the wrong direction, at Nader. Why wish violence upon him? You sound like the asshats on Fox News… very opinionated, have a big mouth and don’t have anything valid to say. I mean c’mon… posting pictures of shit and calling him an egomaniac? Why waste your energy hating someone who cares about our country when the real reason Bush is in office is because of corporate $ and your apathy.
If you read what Nader said on Meet the Press, he as much as endorsed Obama. Called him the first evangelist of the left to come down the pike in a long time. Take that for what you will.
I agree that if he wanted to really promote a third party system he’d try to help get a base hit here or there in state legislatures or even governor’s offices rather than trying to hit it out of the park by getting elected king. Grass roots?
I’ll admit that I only read some of the opinion up in here. So, sorry if mine sounds similar to another.
The problem that Nader may/maynot have caused in 2000 was certainly due to his attracting the left, but it is also due to the lameness of Gore (I voted for him, but you gotta admit that the guy is dry) and the more importantly, the solidarity of the Repub right. If there were a third (or fourth) party candidate that divided the republican vote, well that would be fantastic. And it’s not too improbable. The majority of Repubs seem to be afraid of righties (not as much as they should be, but enough to stay away). However, the righties are getting to the point of wanting to send their own candidate. Wouldn’t that be great?
Finally, I don’t think that we have to worry about Nader causing a problem this time. Both Democrat candidates are going to motivate more voters than ever and I don’t think that any other candidate will even come close. In fact, Clinton and Obama make McCain look like a Kerry. wordup.
the whole world is the bush enabler and there’s fucking blood everywhere. a lot more people may have to die and other countries occupied if fucking idiots can’t stop hosting jihadist types.
ten years ago clinton bombed al-qaeda strongholds in afghanistan, and in hindsight we know that was nowhere near enough. it’s not enough to launch a few missles at these bastards, we have to go in there crush the fuck out of them.
i was sad and mad as hell when the iraqi shit first started, but we know what happens in these muslim countries when the wrong guys are in power. to say the least they make bush look soft.
it sucks to take responsibility, it sucks that our friends and neighbors are dying, along with a mountain of innocent civilians, but nothing is worse than the taliban types. . . now afghanis are protesting our occupation and blowing up our soldiers. FUCK THEM. they don’t deserve to have their country back, not until we’re absolutely certain it’s ok to leave.
taking the issue as a whole, i don’t mind anymore that the weapons of mass destruction weren’t found. clinton should have kept going with the bombs and we know that now.
maybe obama wouldn’t be too bad, he probably really pisses off the jihadist types, i imagine they view him as the ultimate infidel. he may help flush more of them out so we can kill the fuck out of them and their cohorts.
florida has a big problem with science, they say evolution is just another unproven theory. and you want to blame nader?
if you’re so convinced nader is a bad candidate, convince people yours is better. nader needs to run for president and that’s all there is to it.
…”nader needs to run for president & that’s all there is to it”…
…then why the fuck didn’t he start working on a viable third party candidate format immediately after the last election…w/ years to build a platform & proper support, his actions & policies would be considered worth looking into…
…as it stands, as usual, he’ll be nothing but divisive…
…go govern a state, nader, & maybe we’ll get an idea of what ya can really do…the chops yer showing us right now don’t make much fucking sense, except to dreamers…
d00dz-
Ralph Nader, bless ‘im, ain’t the Dempublican’s problem. The votes were theirs to lose, and face, they lost ’em all on their own.
Obama won’t let those votes get away in 2008… will he?
Mikey
why don’t you build a viable third party? wtf does that even mean? he’s just making a statement and if it costs some votes to democrats that’s their problem, not ralph’s.
the democrats don’t deserve the presidency, they need to earn it. drop the sense of entitlement and get to work yourself, prove your candidate is better or shut the fuck up.
Yes nader is a spoiler and voting for him is a waste. But y’all with your hate filled statements aren’t adding anything to reasonable discourse. It is OK to be mad at the guy he did give us Bush but who really saw that coming? It was Gore and Kerry races to lose against Bush.
Bush, Rove and their ilk, McCain now, are counting on your spastic knee jerk reactions rather than you using the brain the Jeebus gave you.
The fact is that Nader brings some important issues to light just like Kucinich and Edwards did before him. Many of you all are too busy calling names and getting filled with righteous indignation to pay attention to some of the issues and positions that Nader brings to light.
Dont get me wrong! I dont advocate voting for him! But listen to what he has to say! He is not backed by corporate power and does not have to temper his populist message. He is a smart guy and has some valid points that the other candidates should have to answer to. If they do we will be better for it. Listening, learning and discussing rather than watching TV getting angry and screaming will serve all of us better.
a vote for a democrat in ND is not much above a third party candidate, waps are way out front. i suppose this year could be an exception, but i doubt it. even counting the splints you can’t beat ’em. who’d think it given our long stretch of dems in dc. i wonder if garrison diversion will ever be anything other than a big fancy ditch.
…sorelegs, good to see ya posting again…
…i think whats happening here is really just a lot of untempered passion simply because no matter which way you lean, it’s obvious we can’t go on in the direction that’s been foisted upon us…
…i’d venture to say that it’s almost unanimous, a change is needed & we’re all looking for what we feel is the right direction, even if we express ourselves like kids, at times…& ya, guilty as charged right here…
…as far as ralph nader is concerned, although i have some serious issues w/ how he approaches presidential elections, i would honestly say the man not only espouses intelligent ideas on any number of our concerns, he shows an uncommon integrity in his day to day lifestyle, especially in comparison to his peers…
…i just feel that he cancels out his worthwhile contributions by not formatting a truly useful agenda on the national stage he is once again addressing…
..i’d even venture to say that if you took all the single issue concerns nader has addressed over the years (political, environmental, humanitarian, etc.) he almost appears genius, but he’s never put it all together in a format that comes close to appealing to the american public as a whole…
…so whether he would be more valuable as a third party candidate or some kind of political ombudsman holding sway over party leaders & offering intelligent answers, i don’t claim to know, but this last minute “i’m gonna run for the presidency” business is impractical, divisive & distracting…
Nader can stick it…I understand he knows people are upset with a two party system, but don’t mess it up for EVERYONE…
He is part of the reason Bush one. Rove is on his knees convincing him to run…
o”…so whether he would be more valuable as a third party candidate or some kind of political ombudsman holding sway over party leaders & offering intelligent answers, i don’t claim to know, but this last minute “i’m gonna run for the presidency” business is impractical, divisive & distracting…”
BGW I am all with you on that. The problem that I see is that there is not a reasonable way to get across the kind of points that he is trying to make: Keeping American Jobs in America, pursuing international policy that promotes peace over imperialism and truly reflects the best of american values, repairing campaing finance so that yours and my vote counts as much as the guys and corporations that can donate in the 6 and 7 figures realm, fixing the broken voting system, facing global warming with the urgency due it, fixing health care so that when someone gets cancer they dont kiss their wealth goodbye…
These issues are getting blown off by the mainstream candidates becasue they have to. If they don’t they get treated the way that Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich did by the press. I see Nader waging a guerilla war against the main stream. I see him getting more attention by running for President. He will get on programs like Talk of the Nation, Daily Show with john Stewart, colbert report etc and that will give him a platform to bring up his valid points.
If he just stays at home and does his normal thing, the only press that he is going to get is with Democracy Now! (which is a great show). This just speaks to how media ownership consolidation has been a diservice to all of us.
I think it is high time we all KILL OUR TELEVSIONS and start learning and reading with open eyes. Distrust money and power and when money and power are both entertwined, RUN AWAY.
rant done
…that ain’t a rant…just sounds like simple concern by a man who appreciates what he’s got & doesn’t want it taken away by a government conglomerate more interested in achieving ‘agendas’…
…as you say, distrust (big) money & power…those that suggest that’s what pays for our freedom, haven’t taken a look at just how much freedom we’re missing these days…or what the future may bring…
…anyway, it is all such a great bloody dichotomy, that on top of the major head-cold i picked up, i can’t even see straight never mind think straight…i’m out…
To all the Nader detractors.
1. If you believe Nader upset the election, you don’t know the numbers.
If some six million registered Democrats hadn’t voted for Bush, Gore would have won
If Gore had inspired a few of the 50 million eligible voters who did not vote, Gore would have won
2. You can never argue that Bush & Co. stole the election. If you believe this to be true, Nader would have had no effect AT ALL.
3. Nader has done more for this country then all the posters here combined. You can thank him for speed limits, seat belts, Freedom of Information Act, EPA, FDA, etc.
Complain all you want. We will make less difference than Ralph has made or makes, all on his own. And I hate say it, that isn’t much of a legacy for us, is it?