Nader to run for President

TMP Sun Feb 24, 2008 at 02:45:16 PM GMT Print-friendly version Facebook

Environmental and consumer activist Ralph Nader has just announced he is running again for the U.S Presidency.  He is widely credited with giving the 2000 election away to Bush by drawing support from the then Vice President Al Gore.  What impact do we think his candidacy will have this time?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7261670.stm





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Nader to run for President | 9 comments (9 topical)

oh dear... (#1)

by jljb2 on Sun Feb 24, 2008 at 03:44:39 PM GMT

What a self-indulgent fool....Do these people actually care about improving people's welfare at all? Clearly not. It's like all those hand-wringing, Guardian-reading LibDems who wouldn't vote Labour in 2005 cos of Iraq. Nothing but selfishness and self-indulgence - for shame!


Re: oh dear... (#2)

by Free Socialist on Sun Feb 24, 2008 at 04:01:56 PM GMT

Naider didn't get much share of the vote in 2004, and if the Democrat candidate plays the "progressive" card effectively, I can't imagine Naider doing much better this time either.


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Re: oh dear... (#3)

by Wilberforce on Sun Feb 24, 2008 at 04:28:50 PM GMT

Let's just hope that Bloomberg does not jump in too!
Any other candidacy, including Nader's, that keeps the White House keys in Republican hands is a bad move.


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Re: oh dear... (#4)

by swatantra on Sun Feb 24, 2008 at 04:45:00 PM GMT

What an absolute plonker! He let Bush in last time; now he's going to deny the first black/woman the Presidency. What's his game? He could steal away at least 2 million votes from the serious disaffected sandal-wearing, veggie, ecowarrior brigade.


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Re: oh dear... (#5)

by RedRooster on Sun Feb 24, 2008 at 07:03:01 PM GMT

It is very unlikely that those eco-warriors would have voted for anyone else anyway.  We're viewing this through the British spectrum of relatively high-turnout.  In the US, turnout is so low 3rd party candidates can quite legitimately claim to be animating people who would otherwise non-voters.

I'd have prefer Nader endorse Obama and tell all those dissaffected sandal wearers to get involved in the mainstream, but hey. 


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Re: oh dear... (#7)

by redandready on Wed Feb 27, 2008 at 11:35:26 AM GMT

Actually, I think turnout in the 2004 Presidential election was higher than the 61% achieved in 2005 in the United Kingdom!


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Ralph Nader to run for President (#6)

by bigpapi on Mon Feb 25, 2008 at 03:34:11 PM GMT

It's worth remembering that unlike 2000, Nader is not running as the Green Party candidate (at the moment that looks like former Georgia Democratic Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney - who has an interesting view that Israel has no right to exist!).

In 2004 Nader took less than 1% of the vote, and this time around will be no different.  As a poorly-funded Independent he will also find it near-impossible to get on the ballot in many States.

A Bloomberg candidacy would scare both Democrats and Republicans equally, but I suspect he will not get into the race if Obama is the Democratic nominee; his main interest in the race was to stop both Clinton and Giuliani, both of whom he loathes.


Re: Ralph Nader to run for President (#8)

by Curlew on Wed Feb 27, 2008 at 07:22:28 PM GMT

I thought Guiliani had pulled out?  Nader is there to split the vote - he must be a republican at heart.


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Re: Ralph Nader to run for President (#9)

by bigpapi on Wed Feb 27, 2008 at 08:48:34 PM GMT

Yes, Giuliani has withdrawn - that's what I meant when I said that it made it less likely that Bloomberg would run as an Independent.

Don't get fixated on Nader; in 2004 he took 0.3% of the vote - he will be lucky to repeat that figure this November, and will not influence any State's election as he did in 2000.

He is an irrelevant egotistical self-publicist.


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Nader to run for President | 9 comments (9 topical)