Nader is totally a stooge of the Republican party

[dmkinsey]

Here in Michigan, Ralph Nader has submitted app. 50,000 signatures to gain a spot on the ballot.(His Reform Party spot is still in dispute due to uncertainty over the leadership of the Reform party in Mich.)
The overwhelming majority of these signatures were collected by Republicans. They even used their web site to give instructions to their volunteers about Nader petitions.
Nader and his Mich campaign manager have refused to disavow these petitions and insist that the Nader campaign is only interested in providing "more voices" in the race.
What a crock of crap.
http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wmuk/news.newsmain?action=article&ARTICLE_ID=662905

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2004/07/08/politics1855EDT1146.DTL

[mstrsplinter326]

1. FLAME bait. n/t

[ugarte]

2. That's okay. Republicans will be the only ones voting for him in Nov.

I really don't think he'll be taking votes from Democrats this year.

[calico1]

4. That's what Nader wants people to believe

Yet the polls show he pulls votes from Kerry, not Bush. Why on Earth would Republicans vote for Nader when he is much more Liberal than Kerry is? He is openly courting Republicans for money and signatures to get on ballots, and they in turn are more than happy to help him so that he can pull enough votes from Kerry to put Bush in the WH again. How any of his supporters can still say he is honorable is beyond me.

[ugarte]

5. I was being facetious about Republicans voting for him

My point is that Democrats will not be voting for him this year. I don't care what the polls say. No way will he come close to what he got in 2000.

[calico1]

8. Oh, ok. LOL.

[AP]

7. People who vote for him probably wouldn't have voted for Kerry anyway...

...and at the very least some people might stay interested in the race and then switch from Nader to Kerry at the last minute.

In 2000, 90% of Nader preferers ended up voting for someone else (95% for Gore).

If Nader hadn't run at all, many of them might never have even followed the race.

Having said that, I'll be very surprised if Nader is on the ballot in any state that is close enough for Kerry to win in November.

[Kevin Spidel]

3. Progressives Lambaste Dems in AZ for Nader Boot

On Nader in Arizona - What REALLY happened!

The Arizona Democratic Party hired no “corporate” law firms, they used 5 lawyers from 3 different law firms...all pro-bono all are past pro bono lawyers for any progressive democrat like Marty Harper who has helped defend such things like Clean Elections , worked on Arizona FIRST, is working with the Statue of Liberty Coalition pro bono, helped put in place term limits, and many OTHER progressive causes. It’s quite hypocritical for the “social justice” crusader to be criticizing Marty Harper, who has been and will continue to be a champion for social justice and progressive causes.. who is at the end an ally to Nader’s causes.

On the issue of a “poor bereft” circulator who could not pay the $400 to get his rights restored: There is a specific reason- 90% of most felons are allowed to get their rights restored for free, most do through their parole officer. It’s when they commit a class II felony or higher. So Murderers, rapists, child molesters or really egregious offenders IE: Those convicted of passing tens of thousands of dollars of bad checks which is a class II felony- Forgery which is what that circulator was convicted of. He was also being paid, not a volunteer. DO YOU SEE THE CONFLICT?

Unfortunalty Nader is not addressing the real issues and dancing around the REALITY of why he was thrown off because he put his trust in a paid circulator Nathan Sproul and it back fired on him. If he had real support in Arizona he would have built a volunteer network, but the plain fact is he had none because the Arizona Greens have their own candidate now and reject his bid for the Presidency. It is time for the Progressive Left to UNIFY.

The PROGRESSIVE VISION is one I believe in, but why do we have to work in separate camps? What benefit does a Cobb, Nader split have for the progressive message? How does these candidates advance any kind of agenda, except keep all our votes at home in small camps. We are basically saying what “You don’t get our votes because you don’t listen?” So what we are going to do is work as a fractured left voting block who can’t get our candidates on the ballot legally. In order to advance these issues WE MUST UNIFY. Get past the few small issues we disagree on and FOCUS on the MAJORITY of issues we AGREE on! We need to unify as a voting block, hence the need for a Progressive Voting Block… when are we going to demonstrate we can unify and form a unified voting bloc?

[JohnKleeb]

6. He's funded by them

Been reading about how Dick Egan has funded him somewhat. I have no problem with third parties but its obvious, hes republican funded. I dont know much about the Cobb campaign but I give them this, they arent being funded by the republicans and conservative groups. So if Cobb is just using funds from true devouted supporters, he'll have my respect. I respect what Nader has done as a consumer activist but I dont respect his run for pres at all.