Ralph Nader, you are irrelevant!

[Cascadian]

Alternative subject name Cascadian is BAAAAACK!

I admit that in 1996 I voted for Ralph Nader. I did this in protest of Bill Clinton's Republican Lite actions in regards to free trade and the "don't ask, don't tell" policy which both have failed miserably and hurt many Americans. I was close to voting for Nader in 2000 but switched to Gore in the 11th hour since the Chimp was running neck and neck with Gore. I voted for Kerry in 2004 which I regard as regrettable since Kerry's campaign was weak. He wasn't even my first or second choice (It was Dean and Kucinich respectfully.). I didn't even consider Nader that year. But now I see that Nader, the Harold Stassen of the 21st Century, is at it again. Now he is playing the race card by regarding Obama as catering to whites by playing "white". WHAT??? How is that Ralph? Obama is part white and why the hell is it even an issue? It's my belief that Nader is grasping straws and is just trying to get attention. He'll be lucky to get 20 votes in this years election. My attitude is "Nothing to see here. Just move along!" Nader is irrelevant.

Mr. Nader, I did have respect for you in the past and I will still say that you were not solely responsible for the troubles of the 2000 election. Any of you reading this who doubt me ask yourself why aren't you blaming Katheryn Harris and the Supreme Court. They played a bigger role in handing the Chimp the keys to the White House than Nader. That being said, Mr. Nader, please just sit down and be quiet. You are not going to win the presidency ever so just go back to being a consumer advocate and regain the respect of those who looked to you in the past.

And yes. I, Cascadian have come back to DU now that the whole Hillary vs. Obama thing is done. I am glad Obama won the nomination BTW! DUers You may have lost that drunk Hillary backer Harriet Christian, but you gained me back! And yes. I am backing Obama!




John

[sellitman]

1. Welcome back and BTW....

Fuck Ralph Nader and the horse he rode in on.

He did effect the election no matter how you count the votes.

[Cascadian]

3. Well but don't forget the other factors involved.

That Stepford woman in Flordia Katheryn Harris, the voting system in Florida (Chads), the Supreme Court, Karl Rove, and I think to some degree the mainstream media had their part in the debacle. I will also even go as far as blaming Gore a bit for not being forceful enough and perhaps listening too much to the DLC operatives. There is plenty of blame to go around. It is always not black and white but plenty of gray areas involved.





John

[goldcanyonaz]

2. He has always been irrelevant

[scheming daemons]

4. He's relevant in that he's responsible for the past 8 years as much as anyone...

....

The blood of 4000 dead soldiers is on Ralph Nader as much as anyone not in the administration.

[Sparkly]

6. I agree.

Hasn't been a particularly popular opinion around here, but I totally agree.

He's shown that he's not about "his issues" at all. His "issue" is that he has a major EGO problem, imho.

[BzaDem]

5. If it weren't for Nader, Gore would have won. It IS that simple.

I don't care that there were other reasons why Bush won. If 5 people commit a crime, saying "but there were 4 others!!" isn't a defense. It might very well be the case that if Katherine Harris acted differently, Gore would have won, or if the Supreme Court acted differently, Gore would have won. But it is absolutely true that if Ralph Nader dropped out and endorsed Gore, Gore would have won. It doesn't get more factual than that. If Ralph Nader dropped out and endorsed Gore (or didn't run), we would not be in Iraq, and 4000 soldiers would not have died.

[Cascadian]

7. It's not as black and white as you think!

I don't understand this one-track mindset some people have. You cannot peg the blame on one man. Nader's impact wasn't as huge as some people want to believe. So we won't blame the other people involved even though they were responsible in engineering the mess. I believe that is called "scapegoating". If Gore had been more assertive towards Bush and told the DLC to stick it, he probably would have had a better chance. It's as simple as that.






John

[LBJDemocrat]

8. I think you should actually watch the entire clip

What he said was not that offensive.