He's BACK! Ralph Nader has an exploratoy committee

[johncoby2]

I can remember how well he did in 2000........

F*uckin idiot.

[swag]

1. Tweedle-dee to Mike Bloomberg's Tweedle-dum.

What an asshole.

[TexasObserver]

2. Explore this, Ralph!

Imagine me holding up a single digit, angrily.

[defendandprotect]

11. Maybe it's time you tried to look thru that anger at some reality ---

GORE won in 2000 ---

and KERRY likely won in 2004 ---

and the use of computer voting began in the mid-1960's --

THAT reality isn't what the Democrats want you to understand --
so they gave you Nader as a "scapegoat" --

Anger and hatred do not often lead to truth ---

[defendandprotect]

12. I'm surprised that --- with the way things are going here at DU with so many

wanting censorship vs comments that disagree with what they think --- that we haven't yet had a call to censor ALL third party candidates.

Wouldn't that work really well for you all ---

OR -- is there some chance that you'll begin to question what really has been happening
with our elections ---

GORE won in 2000 --
and likely, Kerry won in 2004 --

Face the fact that the Supreme Court pulled the 2000 election out of the hat for Bush ---
and that it had nothing to do with Nader --- !!!

[blondeatlast]

28. Censorship is institutional. DU is a private entity and therefore

can include or preclude any form of expression it wishes (I'm a librarian, I know the differences very well).

[Leopolds Ghost]

30. So you believe the internet should be private?

There is no public space anymore. Not even the library follows rules of
liberal discourse and tolerance of the sort originally invented by UPPER
CLASS bourgeois enightenment thinkers in the 1600s.

[blondeatlast]

34. No, but the blogs ought to be. There's plenty of leftist blogs out there, they just aren't as big.

DU isn't the government, the church, or the press. They are under no obligation to be "fair."

You don't like it, nor do you have to, but that's how it is.

[Leopolds Ghost]

38. I don't visit "leftist blogs" and see no reason to call blogs private. Theres no real property here

Partisan political bloggers' disdain for liberal standards of discourse
(which is defined precisely by the willingness to engage leftists
and non-leftists on the same forum) is remarkable and matched only
by your willingness to buy into the whole privatization theory of
on-line discussion groups. Not to mention that I'm not a leftist,
far from it. I'm a populist. That's why Nader supported Edwards.

I don't believe in "everyone having their own station omn the dial."

[TexasObserver]

19. Ralph whored himself to Republicans.

He was being paid by them to run ads in 2000. Sorry, but he was one of the perps, not an innocent bystander.

[blondeatlast]

26. Like this?

Great minds think alike, right?

[alittlelark]

3. " I just think I'm gonna...."

:puke:

[DutchLiberal]

21. Yeah, democracy is SICK!

[VenusRising]

4. He's exploring how to fuck up another election.

Yay!!

[DutchLiberal]

22. God forbid people exercise their right to run for president...

[Donk Yore]

5. He's just looking for more money

creepy bastard.

[lvx35]

6. He's been reading DU.

He'd given up, but now he realizes that we might actually fall for the old divide and conquer tricks again! ;)

[FlyingSquirrel]

7. For those wondering what an "exploratoy" is....

http://www.exploratoy.com/

[lligrd]

8. Just Gotta Wonder Sometimes

What Nader has against America that he is so bent on screwing it up?

[DutchLiberal]

23. After 'My Pet Goat' it appears we now also have 'My Pet Scapegoat'...

[arthritisR_US]

9. No doubt it's being spear headed by right wingers and

they'll finance it too, I bet!

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

10. Eeeek! The Ralph Bogeyman is comin'!! Hide your chillrun!

[SmellsLikeDeanSpirit]

13. More Dems voted for Bush than voted for Nader.

Look it up.

[fujiyama]

14. What is that supposed to mean?

that Gore was too liberal?

[SmellsLikeDeanSpirit]

15. It just seems people here are still blaming Nader for 2000.

[Johnny Appleseed]

17. .

Well, duh. But the vast majority of the 95k who voted for Nader would have voted for Gore had it been a two party race. Why? Nader's platform resembled the democrats more so than repub. Nader won't matter this time, though. The democratic candidate will win by a landslide, even taking a few southern states I predict.

[Leopolds Ghost]

33. Obama's platform resembles Edwards more than Clinton, but she is getting lions share of Edwards vote

Because of race and/or voter ignorance about the distinctions between candidates. Similarly 3 out of 4 Nader voters were not going to vote at all otherwise, but of the few who had a second choice, a significant number were Bush.

[JI7]

18. it didn't help that Nader and his supporters kept saying Bush and Gore

were the same. i'm sure some moron Dems fell for it and thought with all else being same it was time for a change in administration.

[western mass]

16. You know right-wing Dems are at it again...

when a new Nader thread pops up on DU.

Reid & his gang of collaborators sell out the party again...

...wait, look over there! Nader! Nader! Nader!

[DutchLiberal]

20. This is a gift from heaven for the DLC!

Because when their corporate candidate loses once again, they have somebody to blame instead of themselves!

[depakid]

24. On the green ballot in 2000, he earned over 5.5% in Oregon -turning a solid blue state

into a battleground.

Seems to me that a smart person might ask themselves: Why was that? What was going on there?

On the other hand, a simplistic person (an idiot?) might just toss around some expletives, while ignoring the dynamics.

(not that Nader, per se is getting votes like that in 2008).

[Scout]

25. Ralph has no credibility...

why hasn't he spent time in non-election years actually building a viable third-party? why does he wait to the last minute?

Ralph needs to explore my foot up his skinny ass... :eyes:

[comtec]

27. this is probably hte most valid point agaisnt Nader

He's had EIGHT YEARS to build up the green, IF HE CARED!
obviously he doesn't give a flying fuck about the US anymore.
It was pretty obvious that he was just whoring himself out in '00 and in '04.
he caused enough confusion that people ignored the real issues caused by the
(less than) supreme court and the voting fraud.

I don tknow any more what nader really stands for, but by observation it's
nothign he SAYS he stands for. words, actions, look it up.

[blondeatlast]

32. It took incredible guts and drive to get safety legislation passed.

So where did that go?

Now all he can do is destroy. Where's the drive to really create a viable alternative? And why, for the love of God, can the true left of this country not find a better spokesperson?

No credibility, no charisma, and none of that ADMIRABLE ambition he once possessed. He needs to get out of the way.

[DutchLiberal]

42. Finally, a VALID point!

That's a very good observation, Scout. Let Ralph set up a viable third party instead of waiting to the last minute to get in.

[Leopolds Ghost]

29. Maybe you should ask yourself why Nader is running. As a member of the MD Populist Party I know

I'm privy to exactly why he is running -- because Edwards is out of the race.

Nader endorsed Edwards and he was the kind of candidate Nader wanted the Democrats to run in 2000. You know, a real democrat.

[NoPasaran]

31. "A real democrat"?

Why is it that populists and greens and independents get to decide who the "real democrats" are? Don't the Democratic primary voters and caucus-goers get to make that decision?

[Leopolds Ghost]

35. If you want to make it a subjective definition, yes.

Objectively, if FDR is a real Democrat then none of the candidates running are anything other than center right from an objective knowledge of history and policy (without which this is all a game):



Overton Window of Political Possibility (named after the Right-wing strategist who invented it, see http://www.swordscrossed.org/node/53 )

[robcon]

39. "Objectively"?????? Are you God, so that you can judge 'objectively'???

Your post would be laughable, Leopold's Ghost, if you didn't seem to be sincere that you thought you could judge something 'objectively.'

[blondeatlast]

36. Lordy, I tend to be more left than most of my leftist friends, but I have to wonder the same thing.

I'm not "left" enough for many on this board and most people I know consider me of the "loony left" variety...

I'm very much a social libertarian is where most of the disconnect is, I suppose.

Go figure. :shrug:

[DutchLiberal]

43. Because if we let you decide, there would be no difference with the GOP anymore.

[robcon]

37. We should all vote our conscience. Vote for Nader if he's your best candidate.

That said, I think he's a plague on this country. His 15 minutes are up. It's not the 1960's and we're not driving Corvairs.

[L. Coyote]

40. Has Erik Prince made a substantial contribution yet? Them Greens and their R $Green$ery !!

[margotb822]

41. I'm pretty sure the Republicans are paying him

How else can you explain it? I mean, Dems have a great chance at winning, but now that JRE left the race, the Republicans are trying to exploit a weakness in their base. It makes no sense for a man who received less than 2% of the vote THREE TIMES to try to run again.