“Run, Ralph, Run:” Crashing the party again
The rumors have been swirling for a few weeks. He’s getting closer to making it official. Green on Blue:
Consumer advocate Ralph Nader told the Green Party’s national convention that he is considering a 2008 presidential run and accused Democrats of trying to shut smaller parties out of the political process.
“No other country comes close to providing voters with such a small number of choices and making third party candidates hurdle an almost insuperable number of obstacles just to get on the ballot,” Nader, the Green Party’s 2000 presidential nominee, said Saturday.
Later, addressing a few hundred conventioneers who chanted “Run Ralph Run,” Nader exhorted Greens to focus on raising money to boost their competitiveness.
In 2000, Nader got 2.7% of the votes in the general election. Democrats say he siphoned votes from the party’s nominee, Al Gore, in Florida, New Hampshire and elsewhere, giving the election to Republican George W. Bush. In 2004, Nader was much less of a factor.
He ran as an independent in 2004 but was removed from the ballot in Pennsylvania and other large states after Democrats challenged his nominating petitions.
Nader said before jumping into the 2008 presidential race he would have to put together an organization of thousands of volunteers and pro bono lawyers to defend him against the “Democratic quadrennial assault.”
“We’re going to be ready for them. We will confront them on every level,” Nader told a news conference. “They better have clean hands.”
Pennsylvania Democrats are still furious and waiting for him to pay for Bush’s election in 2000:
Ralph Nader, the independent presidential candidate Democrats love to hate, is afraid that Pennsylvania authorities trying to dun him for $61,000 are about to freeze his personal bank account.
Nader ran into a buzz saw when he tried to get on the Pennsylvania ballot in 2004 as an independent presidential candidate.
Democratic activists kept him off the ballot, beat him in court for turning in fraudulent signatures his campaign had collected and are on the verge of getting officials in his home city of Washington to attach his assets.
Nader, who’s contemplating a 2008 run, claims that the smell of politics permeates the conflict. Democrats in the Keystone State blame him for tilting the 2000 election to George W. Bush.
T.J. Rooney, chairman of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party, said that the mention of Nader’s name sent his blood pressure up 50 points. Told of the judgment against Nader, Rooney laughed.
“I think that’s great,” he said. “You’re goddamned right he should pay, and he should go away, because he didn’t learn his lesson in 2000.”
There was an amusing poll at dKos recently. Check it out:
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Democrats aren’t only trying to keep Independents from running, but are now trying to shut off the lesser known democrats from the debates. I guess they figure the best way to get the American people to agree with them is by silencing anyone else who doens’t. Truely the party of the power elite.
I agree with the “…world’s biggest ego” choice. You have to have that in order to continue running for president when there’s a better chance that Elie Wiesel will be elected president of Iran.
He should be running for World’s Biggest Dork.
I would never vote for Nader as I do not agree with any of his politics, however I do agree strongly with his views on the electoral process for minority parties. The time is ripe for a serious discussion about this problem, because I think that minority parties will play a very significant role in the 2008 elections. Both the Republican and the Democratic parties are now fully exposed as being opposite ends of the same turd, and neither party is fielding any candidate that has any real vision of the problems that we face as a nation and what to do about them. As a conservative Independent, I can honestly say I will not support either party solely on principle. That leaves the options of 1: not voting, or 2: finding another candidate from a minority party.
The Dem party has created this cook fringe left. I’m for Nader running because he will get a larger percent of the dem vote. Hey, Ralph, seen any aliens from outerspace lately?
I’d vote for Nader in the primaries. Anything to dilute the deluded..,
I’m all for the King of the Nutjobs running. He might siphon off enough votes to make the 2008 election easier to win.
I blame him for the increase in the amount of nutjobs today. If it wasn’t for many the ridiculous safety regulations in place today that began with his original crusade, natural selection would have weeded many of them out long before now.
I was wondering when we would hear from him…..yawn……
If there were more parties to choose from, it would change the political dynamics; and right now that is very appealing. It is sad, however, that most of those running against are nutjobs. But, alas, Ralph has every right to run. And, that means the nutjobs like CodePink will be thinking ‘Ralph’ instead of Hillary. It will be interesting. And, of course the Dems don’t want candidates to be heard, if they could they would not allow Republicans to be heard. They are striving for a one party system (dictatorship).
Wow, how does one decide WHO has the biggest ego among Nader and the Dem presidential candidates?
All of them have fallen off their egos and landed on their IQs.
I fail to understand the core values of the Dem party. They have lost the ability to debate. They fear the truth.
They have become the party of ‘Freedom of Speech, so long as you agree with us’. If you choose to disagree, you will be silenced, ignored and ridiculed. Oh, and we will send our lawyers out to make your life a living hell.
What happened to Justice, Fair Play and the American Way?
How can anyone support that?
Run Ralph Run and more power to you
These are the kinds of things that, more than anything else, will turn the American people against the Dems. The simple fact that the Dems will not even attempt to apologize for their behavior shows their contempt for the first amendment and the American people.
On a related note I hope the Cindy S. will run against Nacy P. as a member of the Green party if she loses in the primaries.
How do I donate to Ralph? Let’s split their party like Perot did us. ‘All’s fair in love and war’ and this ain’t love.
If Nader’s run as an independent helps cement the permanent demise of the Democratic Party, I’m all for it.
My dream is to see the Party go out of business with the party leadership in prison for corruption and lying, the assets liquidated and given to charity, and the new Headquarters building demolished to make way for a trendy hot-dog stand.
How do I donate to Ralph? Let’s split their party like Perot did us. ‘All’s fair in love and war’, and this ain’t love.
All I can say is, “Yee-friggin-ya” and “Yippee”!
First Sheehan volunteers to agressively split the liberal vote with Pelosi and now Nader wants to split the liberal vote with Hillary! As God sends lemmings running to the water to cut down their numbers, so also has He seen fit to correct this imbalance as well.
It was raining before. Now the sun has come out.
Run, Ralph, run! Hell, I’ll even campain for ya! Yes yes! Please do!
You have to love this. What better way to split the ‘elites’. Go Ralph. Pull another 2000. Watch the ‘Clinton’ machine jump into high gear and smear this man all over the place. I hope America is paying attention to the childesh behavior of these people. We want ‘adults’ running our government. We want people with ‘morals, ethics, love for life’. Not a bunch of pandering infants who cry at every turn.
Funny that the token Libs on this site never chime in on these kinds of threads with good explanations for this type of familiar Lib behavior.
I hope Nader gets what he wants. With Hillary, Silky Pony and Obama trying to stifle debate, this will keep the focus on their shady tactics.
Then again, maybe we could run Pat Paulsen again. Even posthumously he is more real than some of the slury filled suits around now.
As much as it pains me to admit it, Hillary Clinton was right in her comments. It might be one of the only times I have ever agreed with her on anything, and my head nearly exploded admitting it.
4th tier candidates complain that if they had more air time and money they would have more popular support. This is nonsense. One must demonstrate viability on their own, and then be given the accolades that come along with this.
The nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates mandates 15% support to participate. The primaries should work the same way.
How can one have a serious discussion on issues when Mike Gravel, Dennis Kucinich, Ron Paul, and other fringe candidates waste air time?
eric
http://blacktygrrrr.wordpress.com/2007/07/13/hillary-clinton-was-right-about-somethingmy-head-may-explode/
Just heard Pat Buchanan is thinking of running as well!
blacktygrrr the thing is that the Dems pride themselves on this big tent thing. It is one of the things that they say sets them apart from the Republicans. What Hillary and Edwards were caught doing or attempting to do shows that the Dem leadership really doesn’t believe in diversity of opinion.
It shows a frightening insight into their thinking.
Be careful of what you wish for. In 1948, Truman overcame both Henry Wallace and Strom Thurmond to win the election. Of course, Hillary is no Truman, is she?
What we need in all elections is the option “None of the Above”.
That way if the RNC ran just RHINOS, for example, we could all vote for “None of the Above” and get a new line up from the party.
I think it is a partial solution to the two party monopoly. Like someone else said, the same turd.
blacktygrrrr: “How can one have a serious discussion on issues when Mike Gravel, Dennis Kucinich, Ron Paul, and other fringe candidates waste air time?”
With all due respect to another taking a name analogous to the cat family, I could not disagree more.
Our founding fathers set up the electoral college to see to it that people from areas where the population was not only thinner but had a differnt cultural take on things had an equal voice. It was brilliant and has kept this representative republic more sound and successful than anyhwre else on earth.
So, too, did they deem that the smallest of the small could likewise run for President. Lincoln could barely have come from more humble beginnings. The problem isn’t little guys eating up air time, it’s big fat money people hogging the stage. The more voices the better, because they will hit harder at the opposition in order to be heard, and if the big money opposition can’t stand up to strikes and diminshed air time from smaller candidates, then those fat money people are entirely unfit to be a leader – the leader – of the free world.
Bring on the little guys! Let them talk themselves silly into the collective ear of the public about destroyed billing records, the china connection and yes, let them hold Rudy’s feet to the fire on abortion (and right now I’m in Rudy’s camp for practical considerations)
The problem of course is that we – conservatives – have 90% of the media stacked against us and the Dems refuse to debate on Fox where the only hardball questions will be thrown, the insipd, spoiled cowards. That is the biggest problem for 08, and if we don’t devote more time to that and shaming the dems into debating on Fox, them all the rest of this talk on this board might as well be shouting into a vaccuum.
So start making some NOISE about it!!!
I’ll bet Nader’s website never shows steaks cooking on the grill.
blacktygrrrr,
I cant disagree more. The reason Barack, Hil and Edwards are the frontrunners is bc MSM has anointed them. They are the sexy ones. Do you recall the pics of Obama at the beach? Hil is the wife of the ever charming ex-Adulterer in Chief. Edwards is the handsome, well coiffed, boyish poverty fighter with the southern charm. There is NOTHING they have accomplished which merits them being the front runner for their party’s nomination.
I disagree with most all of them but cant ignore the fact that, amongst them, Kucinich is more principled, Dodd is a more accomplished legislator, Biden is tougher, Richardson is more charming.
Dont let the MSM dictate our candidates.
Myra,
That’s the spirit and well-said!
Yes, the Dems are our opponents, but the MSM is our enemy. Defeat that, and in the cold, reasoned light of day, these phoney socialist Presidential wannabes will vaporize into the irrelevent never-dids they really are.
I like Nader more than the other libs only because he obviously doesn’t care about his personal appearance *cough* silk-pony *cough*.
I’d rather be pilloried
Than hillaried
This is going to be a fun, fun, election cycle. What will have to occur for there to be an Independent primary? Let’s see…..Nader, Boomberg, siphoning votes from which party? Hmmm. This year and next will be the years that pollsters and political pundits will be recalibrating their statistical models, in an effort to make sense of all the dynamics we will observe with glee. Percieved lost Hispanic votes versus a new wave of never before registered voters waiting in the wings to vote in the primaries. Incumbents in the congressional races actually being challenged or replaced. Never been more excited about politics. This is going to be great to watch. IMO.
I’d actually contribute to his campaign if he’d show up to his campaign stops in a Corvair.
Gotta love him…Nadar always takes the looney vote away from the Dems…I say, send him a donation….
(Nader arrives in Corvair, gets out, walks over to Ted Kennedy…)
Ted: “Is that car safe?”
Yes, Ted, as long as you’re not driving.
I flag a metaphorical freeway sign in Nader’s general direction every time I climb into either one of my gorgeous GM products may he rot in the everlasting stench of Karmann Ghia exhaust.
In the meantime small players still deserve some air time. While generally embarrassing to witness, the moonbeam twins Nader and Brown for example, there occasionally are individuals with ideas and vision that raise the bar for everyone else, if only for a brief period.