Nader's flip-flop: "Mr. Kerry would not make a good president anyway"

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/15/politics/campaign/15nader.html?ex=1255579200&en=1ef45de8f64f99f4&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt

Mr. Nader repeated this week that he had no intention of leaving the race. He said no one from the Kerry campaign or Democratic National Committee was pressing him behind the scenes to quit, and he said he thought that Mr. Kerry would not make a good president anyway.

"He's not his own man," Mr. Nader said on Tuesday in a telephone interview from California. "Because he takes the liberals for granted, he's allowing Bush to pull him in his direction. It doesn't show much for his character."

That is a change from May, when Mr. Nader met Mr. Kerry at his campaign headquarters and afterward praised him as "very presidential." Mr. Kerry did not ask him to withdraw then, but now the party is in a full-throated plea, with its chairman, Terry McAuliffe, saying on Thursday that Mr. Nader should "end the charade" of a campaign being kept afloat by "corporate backers."

Although Mr. Nader's support is negligible in much of the country, and scant in some of the nine states, even a tiny Nader vote could make a difference, as it did in 2000 in Florida and New Hampshire.



"Ralph Nader in an appearance Thursday in Albuquerque to respond to the Bush-Kerry debates."

[BootinUp]

1. Its been a while since I said it: FUCK YOU NADER!

better. :)

[saracat]

2. God, I hate this man. I hope he rots!

[DefenseLawyer]

3. He concluded the interview by shouting

SHOW ME THE MONEY!

[goodboy]

4. Isn't it a little weird to have Nader telling Kerry how a winning

presidential campaign looks?

[NNadir]

10. Um, he won the last election with 2%. As you know from Naderists

2% is bigger than 49% and it wins.

Also chalk is the same as cheese.

Being a Republican is anti-corporate.

Taking Republican money is anti-corporate

Bush is the same as Gore and Gore is the same as Kerry and Nader is the same as God.

Senility qualifies one for being President better than being a failure does.


Obviously you just don't get it you, you, you DEMOCRAT!

[goodboy]

12. oh please, stop, my ego can't take it....oh wait, yes it can..FU! JK NT

[w13rd0]

5. It must be hard...

...for Mr. Nader to make it through doorways with such a massive case of self-importance and sanctimonious self-righteousness. And this clod with NO record in elected office, NO chance (and thus a vote for him will NOT end the Iraq war) and NO integrity would somehow be the best choice?

Mr. Nader speaks as if someone who wasn't going to throw their vote in the shitter to satisfy his ego were not qualified to be a "liberal". As if by not voting for him, I'm somehow 'betraying my principles'. That's the same kind of ideaological nonsense that the religious RW tries pulling, and it's shameful.

[Mr_Spock]

6. NADER is the kind of fool who could destroy this nation.

I am so angry at this fool - if Kerry loses he mine as well move to Canada, because I just don't see where he'll be able to go in this country without being literally chased away.

[blm]

7. What are Nader's crowd numbers? Is he REALLY getting 2- 5% of the vote

the media is trying to CONVINCE THE PUBLIC he gets?

Then WHERE are the crowds he was getting in 2000?

[cheezus]

8. shit, that means nader HAS to win

if NEITHER of the other guys is suitable

I just hope his plan to come back 45 points works!

[blondeatlast]

9. A man who doesn't care that the election of Bunnypants will destroy

everything he has worked his entire life for DOES NOT deserve my respect or my vote.

CHENEY YOU, NADIR!

[Harlan James]

11. Sure, Ralph. And Bush has worked out OK for you?

Nader is one son of a bitch asshole.

[terrya]

13. Has ANYONE grilled Nader about the money he's received from the GOP?

I used to have an enormous amount of respect for Nader. But since I've read about his receiving money from the Repubicans in order to put his name on the ballot (Michigan, for instance)...that respect has evaporated. He's a two faced hypocritical bastard. His reputation...as a consumer advocte for decades...is in very serious danger of being destroyed, if it hasn't already. He will be forever remembered for helping to put Bush in the White House in 2000...and very possibly helping to keep Bush in power for another 4 years.

[iamjoy]

14. How Has Kerry Betrayed Liberals?

Kerry is what he has always been. Complicated.

Is he betraying Liberals by advocating a $7/hr minimum wage rather than a $10? Does Nader not realize that 7 comes before 10 and that gradual change is better than none?

A friend of mine characterized Nader as a zealot. Nader is unrealistic if he thinks we will ever really get rid of corporate money and influence. Nader does not realize that much of politics is about compromise and is he were to by some miracle be elected he would be the worst president ever because he would not know how to work with Congress. Kerry would, even the Republicans.

I also get so tired of people criticizing the "special interests." Hey, NARAL is a special interest. So is League of Conservation Voters. I sure hope these special interests continue to look after me, espcecially if Republicans continue to rule.

[DinahMoeHum]

15. Bob Weir (Grateful Dead/Ratdog) thinks Nader is an asshole. . .

from the October 14 (#959) issue of Rolling Stone (sorry, cannot get a viable link here)

"...Ralph Nader is the most arrogant and narcissistic guy I've ever met. I had a meeting with him in the early Nineties. I was jazzed going into the meeting, and I was disgusted leaving. I don't think I've ever met a bigger asshole. If he hadn't run in the last election, we wouldn't be in Iraq and thousands of people wouldn't have died needlessly. And still he's well pleased to go in and be the spoiler again..."
(snip)
"...Though I've never really endorsed a political candidate before, I'm going to have to this time. I liked the look in Kerry's eye when I met him. He looks like an aware human being..."
(snip)

:kick:

[budkin]

16. I can't believe I voted for this asshole in 2000!

Everything good he has ever done in his career is dead to me now.