Nader: I'll Be More Effective Vs. Bush

[rodbarnett]

WASHINGTON (AP) - Ralph Nader said Monday he won't back off from his latest campaign for the White House even if the major candidates are tied in polls going in to Election Day, a scenario that led many friends and former supporters to urge him not to run again.

A possible repeat of the 2000 election, which ended with George W. Bush defeating Al Gore by razor-thin margins in states where Nader polled thousands of votes, did not deter the consumer advocate from declaring his candidacy Sunday. He suggested a close race might be more detrimental to the president than the Democratic nominee.

"I'd go after Bush even more vigorously as we are in the next few months in ways that the Democrats can't possibly do because they're too cautious and too unimaginative, but they can pick up the vulnerabilities and the failures of the Bush administration that we point out," Nader said Monday on ABC's "Good Morning America."

Nader rejects the spoiler label as a "contemptuous" term used by those who want to deny voters a choice. Declaring Washington a "corporate-occupied territory," he accuses both Democrats and Republicans of being dominated by corporate lobbyists who care little about the needs of ordinary Americans.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20040223/D80T01JO0.html

[Kahuna]

1. If he really does go after bush, that will be a good thing.

He has a point about the Dems being too cautious. Even though caution is prudent. A mainstream candidate cannot come across as a "radical." That never works.

[maddezmom]

2. Good for Ralph

just hope he doesn't take on the Democratic candidates at the same time.

[mmonk]

3. Since votes for Nader won't be votes

that otherwise would go to bush (in reality, which I'm big on), there is nothing contemptuous about the term spoiler.

[YNGW]

4. Nader Speak

How many here at DU believe that Nader is addressing the issues in a way they *wish* the Democratic nominee would address the issues? With the same tone and same language that Nader is using now? Wasn't this the same rhetoric and enthusiasm that powered up the Dean train, the same movement many here have rightly pointed out that brought the Democratic party out of its slumber?

I'm confident there's some here who grow tired of candidates who with a wink and a nod say one thing and then fall right back into the DC mantra when they are elected to office. Now with the nomination process winding down, Kerry and Edwards are pandering to the middle, seemingly forgetting the left that got the train rolling. How much longer until they get the message that there's a large contingency who are tired of being taken for granted?