Ralph Nader's run is going to help us.

[ChiefJoseph]

Sorry if this has already been posted, but I think Nader's announcement is good news.

1) Many people who voted for him in 2000 have learned their lesson and won't vote for him again.

2) His bid will probably elevate Dem turn-out, as many Dems will be motivated to go to the polls out of fear that Nader will cost us the race. Again.

3) His bid could increase complacency in Republicans and thus dampen voter turn-out on the right.

All in all, I think his run will either help us or have a negligible effect. I am not the slightest bit worried. As long as we nominate Edwards, we are close to 100% certain to win back the White House. If we nominate Kerry, 90% certain. Either way, we're in a very strong position. And most Americans haven't even heard of Valerie Plame. Yet.

:kick:

[still_one]

1. In addition

I think most of his attacks will be directed against the Republicans

On issues where the Democrats may be afraid, such as gay marriage, Nader will not be afraid, or calling for the impeachment of Bush

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

2. Welcome to DU!!

Glad to have you onboard!! :yourock: :grouphug:

That said, I can't think of anything positive from something that definitely will pull votes away from our candidate, whomever that may be, however low those vote totals might be. It only took a couple of hundred votes here and there to lose the last election and this one will be just as close. We can't risk even a single stray vote!

[Rebellious Republican]

3. Hey Chief, you are correct on about one and half out of the 3!

1) Many people who voted for him in 2000 have learned their lesson and won't vote for him again.
Yep, I have to agree with you 100% there.


2) His bid will probably elevate Dem turn-out, as many Dems will be motivated to go to the polls out of fear that Nader will cost us the race. Again.
If you have not noticed, The Democratic Base is already motivated, thanks in no small part to the quality of Dem candidates that have been fielded already. This party is more energized than the energizer bunny, we just keep on going and going!


3) His bid could increase complacency in Republicans and thus dampen voter turn-out on the right.
You really lost me on this one? You mean complacency as in :

Main Entry: com·pla·cen·cy
Pronunciation: -s&n(t)-sE
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural -cies
1 : COMPLACENCE; especially : self-satisfaction accompanied by unawareness of actual dangers or deficiencies
2 : an instance of complacency.

Ralph is in no way helping us out!

http://naderwatch.blogspot.com /

http://www.realchange.org/nader.htm

http://www.repentantnadervoter.com /

[ChiefJoseph]

6. Complacency

By complacency, I mean that some Repubs might think to themselves, hell, Nader is going to win the race for us, I don't need to vote. I don't know if this will happen, but it might. And it would be an indisputably good thing if that happened.

[GreenPartyVoter]

10. Welcome Chief, I think you are right

There will definitely be some Repubs who will expect a big split in the Left. But they are wrong. They do not know how many of us are coming together just to spite the $hrub.

Then too, a lot of ticked off Repubs are either going to stay home or vote third party or independent. Count on it. Georgie boy has alienated a lot of folks.

[MooPie]

4. You may be right.

Yesterday I flew from Seattle to Orlando and learned the man next to me had voted for Nader in the last election. I asked him whether he regretted his vote and although he said no, because he had voted his conscience, he also said he's definitely voting for any Democrat this election because he can't take four more years of Bush, and knows a vote for Nader is a vote for Bush. So while there may be some die-hards out there, the majority hopefully have seen the damage their Nader vote did to this country and will compromise for the good of our nation.

[GreenPartyVoter]

11. MooPie

What is really damaging this country is the fact that we don't truly have the right to vote for the candidate we prefer. Check out my website to see how we can remedy that problem.

[oasis]

5. True, his entry is not all that bad. (eom)

[Hippo_Tron]

7. I can only hope so...

Since nobody can stop him from running, I hope he takes votes away from Bush and not the democratic nominee.

[Indiana_Dem]

8. I actually think some Republicans will vote for him.

When talking about fiscal responsibility and immigration and the war, they may just throw out a protest vote instead of voting for Bush.

The Dems and Greens just need to stay on target and stick together and Nader may pull some votes from the other side!

[fearnobush]

9. So long as Nader does not bash us for being too moderate

like he did to Gore, I think he could play a positive roll on voter turn out, especially if takes the out spoken crier road like Dean. If he takes the Bush lite theme on anyone but himself, He could once again give it to Bush. He would be most magnanimous if he bows out a few weeks be the GE.

[burned]

12. I think Nader has a plan

And I think it's a good one. He's not stupid.
He's going to force the Dem nominee to take on some real issues that are taking over the party. He's going to force them to take a strong stand on the environment, corruption, big business. He's going to make the Democratic Party behave less like Republicans in order to win.

Now they have to collect the Nader people, the Dean people and the Kucinich people in order to beat Bush.

The Dems are going to have to become RIGHTEOUS again, or lose.

[ChiefJoseph]

13. Seriously, I am tired of this argument

I don't require 100% ideological purity from our candidate. Even if the eventual Dem nominee votes with Bush 50% of the time, he's still against Bush on half the issues. That's plenty for me. All I care about is getting him out of office. If that means we have to campaign like Dennis Kucinich on whippets, fine. If it means we have to campaign like Bush lite, fine. I just want to win.

[Desertrose]

14. I tend to agree with you burned

I like to think to that he is hoping to force the Dems to gain some spine....
RIGHTEOUS is the word!!

:hi: and welcome to DU by the way :)


Peace
DR