Nader announces another presidential bid

[Saguaro]

WASHINGTON - Ralph Nader is launching a third-party campaign for president. The consumer advocate made the announcement Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press." He says most Americans are disenchanted with the Democratic and Republican parties, and that none of the presidential contenders are addressing ways to stem corporate crime and Pentagon waste and promote labor rights.

Nader also ran as a third-party candidate in the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections. He is still loathed by many Democrats who call him a spoiler and claim his candidacy in 2000 cost the party the election by siphoning votes away from Al Gore in a razor-thin contest in Florida.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080224/ap_on_el_pr/nader;_ylt=AncK8qmkWlflKucIMWpZDsWs0NUE

[Sweet Tart]

:woot

[Saguaro]

Nader will be 74 on Wednesday ! It is funny that he thinks he has any pull at all .

[Sweet Tart]

He doesn't have a chance in hell, but I'd love to see a 3 party system in place. 3% is all it takes :frolic

[Yellowdogtexan]

Nader is a bozo and has become a parody of the values he once represented. He is a sad person and should be ignored by all as a fool who gave bush the white house in 2000

[patriotsblade]

He likes to argue that he has the right to run as much as anyone else, well of course he does, but having the right to do something is not the same as being right in doing it. He's all ego. He's done some great things in his life but he can't face being irrelevant now. That's why he runs for President.

[issac the dragon]

I am convinced Nader is nuts. His ego must be the envy of the whole world's balloonists. He is a parody of what he once was. He says he is going to force the D's and R's to talk about issues. The only problem he has is that no one listens to anything he says. It is kind of sad to see a good man go so far down.

[cassandra]

:roll

[Yellowdogtexan]

I am convinced Nader is nuts. His ego must be the envy of the whole world's balloonists. He is a parody of what he once was. He says he is going to force the D's and R's to talk about issues. The only problem he has is that no one listens to anything he says. It is kind of sad to see a good man go so far down.Great post. Nader has ruined his legacy and will always be remembered for letting his ego put bush into office. It is extremely sad to see how far this man has declined

[Yellowdogtexan]

Senator Clinton has some very good and accurate comments about nader. http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/327583.aspxHis campaign in 2000 cost Al Gore the election. He claimed he was in it against corporate interest and because he cared about the environment. I think he may have been on the Green Party ticket, and he basically deprived America of the greenest president we could’ve had. And someone who I don’t believe would have made a lot of the mistakes that unfortunately we’ve had to live with from President Bush.

I don’t know what he’s up to other than seeking attention or some other personal motivation, or maybe with maybe being unwitting about it. He truly is helping the Republicans because clearly, that’s what his candidacy would mean and I think it’s regrettable.
Nader is out for attention due to his own silly ego. Time has passed him by and he can not accept that.

[AYFR]

And yet he still could hurt the Democrats.

[patriotsblade]

And yet he still could hurt the Democrats.

No possible way, he got less than half a million votes the last time. He more irrelevant than ever.

[Yellowdogtexan]

And yet he still could hurt the Democrats.The GOP funded Nader in 2004 hoping that he would be a factor and Nader only got less than a half million votes. I imagine that nader will get even fewer votes this time around if Senator Obama is the nominee. Nader thinks that he is popular with young people but that demographic has been voting for Obama and will do so in the general election.

[Yellowdogtexan]

This is amusing. http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/pa/20080226_Not_so_fast__Democrats_tell_Nader.htmlHAR RISBURG - Ralph Nader has jumped into the presidential race, contending that he wants to energize third-party politics.But angry Pennsylvania Democrats say Nader should first settle his legal bills from his last presidential campaign.

And until he does, lawyers from Pittsburgh have persuaded a Washington judge to freeze $61,000 in Nader's personal bank accounts.

Nevertheless, a defiant Nader said that this year he would once again seek a place on the Pennsylvania ballot, and in an interview he delivered a sharp dig at the state.

"Pennsylvania is the poster child for obstructing small-party and independent candidates to get on the ballot," Nader said. "They should give voters choice."

Since 2004, Nader has been locked in a tangled series of court battles with Democrats, stemming from his failed attempt to get on the state ballot in 2004.

Democratic anger at Nader dates back to his 2000 run, when many in the party became convinced that the votes he received in Florida cost Al Gore the election.

So when Nader tried to get on the ballot in 2004, the law firm of Reed Smith, representing a group of Democratic voters, filed suit, alleging that many of the required petition signatures Nader had submitted in Pennsylvania were fraudulent. Commonwealth Court agreed and, in a decision upheld by the state Supreme Court, found that only 37 percent of the 51,273 signatures were valid.

Commonwealth Court Judge James Gardner Colins, elected as a Democrat, called the petition "the most deceitful and fraudulent exercise ever perpetrated on this court."

In January 2005, Commonwealth Court ordered Nader and his running mate, Peter Camejo, to pay the Reed Smith firm $81,102 in costs for copying and expert witnesses. Camejo settled with the firm for $20,000.

The firm last summer placed a freeze on Nader's personal bank accounts in Washington, where Nader lives, seeking to obtain the remaining $61,000 in court costs.

Reed Smith says it wants to recover what's owed by the losing party: the costs for transcripts and fees for experts in handwriting analysis.

Nader maintains that the imposition of court fees in a case such as his are akin to a "poll tax" and constitute a civil rights violation.

"Candidates' rights are a lot like voters' rights 50 years ago," Nader said.

Nader alleges that his case represented the first time in U.S. history that a court assessed a post-election penalty against a candidate defending his right to be on the ballot.

Pennsylvania Democratic Party officials say Nader is trying to apply his own standard to the law.

"The bottom line is he fraudulently tried to obtain access to the Pennsylvania ballot," said Democratic Party chairman T.J. Rooney. "He should satisfy his outstanding obligations before trying to do it again."

Gregory Harvey, a lawyer with Montgomery, McCracken, Walker & Rhoads, which also represented the plaintiffs, said candidates should not be exempt from paying court costs if they lose.I did not know that the law firm had a freeze on nader's personal accounts. It is now wonder why he is running. He needs to raise campaign funds to pay off this judgment.

[Yellowdogtexan]

I missed this piece of satire from Andy Borowitz Nader Announces Plan to Wreck Election

But Prominent Crackpots are Cool to Bid

Appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press” today, consumer activist Ralph Nader told host Tim Russert that he has officially decided to wreck the 2008 presidential election.

Mr. Nader had been huddling with prominent crackpots over the weekend to determine whether he had enough support among his natural constituency, self-absorbed whack-jobs, to mount an entirely meaningless campaign.

“If I wreck the 2008 election, I intend to wreck it in all fifty states,” Mr. Nader told Mr. Russert today. “I have no intention of being merely a regional spoiler.”

When asked if his candidacy could hurt the chances of the first African-American nominee for president, Mr. Nader put his fingers in his ears and started going, “Lalalalalalalala I can’t hear you.”

But across the country, significant numbers of crackpots who have supported Mr. Nader in the past appeared to be cool to his latest bid to wreck a presidential election.

“If I’m going to waste my vote, I want to be sure I’m wasting it on the right wingnut,” said longtime crackpot Stacy Klujian, who has supported Rep. Ron Paul (R-Tex) in his 2008 campaign. “It is time for Ralph Nader to step aside for a new generation of bananaheads.”

For his part, Mr. Nader said that he had already begun preparing for his latest run as a spoiler by sneaking up behind people who were watching “No Country for Old Men” and telling them how it ended.

“It wasn’t as challenging as spoiling an entire election, but it was fun,” he said.

[Yellowdogtexan]

While Nader should not hurt the Democrats, the same can not be said about Bob Barr hurting Mccain. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daniel-nichanian/libertarian-bob-barr-jump_b_95387.htmlBut there is little doubt that Barr would draw most of his supporters from voters who lean Republican in federal elections. Libertarians usually vote for the GOP when they cast a ballot for one of the major parties (there is a reason Ron Paul was running for the Republican nomination).

More importantly, the reason Bob Barr has a high profile and could make some waves in the coming months is his 1990s anti-Clinton agitation and his very conservative position on a number of issues that put him at odds with libertarians: He was a fierce defender of the War on Drugs, though he appears to have become a defender of medical marijuana since his libertarian conversion. It is from the Right that Barr will get the most votes, the most help and the most funds.

Bob Barr is primarily focused on explaining why the Republican Party has gone astray and abandoned its roots, and that his anti-war discourse is that of a disaffected conservative rather than an anti-Republican partisan. This is a language many Republicans will relate to after 8 years of the Bush Administration has some conservatives grumbling that he has abandoned them.

And that is a language that might appeal to some conservatives reluctant to support McCain, viewed as a heretic in some circles. Some oppose him because of his refusal to take the hard line on issues gay marriage and torture -- on which Barr agrees with him -- but most of the anti-McCain sentiment among conservatives rests on economic issues, his vote against cutting taxes and his sponsoring campaign finance. For voters who aren't sure if they could vote McCain because of stuff like this, Barr is a good protest vote.

Naturally, there is no reason as of now for McCain to worry. Third-party bids are not easy to get off the ground in the US and odds are always against a candidate managing to break into significant poll numbers. But Bob Barr has enough of a profile and enough good will that he is entitled to hope that he could make a strong run and peel away support from the Arizona Senator.If Barr runs, he will be more of a factor than Nader will be

[issac the dragon]

I hope he does run. It may be the only chance the Dems have. They are determined to go down in glorious defeat.