
Michael Moore and Bill Maher's pleas to Ralph Nader fall on deaf ears.
RALPH NADER USED TO BE MY NEIGHBOR
Okay, almost. We lived in the same small state--Connecticut-- for many years--he, about 25 miles from me.
Those were Ralph's salad days. He's the reason I gotta choke myself with the seatbeat not made for a gal with a D-cup, when I get behind the wheel of the 'stang--he brought the car makers to their knees with his relentless presentation of death statistics from people flying through their windshields and getting tossed from crashed cars.
He and his Nader's Raiders did a ton of things to better the environment, like push for the establishment of car emission standards. He did a bunch of other important stuff, too. Connecticut was proud of Ralph Nader for his pure ideals. (Feel free to look it up, if you are so inclined.) Safe to say, Ralph Nader affected your daily life way before 2000, when it's possible he gave us George Bush.
Nader was always too odd to be president. Wore one suit of clothes all the time, very spartan, not warm and comfortable with people. Never married, no kids. I think he lived with his mother for many years (into his forties, when she died(?) I need a memory pill).
Nowadays, Nader is in the spotlight due to his advanced state of delusionality (That is a word. I made it up).
When I read quotes from interviews with him in places like the NY Times I cringe and I shudder a bit, 'cause he's much odder than he was years ago.
He's a total oddball. Bright maybe, even really smart, but Jeebus, totally not evar going to have a chance in Hades of being prez.
Someone! Quick! Give this man a new cause to champion.
Convictions Intact, Nader Soldiers On>
By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE
Published: August 2, 2004
SANTA MONICA, Calif., Aug. 1 - To Ralph Nader, the Democratic convention in Boston was a hollow charade that made Senator John Kerry, the Democratic presidential nominee, seem more like President Bush than ever. He said it gave him no reason to drop out of the race, even if he costs Mr. Kerry the election in November, as many believe he cost Al Gore in 2000.
"This isn't unity," Mr. Nader scoffed in an interview here on Saturday, referring to the message from the Democratic convention. "This is repressed conformity in order to create the show."
He called the Democrats a "decadent" party and, in a reference to Mr. Gore's populist war cry in 2000, accused Mr. Gore of "taking my language away from me" and "costing me more votes than I cost him." Mr. Kerry, he noted, voted for the war in Iraq, would not put a deadline on withdrawing American troops, voted for the Patriot Act and, he said, "won't touch the bloated, corrupt military budget."
So Mr. Nader, who does not concede that he has little chance of winning the presidency, is preparing for battles ahead - for ballot access in most states (he is on the ballot in six states so far, including Florida), for credentials to the Republican convention this month (he was denied credentials to the Democratic convention), and for a seat at the table in the fall debates, which requires a standing of at least 15 percent in national polls.
Andrew Kohut, the director of the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, said that Mr. Nader, who won 2.7 percent of the vote in 2000, was polling at about 3 percent in most national polls now but could spell trouble for Mr. Kerry in some swing states.
While Mr. Nader digs in his heels, the Democrats are trying to sideline him. The party has enlisted Howard Dean, the former Vermont governor, who has declared an "extraordinary emergency" to stomp out Nader votes. And some former associates of Mr. Nader are organizing an extensive, well-financed national campaign against him. Organizers include Toby Moffett, a former congressman from Connecticut and onetime "Nader Raider," who lost a close race for the Senate in 1982 after his former boss endorsed his opponent.
Mr. Moffett, now a lobbyist in Washington, worked against Mr. Nader in six states in 2000, an informal effort that he now calls amateurish. With that experience under his belt, he said, "we're vowing not to let it happen again."
Mr. Moffett and others from labor and feminist organizations spent their time at the Democratic convention coordinating six or eight anti-Nader groups. Calling themselves United Progressives for Victory, they are raising money through an independent political committee known as a 527, named for the section of the I.R.S. code that governs it, and are working with other 527's that are already identifying sympathetic voters. (By law, such committees can raise unlimited amounts of money but cannot coordinate with the Kerry campaign.)
The group is armed with a poll conducted by Stanley Greenberg, who was President Bill Clinton's pollster. The group includes Roy Neel, a former Gore associate who worked for Mr. Dean and is now preparing the computer model for finding the 2.8 million people who voted for Mr. Nader in 2000 and might vote for him again.
Mr. Moffett said there was no chance that Mr. Nader would drop out, so the only way to stop him from throwing the election to Mr. Bush is to discourage his supporters.
Mr. Nader's determination to stay in the contest was evident on Friday night in Los Angeles, when Michael Moore, the filmmaker, who backed Mr. Nader in 2000, appeared with him on the HBO program "Real Time with Bill Maher." Mr. Moore and Mr. Maher dropped to their knees to beg Mr. Nader to drop out, with the audience cheering them on.
Mr. Nader was unmoved, saying only, "We're going to help defeat George W. Bush" and dashing off the set at his first opportunity.
Nader supporters, Mr. Greenberg's polling shows, are generally older and angrier than other voters. They are fiercely against globalization and corporate dominance, and they are largely indifferent to social issues like abortion and gay marriage.
They are also hard to find, and the Moffett group is debating how to track them down and shape and deliver a message that will reach them.