nader
NYT: Reason to Run? Nader Argues He Has Plenty:
Mr. Nader's argument that he can draw more support from Mr. Bush than from Mr. Kerry has yet to be proved. A New York Times/CBS News poll earlier this month found that when voters were asked to choose between Mr. Bush and Mr. Kerry, 46 percent chose the president and 43 percent Mr. Kerry. When Mr. Nader was added to the mix, Mr. Bush's support stayed at 46 percent, Mr. Kerry's dropped to 38 percent and Mr. Nader drew 7 percent. More than half of Nader supporters preferred Mr. Kerry in a two-way race.
"Conservatives for Nader," the comic Jon Stewart mused recently. "Not a large group. About the same size as 'Retarded Death Row Texans for Bush.' "
Comments
I'd be inclined to give Nader the benefit of the doubt here only he pretty much disappeared after the last election instead of doing the hard work of building on what he said he believed in. To me, his running now is clearly just an exercise in self-aggrandizement, one that has the potential to hurt the causes his supporters believe in once again instead of helping them.
If you live in a state which has primaries coming up, please consider a vote for Dennis Kucinich instead!
Posted by: lia | March 31, 2004 3:18 PM
PB has a nice post and some photos from Kucinich's recent campaign stop in Corvallis, OR.
Posted by: lia | March 31, 2004 3:23 PM
I agree with at least half of that statement. I do think that Nader disappeared. Not sure if I think this run is self-aggrandizement, though.
My problem with Kucinich is that he's in a political party that will never stand up of the things Kucinich supposedly stands for.
I've got multiple problems with articles like the one nedlog has linked. One, I'm sort of skeptical of polls that show Nader getting more support now than he did in 2000. There's so many fewer people endorsing him this time around. And ABB is rampant.
The conspiracy theorist in me wants to say that the Nader's numbers have been inflated to inspire the Left to bully Nader out of the race. But I have no support for that, though.
The other problem, though, is with Nader. Running to the Right seems like a terrible strategy. I can see a Nader campaign that's about trying to build an independent Left, but a Nader campaign that is also appealing to the Right has no meaning.
Posted by: zagg | March 31, 2004 4:16 PM