TermiNader

I like Ralph Nader and I am very hapy so see him enter the race. What right does Hillary Clinton have to say who can or who can't run for Office? Ralph Nader has done far more for the American people than Barrack "the Second Coming of Christ" Obama could ever hope to achivieve. If the American people want to vote for a candidate who can deliver change and a better life, Ralph Nader is the person who can do just that. Vote Nader si a far better choice for Priesident of the United Sstates than Clinton or Obama. As far as Al Gore goes... he seems to want to blame of his failure on everything except where it belong, himself.

I hate Ralph Nader. He is an egotistical jerk. He is running for the same reason he ran before, no one is talking about him, he wants his name in the press and this is his only way to do it.

Okay Smith, what is all the wonderful stuff that Nader has done for the American people besides making it possible for Bush to steal the election and start the damned illegal war against an unarmed nation. Come on tell us.

Guess where Ralph (another word for vomit) is getting his money. Not from the Democrats.

I'm not the least bit suprised to see that comment coming from Smith. He's never been elected to ANY public office...shouldn't he start a little lower on the chain of command? I'm sorry, but it's obvious that he is incredibly egotistical, which can be translated as being incredibly weak. That is made clear by the fact that he has absolutely ZERO chance of winning this election, yet he can't just throw in the towel. If he ACTUALLY cared about what was best for the country, he would just stay out of it. Any respect that I ever had for him is permanently out the window.

We need a no-Nader campaign, so people can understand the implications of voting for this non-viable candidate. Thoughts MM?

Right off the top of my sick head right now? A circle with a cross through it over a picture of him.

Marilynn_Murry Since you asked...
Let's look at what Ralph Nader has done:
Activism- Hundreds of young activists, inspired by Nader's work, came to DC to help him with other projects. They came to be known as "Nader's Raiders" who, under Nader, investigated government corruption, publishing dozens of books with their results:
Nader's Raiders (Federal Trade Commission)
Vanishing Air (National Air Pollution Control Administration)
The Chemical Feast (Food and Drug Administration)
The Interstate Commerce Omission (Interstate Commerce Commission)
Old Age (nursing homes)
The Water Lords (water pollution)
Who Runs Congress? (Congress)
Whistle Blowing (punishment of whistle blowers)
The Big Boys (corporate executives)
Collision Course (Federal Aviation Administration)
No Contest (corporate lawyers)
Destroy the Forest (Destruction of ecosystems worldwide)
Operation: Nuclear (Making of a nuclear missile)
In 1971, Nader founded the non-governmental organization (NGO) Public Citizen as an umbrella organization for these projects. Today, Public Citizen has over 140,000 members and scores of researchers investigating Congressional, health, environmental, economic and other issues. Their work is credited with facilitating the passage of the Safe Drinking Water Act and Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), and prompting the creation of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).
In the 1970's and 1980's Nader was a key leader in the anti-nuclear power movement. "By 1976, consumer advocate Ralph Nader, who later became allied with the environmental movement 'stood as the titular head of opposition to nuclear energy'" [27] [28] He advocates the complete elimination of nuclear energy in favor of solar, tidal, wind and geothermal, citing environmental, worker safety, migrant labor, national security, disaster preparedness, foreign policy, government accountability and democratic governance issues to bolster his position.
Non-profit organizations -
In 1980, Nader resigned as director of Public Citizen to work on other projects, forcefully campaigning against what he believed to be the dangers of large multinational corporations. He went on to start a variety of non-profit organizations:
Capitol Hill News Service
Citizen Advocacy Center
Citizens Utility Boards
Congress Accountability Project
Consumer Task Force For Automotive Issues
Corporate Accountability Research Project
Disability Rights Center
Equal Justice Foundation
Foundation for Taxpayers and Consumer Rights
Georgia Legal Watch
National Citizens' Coalition for Nursing Home Reform
National Coalition for Universities in the Public Interest
Pension Rights Center
PROD (truck safety)
Retired Professionals Action Group
The Shafeek Nader Trust for the Community Interest
1969: Center for the Study of Responsive Law
1970s: Public Interest Research Groups
1970: Center for Auto Safety
1970: Connecticut Citizen Action Group
1971: Aviation Consumer Action Project
1972: Clean Water Action Project
1972: Center for Women's Policy Studies
1980: Multinational Monitor
1982: Trial Lawyers for Public Justice
1982: Essential Information
1983: Telecommunications Research and Action Center
1983: National Coalition for Universities in the Public Interest
1989: Princeton Project 55
1993: Appleseed Foundation
1994: Resource Consumption Alliance
1995: Center for Insurance Research
1995: Consumer Project on Technology
1997?: Government Purchasing Project
1998: Center for Justice and Democracy
1998: Organization for Competitive Markets
1998: American Antitrust Institute
1999?: Arizona Center for Law in the Public Interest
1999?: Commercial Alert
2000: Congressional Accountability Project
2001: Citizen Works
2001: Democracy Rising

And what have they accomplished?

That's a long list of WHO THE FUCK CARES....Let him run for city council, or maybe Mayor, before he deems himself worthy of the highest seat in the land. God, talk about an EGO! Whatever he has done in the past is wiped out by the part he has played in getting BUSH elected. This once again illustrates the importance of election standards, and election FRAUD, to our nation. Smith, in your wisdom, do you think Nader actually thinks he has a chance?

And how many of them are still in exsistance?

smorrisey, You are pretty mean yerself. It's a badge of honor and we wear it well. I loved the picture in my head of the mascot tackling Raallpph. I laughed until I cried. anyone see this? .. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/02/23/olbermann-timeline-how-t_n_88110.html

How do you guys feel about Ross Perot. He is the only reason Bill Clinton was able to win the election and get re-elected. You don't see anyone being crybabies about it the you people are being. If I vote for Ralph Nader, he will be taking my vote, and support away from John McCain. I have never ever voted for a democrat in my life. A vote for Ralph Nader is just that, a vote for Ralph Nader. Why the hell does Al Goreor he democrat party even think that they are entitled to his votes? That sounds very contrary to logic.

Ross Perot is in the same league as Nader. Vote for whomever you like. It is heartening to know that you have never voted for a Democrat. Now we don't have to be embarrassed.

Ralph Nader's career is one of shocking duplicity.

In the heyday of Democratic Party power, Nader JUSTLY became an icon and hero in the realm of consumer activism.

In the 1980's American politics veered to the right, Ronald Reagan was elected, consumer activism became passe in Washington, deregulation became the theme, and consumer lobbyists were largely abandoned in Washington in favor of Corporate Lobbyists. Ralph Naders base of power and influence in Washington vanished in the wind.

2000 Presidential elections- Ralph Nader runs as third party Candidate. His message of "Power to the People" is fresh. relevant to the times, and well recieved. BUT Nader the idealist forgets his ascendency to power and influence in previous years came from the populist politics of the Democratic Party. He completely abandons the Democrats- insisting they have sold out to corporate interests as much as the Republicans. Ends up arguably being a "spoiler" in the most controversial presidential election in American history.

2008- Nader decides to run for President for the 4th time. The dark irony is: If you listen to what he has to say, the message he is trying to deliver to America is honorable, on point, and relevant. BUT-Nader surely doesnt believe he can get elected president!- so his motivation must be to get his message out, rather than to get elected. (as good as he's been as an activist, I believe he would be a disaster as a president- the ultimate outsider- Jimmy Carter multiplied by 1000X).

Here is Nader's HUGEST mistake. Nader has a dream of reinvigorating American politics by introducing the Green Party as a viable alternative to the supposedly corporately corrupted Republican and Democratic parties. BUT-to be effective- grass roots movements need to start at the grass roots level! The way to gain power for a third party such as the Green Party, is to build a base by having success at lower level politics- City Counsel, State legislature, eventually work up to Governership. Its foolishness for Ralph try to "steal it all" in a fantasy bid for president, instead of working build a coalition from modest means, community by community.

Starting small. building on small cumulative success, winning hearts and minds of voters based on results, not just rhetoric, this the path to success for any third political party. Ralph: you cannot just run on the coattails of the past successes as a legislative lobbyist! My advice to Ralph is: drop your "Pipe dream" of the presidency and re-focus you energies on building a Green Party from modest means upward. Anything else doomed to be a failed attempt at "trickle down" politics, trying to gain success from the Presidency on down.

Funny thing is-irrespective of Nader's grandiose political scheme's, Green politics are emerging in USA! Spurned by the efforts of Al Gore(Ralph's stated nemesis in 2000), and community activism beginning at the CITY and STATE level, NOT the National level, the issue of Green politics is gaining momentum to the point that politicians in Washington can no longer ignore it's relevancy.

C-span covered a governor's convention last night. One of the speakers from California said the latest scientific consensus is that we have 3-5 years left to turn our energy policy around or it's doomsday for us. Whoever is elected needs to adopt Ralph's environmental policy and make sure the right people are in charge. Gore and Edwards need to come out and endorse Ralph's policy. Obama's idea of fighting global warming is to take money from GE and EXELON and WESTINGHOUSE and back policy that would allow them to build new nuclear power plants. Illinois's industry IS the nuclear industry (More nuke plants than any other state). They are wanting to build a new one in Clinton, IL (not far from my house) and they plan to run high-level nuke waste right through our town on highway 74 from Clinton's existing reactor to meet up with all the nuke plants on interstate 80 and run the waste out to Yucca mountain. Each truck sized container holds up to 40 times the long-lived radioactivity released by the Hiroshima bomb. They are vulnerable to terrorists attacks and are massive dirty bombs on wheels. I used to live in Maine and they tried to cite a low level nuke dump one mile from my house (and might still do it). Ralph understands the implications of these dirty, corrupt policies and how sleazy the people are who are implementing them. They have chosen Obama to be their spokesman and are using the "against the war" theme to buy out all the progressive votes. Obama just said he would invade Pakistan and he backs the nuclear industry so I would not exactly call him a peace activist. You are right BillinShasta, Ralph is trying to get his message out and influence the Democratic platform. He has said so many times in interviews. It's his only hope of waking up the population and saving the world. He won't be on the planet much longer (74 years old) and we should listen to what he is saying. He is trying to keep us from terminating ourselves and everything on the planet. He is the ultimate anti-terminator. Cheney is the terminator.

I am getting really tired of hearing the Democracts cry that Ralph Nader gave the 2000 election to Bush in Florida. I heard that Bush won by 543 votes in Florida and I also heard that 97,000 prople voted for Ralph Nader in Florida. Now, I want someone to tell me if Al. Gore would have won the election if all of the Nader voters would have stayed home and not gone to the polls. In other words take away the 97,000 Nader votes and you still have Bush with a total win of 543 votes.

yea smorsey you're mean LOL! ;)

One comment. long chunks of black over the music near the end... are intended?

mjsmith11 - nice accounting of Nader's work. Congrats to you - perhaps he should get a medal of honor for all his good deeds, if in fact they are good deeds.

It's clear, Nader's contribution to our society is perfectly illustrated by what he has done - but I see nothing presidential about it, or him.

Ralph Nader lacks a larger vision to be seriously considered for President - except by the Bush administration, period. Sadly, Nader is intoxicated with his own sense of power. It's like taking steroids. Besides stroking himself, what is he going to accomplish?

Kenrick - Now, I want to know, if you didn't post any comments or questions on the internet, let alone Current TV, would any bloggers answer them?

Last thing on this issue; Nader did not cost Gore the election, election fraud and the Supreme Court ruling cost Gore the election - have no doubt about it.

Futuregen, you are reading a lot and paying attention! Congratulations and welcome to the minority! I couldn't agree with you (or Ralph) more.

BTW, FutureGen (the company not the blogger) might actually build in our neighborhood, and Obama thinks that's a GOOD thing....go figure.

Marylin, Nader was very influential in automotive safety. He is one of the primary reasons why it is required by law for cars to have seat belts. He was also a large part of improving automotive safety design by disproving the old theory of the "nut behind the wheel" causing car accidents rather than engineering problems with the cars. Many basic safety features that you have in your home are also a result of Nader. The ground on many electrical appliances for example.

Now many people more or less castrate Nader for stealing the 2000 election from Gore. Though I like Gore and wish he had won, the loss was not Nader's fault. First, the amount of votes that Gore lost by could have been made up by any of the liberal 3rd party candidates. If you blame Nader you need to blame all of the other 3rd party candidates that ran in 2000. Second, despite the votes that Nader sucked from Gore, Gore still technically won the popular vote. Close though it was, Bush did not win that election even with the votes that were siphoned off by the 3rd party candidates. Dirty politics from the Bush campaign are what cost Gore the election. Had Nader resigned from the election and told people to vote for Gore, Bush's cronies would have likely found a way to make up those votes.

What I would like to see is if Hilary or Obama, whomever wins the preliminary, to offer Nader a position on their staff. Now I don't think that Nader would accept, and Nader would likely continue to run the presidential race until the race was over; however, I think that it would be good if Hilary of Obama kept a position open for Nader for after the election. In my opinion it would be best to give Nader a position where he could be a figurative pain in the ass to corrupt corporations.

Hillary and Obama would never offer anything to Nader because neither are progressive liberals. Both are "neo-liberals"....sort of like neo-cons only different.