Nader Denounces Big Oil and Corporate Greed

As part of his ongoing "whistle stop tour" for the 2008 presidential campaign, Ralph Nader stopped in Glens Falls, New York at a local cafe to speak with supporters and host a fundraiser. Despite a recent Zogby poll which left Nader with 1% of the vote should Obama be the nominee and 3% if Clinton wins the nomination, over 200 enthusiastic supporters greeted the former consumer advocate with a standing ovation. During the fundraiser, Nader took serious issue with gas prices, protesting the government's refusal to regulate the industry or investigate major oil corporations. He denounced the current system, claiming that "the price is made by the New York Mercantile Exchange which is a bunch of speculators and if they hear a rumor about Nigeria, they'll drive it up again and you pay through the nose at the gas pump." Nader further denounced "corporate greed," chastising the Republican and Democratic candidates silence on the issue and citing it as the cause of the nation's current economic woes. Nader hopes to "rouse the people" in his race for the president, and upstate New York seemed to welcome his message.

The Democratic Divide and Hungry Hippo Nader

In a recent Time magazine article highlighting Hillary's 52% lead over Barack's 42% in the most recent poll in the Pennsylvania primary, Time magazine alluded to a potential gain by Nader. According to Time, "Four percent of Democratic voters were undecided, and 2% refused a response. However, 20% of these likely Democratic voters said they would vote for John McCain in November if their Democratic choice does not win their party's nomination." The article later claimed that due to the divide and indecision amongst Democratic voters, Ralph Nader could look forward to a 5% gain in Pennsylvania. Then Time made another astonishing claim:"Nader's 4% could potentially quadruple, as 17% of Democratic respondents said that if their first choice does not get the Democratic nomination, they may vote for Nader." Democratic contention is proving to have wonderful effects on the Nader Campaign. In a recent Michigan poll "with an error margin of plus or minus 4 percent, apparently concluded that if Sen. Hillary Clinton got the Democratic nomination, Sen. John McCain would earn 46 percent of the state's vote and she would get 37 percent, with Nader earning 10 percent". Nader's campaign has been looking pretty glum but with such statements being made due to the continual Democratic rift, Nader might be looking at a general election voter output much higher than in the 2000 election. Although such a gain is unlikely, especially due to the few green votes in 2004, it does shed greater light on the claims made in 2000 that Nader stole votes from the Democrats. The Democratic divide might be too great for the party to repair in time for the General Election the floating, rolling votes will probably be gobbled up by Nader meaning that Hungry Hippo McCain will have a greater chance of winning the campaign. Its just a matter of how the Democratic primary nomination plays out into the General Election.

http://blogs.courant.com/on_background/2008/04/nader-thrilled-with-10-show-of.html
http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1732550,00.html

Criticism of Corporations Dominates Campaign

Ralph Nader spent most of his career as a consumer advocate, a role which has translated into a presidential platform. Despite heavy criticism from many media reporters, journalists, and Democrats who still blame him for the outcome of the 2000 election, Nader hopes to shift the balance of power between corporations and consumers towards the latter. Nader spent much of the past week in New England and Pennsylvannia where he spoke out against powerful corporations. At Princeton, Nader's alma-mater, he argued that "this country is not designed for corporate supremacy" and noted that "[a corporation] doesn't vote"..."doesn't die in Iraq," and "doesn't raise children." In Pennsylvania, Nader visted West Chester, a small town of quaker heritage, where he denounced big businesses as "corporate crooks" and even demanded corporate tax increases and protection again "corporate crime." Nader's message however, has fallen on deaf ears over the past several weeks, as his candidacy announcement was overshadowed by the race for the Democratic nomination.

Gonzalez Will Run With Nader

Last week, Ralph Nader announced his candidacy for president. Not long after, Matt Gonzalez joined Nader's campaign as his running-mate for the vice presidency. Both Nader and Gonzalez spoke in Washington D.C. this week, denouncing large corporations and urging "the people" to reclaim power. Nader and Gonzalez outlined their three major goals for their 2008 campaign: first, they aim for election reform, advocating a candidate ranking system like those in Ireland and Australia. Second, they both addressed the widening gap between rich and poor, calling for minimum wage increases. Third, Nader and Gonzalez spoke out against the Iraq War, demanding troop withdrawls from both Afghanistan and Iraq. Finally, Nader spoke of the importance of third party candidates in offering a choice and bringing options to voters.

He Will Run!!!!!!

He’s running! This past Sunday, on "Meet the Press" with Tim Russel, Nader announced that he would enter the race for president, the third time in eight years. Now there is much debate over whether or not Nader will make a big splash in the general election coming up in November in comparison to the 2000 election. Nader is unoubtedly the best candidate for the green party. The reason he’s runnign is, therefore, not to win but to push through green consumerist issues. For the past few weeks, votenader.org has posted a ‘contribute to the Nader campaign’ on one side of the webpage and the slogan fight “corporate greed, corporate power, corporate control.” Whether or not he expects to win is as arbitrary and it would be illinformed to assume that Nader will make little or no impact on the election. Quite the contrary; Nader meanwhile announcing his candidacy, criticized both the Democrats and Republicans for not addressing consumerist issues, labor rights, and corporate greed. Now it’s just a matter of how the votes will play out and if Nader once again is criticized as the ‘spoiler’.

Drafting the 'Spoiler'?

Poor Nadar, so close to his potential announcement, has been consistently criticized for spoiling the election for Gore in 2000. The critics of Salon.com claim that Nadar won 97421 votes and if one considered the Gore voting range, then Nader's votes came from what otherwise would have been Gore's (new voter candidate program that tracks the Voting pool of candidates). Nader, the spoiler, is currently announcing the new Coal Mine Safety report, all the while a new online website for Green Party voters is attempting to attract voters to endorse Nader for Presidency. The 'Draft Nader' website posts all upcoming Nader speaking engagements, quips and consumerist essays, and actively pushes reasons for why Nader is the 'green' man. (www.draftnader.org).

Watch out for Nader; if he gets pushed far enough by green party support he'll announce and if he does he might still be called the spoiler come next year. (Oh and statistically speaking, its doubtful that Nader ever lived up to the name 'spoiler' back in the 2000 election.)

A Talk to Carytown

On Saturday, Feb 9 Nader visited the community of Carytown to discuss his political ideology at the first Environmental Film Festival. Nader also addressed his campaign intentions, "We have an exploratory committee. Within a month, we'll decide one way or another." Nader has launched an Exploratory Committee to know what his chances of winning are. Along with the Exploratory Committee Nader launched to have an idea if he will have "Enough volunteers, enough funds and enough staff," he also launched NaderExplore08.org. Nader spoke for seventy minutes in which he discussed hot topics such as outsourcing and corporations. Nader was able to fire up the audience by stating rather controversial statements such as "There are 1,500 corporations in this country who get their way from Congress." Nader also touched on the issue of health care and was able to connect with the audience by dramatizing the deaths of people due to lack of health care and saying "That's six 9/11s each year!" Overall audience members thought that his lecture was enticing. We will now anxiously wait and see if he does decide to run for president.



He Most Likely Will