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

Nader Opens Exploratory Committee

Consumer activist Ralph Nader opened an exploratory committee last week, a strong indication that he is considering a run for president. Nader as also launched a website, naderexplore08.org, which he is using to "test the waters" to see if he has adequate support. Nader's decision came immediately following John Edward's decision to drop out of the race, and although Nader stated that Edwards had the "most progressive platform," Nader claims that his decision is not connected with Edward's withdrawl. Nader's priorites in a campaign would be "civil liberties" and the "inability of many parties to get on the ballot." Nader has officially decided that he will run for president, but with more and more American's becoming disenchanted with the two major parties, an independent Nader bid could seriously affect the election.