I have no doubt that next week’s Howard Dean-Ralph Nader showdown at the National Press Club will make for excellent theater, but I really can’t figure out what the point of the exercise is.
Dean and Nader are scheduled to conduct a 90-minute debate July 9 at the National Press Club in Washington, a forum in which a major question no doubt will be what Nader is trying to accomplish with his independent presidential run.
Dean is urging his former supporters on the Democratic left wing to back Kerry. He contends that a vote for Nader is tantamount to a vote to reelect Bush.
“I am anxious to debate Ralph Nader in order to speak about why he wants to run for president,” the former Vermont governor said. “This is the most important election in my lifetime and a third-party candidate could make a difference — this November and for years to come.”
Nader spokesman Kevin Zeese responded that the question of whether the consumer advocate should run “is kind of a boring issue. It’s been raised a million times.”
Zeese added that Nader was in the race to stay.
Of course he did. Nader isn’t going anywhere, except down in the polls and to that special part of political purgatory where people who have betrayed their friends and emasculated their life’s work end up.
What, exactly, is the goal of this debate? Dean, the ever-confident debater, will explain why Nader’s campaign is a recipe for disaster. Nader, the ego-driven lunatic, will explain why he doesn’t care. They’ll both get in a few zingers and true believers on both sides will be more convinced than ever.
The event will likely be no more than a sideshow.
And speaking of Nader, his campaign is working with Republicans in Oregon, Florida, Arizona, Wisconsin, and elsewhere. Nader has also teamed up with a billionaire GOP fundraiser to finance his destructive endeavor. Interesting friends for a devoted, life-long, liberal activist.
But I guarantee that Nader tells Dean next week that he will draw votes equally away from Bush and Kerry. One has to wonder if even someone as deluded as Nader actually believes such obvious nonsense. I doubt it.