Knight Ridder is reporting that Ralph Nader is “poised to declare that he’s running again this year.” The only difference between this year and his previous presidential campaigns would be a party switch — he ran in 1996 and 2000 as the Green Party’s candidate, but this time he’ll run as an independent.
“I think there’s very little doubt,” Micah Sifry, a writer and Nader observer for years, told KR. “I think he’s going to run.”
The Knight Ridder report indicated that the announcement could come as early as this week, which would coincide with the anniversary of his Feb. 21, 2000, announcement of his last destructive campaign.
There are plenty of former Nader supporters who are working diligently to dissuade the consumer advocate-turned-Bush enabler.
Sifry is part of the campaign to stop Nader from running, which went into high gear last month with an open letter to him in The Nation, a liberal magazine that has been associated with him for 30 years. The letter, signed by the editors, urged him not to run. Nader contributors from 2000, such as Ben Cohen, a co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, also are organizing “No, Ralph, No” efforts.
At the heart of the anti-Nader effort is the determination to defeat President Bush and the belief that Nader, blamed for tilting the close 2000 election to Bush by siphoning off votes from opponent Al Gore, especially in Florida, could once again play the “spoiler” role.
“The stakes are too high,” said Katrina vanden Heuvel, the editor of The Nation. “We feel Bush’s defeat is critical.”
I’m glad to see so many Nader backers come to their senses, but it’s not surprising that Nader would disregard their concerns. That’s how egomaniacs act.
In some ways, word of another independent Nader run is the worst possible news. If Nader doesn’t run as a Green, it means the Green Party may ultimately nominate another far-left candidate, meaning that the anti-Bush vote would be split three ways (the Dem, the Green, and Nader), instead of just two.
I would just as soon see Nader run as a Green, if he’s going to run at all.