Not satisfied having ruined one presidential election, Ralph Nader is planning a return to the scene next year.
Nader has created an exploratory committee and is beginning to raise money for yet another attempt to help the Republican Party control the White House.
Theresa Amato, Nader’s 2000 campaign manager and a director of his new committee, told the LA Times that Nader will likely announce a decision about the race by early next year.
“Calls are being made,” Amato said. “A fund-raising effort has just started for the purpose of testing the waters.”
If you read my site with any regularity, you can probably guess what I think about this development. Nevertheless, I noticed that Eric Alterman offered his thoughts on Nader’s burgeoning campaign, and since I agree with Alterman’s sentiments, I figured I’d just quote him directly.
“Ralph Nader, the single individual on the entire planet who could have saved us from the presidency of George W. Bush simply by asking his supporters on election night to do the prudent thing, appears ready to do it again,” Alterman said. He added, “There can be no excuses for any intelligent progressive supporting Nader in 2004 after all we’ve seen from the White House for the past three years. Ignorance? Idealism? I did not put much faith in these arguments in 2000, but now, well, really war, tax cuts, Medicare, Kyoto, abortion.
“Remember what Ralph said. ‘Not a dime’s worth of difference [between Bush and Gore].’ If Nader — who could not even bring himself to support Paul Wellstone in Minnesota — wants to further destroy what little remains of his reputation as a progressive leader with this Quixotic race, that’s his prerogative. But let’s be clear. The man is a menace to everything he once professed to represent, which makes him either delusional or hypocritical. I’m not a psychologist, and I don’t really care which explanation holds. Perhaps he’s both. I just hope the only damage he does is to himself, and not, once again, to his country.”
Sounds right to me.