Don’t look now, but a certain third party candidate is considering a fourth presidential campaign.
Ralph Nader says he is seriously considering running for president in 2008 because he foresees another Tweedledum-Tweedledee election that offers little real choice to voters.
“You know the two parties are still converging — they don’t even debate the military budget anymore,” Nader said in a 30-minute interview. “I really think there needs to be more competition from outside the two parties.”
Nader praised Republican Ron Paul and Democrat Mike Gravel, lambasted Hillary Clinton, and concluded that it is “very unlikely” that any major party candidate would forestall yet another race.
As for a certain presidential election that led to the Bush Nightmare, Nader still insists that Gore would have won easily in 2000 if only he had done everything Nader told him to do. “We had proposals that if Gore had picked up on, he would have landslided Bush,” Nader said.
The unpleasantness of 2000 notwithstanding, Nader appears anxious to run yet again — he just doesn’t seem to know why.
He doesn’t expect to win, he doesn’t expect to change the Democratic agenda, he doesn’t expect to appear in the debates, and he doesn’t even expect to make the ballot in every state. So, what exactly is the point here?
“What third parties can do is bring young people in, set standards on how to run a presidential election and keep the progressive agenda in front of the people,” he said. “And maybe tweak a candidate here and there in the major parties.”
None of this is persuasive. Major parties can and do bring young people into the process, Nader’s multiple efforts have never affected election standards, and his campaigns have generally done a poor job of promoting progressive ideas and have instead focused on his disdain for the two major parties. As for “tweaking” candidates, that’s a pretty shallow reason to launch a presidential bid.
Chris Lehane, who worked in Bill Clinton’s White House and Gore’s 2000 presidential campaign, said of a possible Nader candidacy: “His entry into the race, even to those who voted for him in 2000, would be just another vainglorious effort to promote himself at the expense of the best interests of the public. Ralph Nader is unsafe in any election.”
Sounds right to me.