Ralph Nader is the subject of this weekend’s Wall Street Journal Saturday interview. In the course of a nearly 2,000-word piece, Nader calls Barack Obama “a corporate Democrat” and says Obama’s progressive stance is “a charade.”
He also says he does not regret his 2000 campaign: “The Democrats hadn’t been challenged from my side of the political spectrum since Henry Wallace. They’re not used to third-party challenges, while the Republicans are challenged by the Libertarians all the time. So they still scapegoat the Green Party, instead of looking in the mirror and asking, ‘Why didn’t we landslide this bumbling governor from Texas?’ And that’s what they’ve been doing for eight years! Some of them even tried to ascribe Kerry’s loss in 2004 to me, and I say, ‘Wait a minute, Kerry lost by three million votes.’…And he lost Ohio without my help, because the Democrats sued us: they got us off the ballot in Ohio, as they did in other states.’
8 responses so far ↓
1 jerseyreformjake // May 31, 2008 at 11:05 am
You may not agree with Nader on many things or anything at all, but we have to agree on two thing. He does a good job getting publicitry for third parties, and also hopefully he can open some eyes for the ballot access issues the LP, GP, CP, and RFP face.
2 LPiberty // May 31, 2008 at 11:56 am
A good read:
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There’s more: Mr. Nader wants to slash “the bloated, wasteful military budget. This thing is so out of control that it’s unauditable. But Obama wants to increase the military budget, which is currently distorted away from soldiers and towards these giant weapons systems, and keeping troops in Korea and Japan.” And as for the tax system, Mr. Nader wishes that the Democrats would adhere to his philosophy, which is that “we should first tax things that we like the least, or dislike the most, as a society, before we tax human labor, and necessities . . . through a sales tax.
“So we should tax securities speculation first, before we tax labor. If you go to a store and buy $1,000 worth of products, you pay a sales tax. You buy $1 million worth of derivatives, you pay no sales tax!”
Has he had trouble getting his message out to the American voter? Here, Mr. Nader shows a mild – and understandable – flash of anger over being shut out of the televised presidential debates.
He is also critical of the media. “Since I announced my run, I can’t get on Charlie Rose. Or Diane Rehm or Terry Gross [of NPR]. I haven’t been on Jim Lehrer yet. I got on Wolf Blitzer twice, on CNN. Fox News calls me more than anybody. They have the same attitude, of course – ‘Here comes the spoiler!’ But how can you spoil something that’s spoiled already?
“I don’t complain much publicly. I’ve been told by a lot of the television bookers around the country, ‘Ralph, they don’t like you.’ So the door is shut. But I say to myself, ‘Should we close down and go to Monterey and watch the whales?’ No. Better to fight when you have a small chance, than to fight later when you have no chance at all.”
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3 Ross Levin // May 31, 2008 at 1:30 pm
Nader endorsed the National Initiative (www.ni4d.us) when he went on C-Span recently.
4 seventy-one // May 31, 2008 at 4:03 pm
Did he really Ross? Because I know I’ve had discussions with you on the Gravel forums and on Facebook regarding the matter. Do you have a link to the video on C-Span?
5 jerseyreformjake // May 31, 2008 at 4:12 pm
Anybody think Nader can do better then he did in ‘08? Of course if he gets on about 40-44 states. I think it’s a real chance, because I feel a lot of people will get turned off when they learn Barr really isn’t as “good guy” as it seems to be.
6 Ross Levin // May 31, 2008 at 4:46 pm
http://www.c-spanarchives.org/library/index.php?main_page=product_video_info&products_id=205748-1
It’s about 48 minutes into it.
7 seventy-one // Jun 1, 2008 at 3:58 pm
Thanks Ross!
That’s great! Now if Nader can just add it as the 13th Issue that Matters….
8 Ross Levin // Jun 1, 2008 at 4:36 pm
I emailed some of his staffers. Haven’t got a response yet.
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