Ralph Nader, the man who helped give us George Bush in 2000, continues his efforts to help Republicans. He is now attacking Barack Obama, not John McCain:
Ralph Nader’s campaign sent an e-mail to supporters Friday that paints Obama as too close to big business and special interests. “Ralph Nader stands for shifting the power from the big corporations back to the people. Period. Full stop. End of story,” writes the Nader campaign. “Contrast that with Senator Obama.”
The message highlights what it says are changes in the Illinois senator’s positions on public spending limits, NAFTA and economic populism, and says that Obama has surrounded himself with “veterans of the military industrial complex status quo.” It does not mention his Republican counterpart, John McCain.
Ralph Nader’s political strategy has long appeared to be directed more at hurting Democrats such as Al Gore and John Kerry. For example, he has concentrated on swing states where he could tilt the election to the Republicans, as he did in Florida in 2000.
I don’t think Nader is trying to hurt Democrats. He is simply trying to give voters another choice. This two party system is like choosing between Pepsi and Coke. Blaming the lost election in 2000 on Nader is pointless. What about the 12 percent of Florida Democrats who ended up voting for Bush? No one blamed them!!! Half of the registered Democrats did not even vote anyways. It’s easy to point the finger. It also sounds a bit anti-democratic to say that someone should not run for office.
I’m not saying he should not run. He has the right to run. There is nothing anti-democratic in criticizing a candidate you disagree with. That is actually part of the democratic process. The issue with Nader is that his strategy does seem designed to hurt Democrats more than Republicans, which make many of us think he is far more concerned with a vanity campaign of his own than he is concerned about promoting liberal principles.