Nader Should Pull Out of Battleground States Unless He Wants Bush
to Win
Commentary ~ October 5, 2004: In a nightmarish
deja-vu of the 2000 election, left-wing independent Ralph Nader
is again pulling votes that might otherwise go to the Democrats.
New polls suggest Nader could still divide the Democratic vote in
some key states just as what happened four years ago when George
Bush reaped the benefit.
Most exit polls of the 2000 election indicate that Nader’s
support cost Democrat Al Gore the election by allowing Bush to win
Florida and New Hampshire. Most national polls show Nader getting
1 percent to 2 percent of the vote again this year – and again,
his appeal to naïve dreamers in battleground states such as
Minnesota and Florida could make him a deciding factor in electing
George Bush. Nader’s Web site says the candidate is on the
ballot in 33 states.
Four years ago, Nader received 5.2 percent of the Minnesota vote.
This was not enough to deny Gore a slim victory in the state, but
surveys now indicate a tighter race, suggesting that even a smaller
vote for Nader could be enough to throw the state into the Bush
column.
Newsweek magazine puts Bush and Kerry in a statistical tie - 45%
for Bush and 47% for the Kerry (with a margin of error of 4 points),
with 2% for Nader. It would increase to 3 points - 49% to 46% -
without Nader in the race.
Nader could easily make it a point and withdraw from the battleground
states. This is a point of contention that soured his relationship
with Michael Moore in 2000, when Moore asked him to focus on those
states where either party had a clear majority. Instead, like the
ego-centric spoiled sport he is, he purposefully went after the
states where there was a close tie – where he could upset
the apple cart by throwing the election in Bush’s favor.
Is Nader working for the Bush campaign?
Probably not, but he is definitely benefiting from Republican patronage.
The Center for Responsive Politics, a watchdog group that keeps
tabs on political money, recently reported that about 13 percent
of Nader’s contributions of over $200 have come from individual
Republicans or their families. The Republicans have also been mobilizing
signatures to ensure Nader gets on the ballots in November. As previously
reported on
this website, in Michigan, for example, the Republican Party
submitted more than 40,000 signatures in a bid to get Nader on the
state's ballot. In Arizona, the state's Democratic Party claims
that half of the 10,000 registered voters who signed petitions last
month to get Nader on the ballot were Republicans.
It should be obvious to even Nader that the differences between
Nader and Gore were not “twiddle dee, twiddle dum” –
and that there are much greater stakes at risk in this year’s
election than just “corporate interests”. If Nader would
look beyond his own narrow self-interests, and consider the well-being
of the country as a whole, he would withdraw from those states where
Bush and Kerry are in a dead heat. He would ask his supporters to
get behind Kerry so we don’t see a repeat of the last four
years.
If Nader were to do this, perhaps Kerry would offer him a position
in his government next January – where he would have more
influence than among his crowd of naivetés. However, if he
insists on clinging to his deluded and egotistical need to pontificate,
he’ll end up with worse enemies than he did last time around.
Ralph Nader, you have one more chance to redeem yourself and reclaim
your positive position in our nation’s history. Now is your
chance to decide. Four more years of Bush, or a change of direction?
The choice may well be yours to make.
