NADER: Dems Unleash Wrath on Ralph
Chicago Sun-Times' Roeper writes, "Ralph Nader is a jerk," who seeks media attention like Pat Buchanan and Jesse Jackson, and "he can match them in the ego department as well." And "isn't it great for Ralph that instead of walking around as a nostalgic trivia question from the 1970s -- the activist equivalent of John Ritter -- that he was getting so much attention again. Congratulations. Jerk," (11/9).
A Boston Globe editorial argues, "If Ralph Nader had not been in the race, Al Gore would today be preparing to become president." The vote for Nader in FL "was the key to George W. Bush's" small lead in there, and without Nader "Gore would probably have gained enough of these to defeat Bush unless the latter does extraordinarily well in the recount." Nationally, Gore "could have earned enough of Nader's 2,655,233" to win OR and NH "and give him a convincing national plurality." Though Nader's supporters "raise serious questions" on several issues, "they chose the wrong campaign to make their point."
Before 11/7, Nader "had earned an honored place in US history as a pioneer in consumer safety. If Bush prevails in Florida, Nader will become a footnote as the willful eccentric who denied Gore the political prize he deserved," (11/9).
Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE): "Ralph Nader is not going to be welcome anywhere near the corridors. Nader cost us the election," (Dao, New York Times, 11/9).
NARAL's Kate Michelman: "He cost Al Gore the race. Not only by what happened in Florida, but by making these other states a threat to Al Gore. Not to recognize what was at stake -- or to dismiss it if he did -- was dangerous and represented a type of arrogance. As a result, he lost a lot of credibility," (Slevin, Washington Post, 11/9).
AFL-CIO pres. John Sweeney said the Nader campaign was "reprehensible," (Slevin, Washington Post, 11/9). More Sweeney: "As a rule, we really reject the role that Nader played in the political process this time around. I don't know if there's any room in a national election for president for somebody who is a message candidate," (Douglas, Newsday, 11/9).
Enviro Working Group Pres. Ken Cook: "The public interest community is going to spend tens of millions of dollars a year for the next four years playing defense. I don't think he's going to build a Green Party and more than O.J.'s out there looking for a murderer," (Slevin, Washington Post, 11/9).
Miramax Studio chairman and Gore supporter Harvey Weinstein said Nader is a "name that will go down in infamy." Writer Harold Evans said President Clinton, at a post-election party, was "very emphatic about the damage Nader had done to Gore," (Willing, USA Today, 11/9).
The New Republic's Foer writes even if Gore "winds up losing this election, Ralph Nader will be proven the biggest loser of the night. His bid to create a viable leftist third party can be judged an utter failure." Nader "and his egomania must assume the lion's share of the blame." Nader's was "the rant of a man who has squandered all claims to secular sainthood, who seems destined now to become irrelevant and irate, spewing words to nobody in particular from a street corner," (11/8).
Larry Marx, an ex-Nader supporter who directs Wisconsin Citizen Action: "Ralph got tunnel vision, and lost sight of progressive goals. People remember those kind of things, and there's a price to be paid," (Willing, USA Today, 11/9).
Washington Post editorial: "We said before the election that Mr. Nader's candidacy threatened some of the very causes in behalf of which he campaigned. The results confirmed what he continues to deny," (11/9).
Bob Borosage, co-director of the "liberal-oriented" Campaign for America's Future: "What he did was take the best and brightest of the young off on a fool's errand that may end up electing someone with positions far, far from his own," (Freedman, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 11/9).
Amy Isaacs political director of Americans for Democratic Action: "His standing has been severely diminished by his actions. People basically view him as having been on a narcissistic, self-serving Sancho Panza, windmill-tilting excursion," (Dao, New York Times, 11/9).
Gerald McEntee, head of AFSCME union: "Because of him and his activites, there is a possibility that the people we represent can be harmed, can be hurt, that our agenda that we fought for may not take place," (Dao, New York Times, 11/9).
New York Times Dao reports, "Several Democrats said today that they expected many longtime financial supporters of Mr. Nader's to cut of their contributions to organizations with which he is affiliated," (11/9).
USA Today editorial: If Nader "were an ordinary politician" Bush "might owe him a Supreme Court appointment, or at least a cushy ambassadorship." If "Gore, the apparent popular-vote winner, is denied the presidency because of Nader, the backlash from liberals otherwise sympathetic to Green Party objectives will be immeasurable," (11/9).
But Gore adviser Tad Devine on whether there's some anger directed at Nader: "I don't think we're bitter. I think it's unfortunate that so many people decided to vote for a candidate who obviously was not going to win this election and now we're left with such a close race. I think obviously those votes could have tipped the balance, not just in [FL] but perhaps in [OR] as well, so that's unfortunate" ("LKL," CNN, 11/8).
Yep, This is Pretty Convincing
Curtis Gans, of the Center for the Study of the American Electorate: "Almost every vote that went to him would have gone to Gore." Andrew Kohut, from the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press: "Eighty percent indicated that they would have voted for Gore if it had been a two-person race," (Warren, Chicago Tribune, 11/9).
Nader appears to have been a significant factor in both NH and OR. Bush won NH "and its 5 electoral votes by 7,282 votes, and Nader received 22,156 votes." And in OR, "Bush's lead Wednesday was around 26,000 votes. Nader had already received nearly 55,000 voters," (Sherman, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 11/9).
Nader got more than 5 percent of the vote in "nine states, attracting 10 percent in Alaska, 6 percent" in HI, ME, MA, MT and RI, and 5 percent in CO, MN and OR, (Warren, Chicago Tribune, 11/9).
Reform candidate Pat Buchanan: "Mr. Nader, I believe, can take credit for having sunk..the Gore candidacy." But Nader disagreed, saying of the Dem Party: "Apparently, it can't even win in Tennessee and Arkansas," (Sherman, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 11/9).
The Elimi-Nader Speaks
But Nader was "defiant" 11/8: "The Democrats must find their progressive roots or watch the party wither away, or become a crypto-Republican Party, seeking the same money and voters." More Nader: "I've always said that it was Al Gore's election to lose, that only Al Gore could beat Al Gore. If Democrats are disappointed with the returns, they need to take a long, close look at their party and the empty campaign waged by Al Gore." Still More Nader: "By the way, I do think that Al Gore cost me the election, especially in Florida," (Slevin, Washington Post, 11/9).
More Nader: "How can you spoil a system that's spoiled to begin with?" (Willing, USA Today, 11/9).
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