Nader cost himself federal funds (Re: election demographics

John Gulick jlgulick at sfo.com
Fri Nov 10 21:04:00 PST 2000


Nathan sez:


>But Nader supporters have got to recognize that Gore and liberal Dems didn't
>"steal" Nader votes either. Nader lost those votes by ignoring their
>concerns and alienating them by campaigning in swing states.

I sez:

Nathan, many of the so-called "swing states" (such Washington, Wisconsin, and Michigan) were "swing states" precisely _because_ Nader had natural constituencies there (i.e. anti-WTO greens and anti-NAFTA autoworkers). Nader didn't specifically target these states to endanger Gore, but b/c he had lots of potential support there. In essence what you're saying is that Nader should have conceded those states where he was bound to do best.

John Gulick



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