this is an interesting point. however . . .
>
> For other perspectives, take a look at:
>
> http://www.boston.com/news/politics/campaign2000/news/
> Green_Party_supporters_rebuff_criticism+.shtml: National exit-poll
> data show that 30 percent of [Nader] voters would have skipped the
> election if he was not on the ballot. But that data also show that 47
> percent of Nader voters said they would have supported Gore had Nader
> not been in the race.
>
> http://www.indiancountry.com/article/2710: Reports from exit polling
> data indicate that most of the Nader voters who would have voted for
> someone else said they would have voted for Gore.
>
> http://www.dartreview.com/archives/000120.php: According to
> post-election night analysis by CNN's Bill Schneider, exit polls
> showed that about half of all voters who voted for Nader would have
> voted for Gore.
here, those making this case seem to me to want to have it both ways. the nader vote was marginal, but still somehow enough to sink gore -- even in ways that gore's own shortcomings could not.
beyond which, in an electoral college system, this would have to be broken down by state to be truly meaningful, especially since gore *won* the popular vote even without the nader voters. in my own state of illinois, for example, gore's success was never in doubt.
>
> http://www.arktimes.com/mccord/120100mccord.html: Some believe that
> Nader wanted Bush to win all along, that his goal was to cripple the
> Democratic Party so as to make the Green Party and Ralph Nader more
> powerful in future elections (Nader will be 70 in 2004, by the way).
> It's the old notion that things will have to get worse before they get
> better. After criticizing Gore as part of a do-nothing administration
> in a speech at Chapman University in California, Nader said: "If it
> were a choice between a provocateur and an anesthetizer, I'd rather
> have a provocateur. It would mobilize us."... Two-thirds of those who
> voted for Nader said they would have voted for Gore if Nader hadn't
> been on the ballot.
what's troubling about this, of course, is that it is seen as a reason for nader to have bowed out, rather than as a reason for gore to have moved left to pick up these voters -- to steal them from nader. this goes to brad's earlier point, questioning from's motives . . .
j
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