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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated

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To: LindyBill who started this subject	2/22/2004 5:00:56 AM
From: LindyBill	of 793926

From the "Evangelical Blog," of all places. Republicans and the Nader Delusion: Why a Nader Candidacy is Bad for Bush Ralph Nader is expected to announce his candidacy for President tomorrow on Meet the Press. Conservative pundits and bloggers are already praising the move, believing it will help Bush and hurt the Democrats. I think they’re wrong. Here’s why: Gore lost in 2000 -- A protest vote is only worthwhile if your second choice candidate gets elected. After Gore lost to Bush by the narrowest of margins there were a lot of voters who were left feeling queasy about pulling the lever for Nader. They won’t make the same mistake again. Besides, Nader will most likely run as an Independent and won’t have the support of the Green party. As an independent he will only get a very low percentage of the vote, probably less than 1%. It makes Kerry look like a “centrist” -- Kerry is farther Left than almost any member of Congress. He makes Joe Lieberman look like Rush Limbaugh. But set him up next to Nader and he suddenly becomes a “centrist.” With Nader on the Left and Bush on the Right, Kerry can claim the middle. Those of us who know him won’t be fooled. The “undecided” and independent voters, however, don’t follow every nuance of the campaign and may fall for the ploy. This could throw a significant amount of “centrist” voters to Kerry. Bush gets attacked from two flanks -- Nader has already hinted that he won’t be using his “Republicans and Democrats are the same” routine that he used in 2000. He will come out swinging against Bush while only taking soft jabs at the Democratic nominee. If Bush chooses to ignore the attacks it makes Nader look like an underdog populist. But if Bush is forced to respond, it takes away valuable time and momentum that could be used against the Democratic challenger. Either way it becomes a lose-lose dilemma. Nader will bring ‘em to the polls… -- …but it won’t be to vote for him. The Democrats got a taste of what happens when they let Nader play the spoiler. The DNC will be able to use this as a way to reduce apathy and increase voter turnout. None of these points by themselves make a Nader candidacy a definitive threat to Bush. But they should at least give us pause before we start cheering a third party candidate as a victory for the Republicans. Ralph isn’t doing us any favors. Posted by Joe Carter

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