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Politics : President Barack Obama -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (30586)	9/4/2008 6:19:31 PM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 149317

Nader: "I Don't Think The Right Wing Can Trust McCain" hotlineblog.nationaljournal.com September 04, 2008 ST. PAUL – With what he says is an encouraging new poll in hand that reveals voter interest in candidates not tied to either leading political party, independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader takes the stage tonight in Minneapolis for his campaign’s second “Open The Debates Super Rally” of the convention season. While prepping for the event in Washington DC yesterday, Nader talked to On Call about Sarah Palin, the GOP and the next phase of his fourth run for the White House. Nader’s camp says more than 4,000 believers turned out at the first Super Rally in Denver to hear his call to open the presidential debates. Nader has long characterized the Commission On Presidential Debates – a non-profit jointly run by the Democratic Party and the GOP – as bent on keeping third party candidates out of the public sphere. “I wasn’t dropped here by a UFO,” said Nader who launched his fourth bid for the presidency earlier in this year. “If they can do it to me, they can do it to anyone.” The commission’s rules require 15 percent support in a combination of national polls to earn a slot in the debates. Nader’s best numbers this year – according to his own campaign – have his support hovering around 6 percent. It’s unlikely that Nader's event will overshadow the big show at the Xcel Energy Center where John McCain is expected to accept his party’s nomination in a primetime address. Though he has often said that neither party candidate has offered new policy proposals, he appears to have his sights set on McCain. “I don’t think the right wing can trust McCain,” Nader said, referring to McCain’s history of supporting policy positions on campaign finance reform, fuel efficiency standards and ethics reform Nader called “out of step” with the conservative right. “He’s all over the lot – if the right wing thinks they are going to get another patsy like Bush with McCain, they are in for a big surprise. They will not be able to control him.” Nader said he’s watched the news with amusement in the days since McCain announced Palin as his running mate. “She started out as this early bloomer,” Nader said. “She had everything the social conservatives want and was held up as this perfect example of family values and the other social conservative values. And when you start out with such symbolic pluses, there’s only one way to go – down.” Palin, Nader suggested, was selected by McCain to bring values voters into the McCain camp. Laughing, Nader described how he saw the GOP’s reactions to the often personal revelations that dogged Palin this week. Nader: “She’s was supposed to be this leader on ‘Family Values.’ Then there’s premarital sex and all of a sudden it’s ‘oh, everyone does it – we have to face it.’ And you wonder why they call it ‘political theater.’” Nader said that whether Palin will be a strength or weakness for McCain heading into November “won’t be known for at least three weeks.” “Everything is legitimate in politics,” Nader said when asked if it was reasonable for the media to continue to pursue Palin’s family. “That’s just the way it is.” Running for history Nader didn’t say if he was jealous that his latest campaign hasn’t attracted the attention of McCain’s, but it’s clear this time around he’s acknowledged that in order attract any attention in many of the constituents he’s counted on in the past – namely young people and left-wing activists most commonly associated today with the Netroots movement – his message had to change. Gone is much of the rhetoric accusing both major parties of being the same. In ’00, it was Nader’s contention that George W. Bush and Al Gore offered candidacies similarly tied to big business. But in ’08, Nader has refused to liken Obama to McCain, or vice versa. He maintains that voting for either of the two parties is choosing "the lesser or two evils" but he’s talked more about being "disappointed" in Obama than he has in the past about Democratic candidates. Nader, who was spotted wandering into the XCel Energy Center this afternoon, also spent a lot of time talking about larger issues of “outsider access” this year. Nader contends that the amount of work required to get a third party on the ballot in many states is ‘a civil liberties crisis’ that prevents many groups from ever having a seat at the political table. He’s often been quoted on the stump excoriating the media as well. Nader says his camp has faced a “news blackout” in ’08. But his harshest words yesterday were aimed at the most unlikely voters: progressives. “No one’s worse than the liberals and the progressives when it comes to letting their voice be drowned out," he said. "They’re freaked out by the Republicans so they stand by the Democrats in every election. Take environmental voters for example – they stood by the Democrats and now the Democrats are calling for drilling. So where the hell are they gonna go?” While fishing for press during the convention this week, Nader’s camp touted a new poll that showed 77 percent of voters “would consider voting for a third party candidate." But, even after the ’00 race that many still consider to have been determined by Nader voters in Florida, 61 percent of the respondents still said that voting for a party other than the Democrats or the Republicans would be the same as “throwing my vote away.” “That whole issue of wasting the vote really has to be rethought by voters,” Nader said when asked to explain the disparity. “If both parties are failing you, you’re going to lose your bargaining power if you support them.” “I always use the quote from the old union man Eugene Debs,” he continued. “He said it like this: ‘It is better to vote for someone you believe in and lose than vote for someone you don’t believe in and win.’” (EVAN McMORRIS-SANTORO) Posted at 05:53 PM