In California, Ralph Nader won primaries in both the Green party and Peace & Freedom parties yesterday. He pretty much swept the field except in San Francisco, where they know better. He also won handily across New York. It is hard to find information for each state--the Greens are famously disorganized--but there is a good chance we will see Nader again in 2008.
In other news from the silly side of politics, the classic angry white male Libertarian party in California voted for a woman.
Wednesday, February 06, 2008
He's Ba-a-a-a-ack...
Posted by Dr. Strangelove at 2:13 PM
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5 comments:
Great. So California libral crowd may saddle us with the Democratic candidate with the least cross over appeal then hang a giant albatross around her neck called Ralph Nader to siphon off votes.
I think its clear that Nader is a Republican. He can't possibly be this stupid.
Nader is not a Republican. Alas, 2% of the country will do anything. I'm sure plenty more people claim to have been abducted by aliens than voted for Nader in 2004. His name doesn't count for much anymore. The 70s was a long time ago.
But with the Democrats firmly in the environmental and global warming camp right now, and with either a black or a woman candidate, Nader will be a footnote in 2008. I think the Libertarians will outpoll him, if Ron Paul's appeal is any indication.
At least, I hope so.
Nader is well aware that in a 50%+1 electoral competition, he plays the role of a spoiler unless he can reasonably expect to be in 1st or 2nd place. Or, at least, he should be aware.
That is what I'm worried about. Clinton is looking like she'll adopt a stragegy of putting together the barest of margins (a small tent strategy). That's what Rove did. It means that if there is a third party candidate it could throw the election even if they only draw 2% of the vote - as long as that 2% is in the right state. Remember Florida in 2000? 90,000 people voted for Nader.
I would call it the "pup tent" strategy, but we are verging on the double entendre.
I remember Florida all too well. People forget that in New Hampshire, too, the Naderites held the balance fo the votes, and all Gore needed was 1 extra EV that he could have gotten from NH.
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