I get SO TIRED of media posts like this covering Ralph Nader's presidential campaign SOLELY in terms of what impact he might have on the major party campaigns.

We are in the middle of a meltdown on Wall Street, and Nader is the only candidate that has presented a coherent strategy to address the crisis.

This strategy is newsworthy. The crisis is significant enough that the media owes it to us to finally break through its two-party blinders and convey serious information that will allow us to make an informed choice in November.

Barack is going to have to wake up and start speaking to progressives if he doesn't want to end up like Gore. "Not as bad as McCain" is not a compelling campaign.

That egocentric troll threw the 2000 election, and while his results in 2004 were negligible, they always present a problem for Dems.

He kept saying in 2000 there was no difference between Dems and Repubs. Bullshit, he knew better but decided to run and split the vote anyway.

Fuck him!

A lot of people dicking around with their votes vaulted Hitler to power.

And W, for that matter.

When will this clown die and stop his 20-year self-promotion tour?

Nader would run against Jesus, Ghandi, Lincoln - anybody. Because he's the only one who's ever right about anything.

Please, Ralph, give it up. Your ego has been stroked long enough for the work you did in the 60s and 70s...Now you are simply a royal pain, and all that you have done is forgotten in your silly campaigns which, not unlikely, could once more be decisive in handing the nomination to the conservatives....Enough.

Ralph Nader has the same right to run for president as any native-born American who has reached the age of 35.

But if this little vanity exercise results in John McCain winning the presidency, I wouldn't want to be the person responsible for Nader's safety. The only advice I could give him would be to go into exile in a place inaccessible by plane or boat - like one of Saturn's moons.

Since only two of the last four articles had "Palin" in them.

But if you are a racist, sexist and/or war monger, you probably don't want to let people know about her running, do you , Alex?

For those who hate Nader, maybe the democrats should run a democrat instead of a fascist next time.

He might give the semi-mythical "Anti-Obama Democrats" someone else to vote for other than John McCain. If someone already isn't going to vote for Obama, I'd rather they vote for Nader than McCain.

As a reward for putting the GOP in the White House, maybe you-know-who will name Nader as her VP and let him stay in the secure undisclosed location after she takes over from grumpy gramps.

I think I'd go for Bob Barr. Libertarians aren't my cup of tea by any means, and Barr was - like many Repubs - a hypocritical slime during the Clinton impeachment, but I'd have to go with him out of sympathy for his appearance in "Borat".

Wow, Rupert C, you caught us red-handed. We Obama supporters are all a bunch of racist, sexist warmongers trying to put a fascist in the White House. What planet did you say you live on?

There not even running under a specific third party so forget helping that cause. Of course Nader is not a spoiler, nooooo, never.

I just hope for the sake of all that is good and decent he doesn't start up with that 'there isn't any difference' between the candidates. I can understand and share frustration with the Democratic Party but it is a hell of a lot better than the Republicans.

Why don't you go ahead and vote for McCain? You're obviously a bunch of sadomasochists. What do you see in that bag of wind anyway? Has he ever accomplished anything? Anyone can have views on issues: putting them into practice requires living in reality, somewhere Nader and Nader voters would rather not reside.

Go ahead and vote for war, you have two choices for that. Don't have a cow about peace candidates. They don't count those votes anyway.

Some people don't like war, so why should they vote for it?

He will pull troops out of Iraq immediately. Obama won't.

He will investigate Bush-Cheney war crimes. Obama won't.

Obama will escalate the war in Afghanistan. Nader won't.

Is it a valid reason to hold your nose and vote for Obama in the hope that "Obama can win, and Nader won't"? Obama, Clinton, Biden, Dodd, Edwards... none of those politicians represent a truly progressive vision. They are all severe compromises. What are elections for, if not to vote for a candidate that best rpresents one's views? That candidate might not win, but if, say, a Green Party candidate gets 9% in one election cycle, and then 23%, and later 48%... well then that is the very definition of "progress" for "progressives." That is how progressives put themselves on the electoral map. It is the ONLY way for progressives to put themselves on the electoral map once and for all.

Ralph Nader!

That's a childish answer. Since Nader isn't going to win, you are voting for endless war if you vote for Nader because it's the equivalent of voting for McCain. Anyone with any sense of moral complexity can see that you are reponsible for the consequenses of your actions. Voting for Nader is like a dramatic hand-washing. You can pretend to absolve yourself of responsibility that way, but you are still liable. Do you really think that Obama won't try to get us out of this war as fast as possible? McCain's obsessed with "winning" the war. I think his 100-year estimate for that is just about right.

Ralph Nader isn't going to get a statistically significant number of votes, certainly not enough to break the two party system and anyone who thinks otherwise is fooling themselves. All Ralph Nader is going to do is get McCain elected. If you're a Nader voter and you are ok with that fact, more power to you, but don't try selling anyone on the idea of bringing down the two party system.

Nader should stick to consumer advocacy - we need him now more than ever in that capacity.