Nader hasn't spent the last decade running for president. Nader founded Citizen Works in 2001 one which helps activits to cooperate with each other. He has written five books the the last decade that do not discuss his presidential campaigns. He regularly writes columns on subjects unrelated to his presidential campaigns such as public health and the War in Iraq. He never said that Gore and Bush were the same. He merely said that they agreed on many issues such as NAFTA which they did. Gore and Kerry were the ones saying that a vote for Nader was a vote for Bush.

Xranadu has already said much of what I would say and very well. At no time did I say Nader, McKinney, McCain, Barr et al do not have a right to run. Nor did I ever demand that their names be removed from the ballot this year or any year. I don't think Nader has enough base left to threaten Obama.

There were many factors to 2000. I blame Gore for not running a better campaign; I blame him for underestimating the combination of Bush and Rove; I blame Katherine Harris, too. But while I don't blame Nader alone for what happened eight years ago, I'm sure not going to let him off the hook for the portion of responsibility that WAS his.

Nader may have admirable stances on a lot of issues, but I find the man himself obstinate, and obnoxious, and more interested in stoking his interests than the country's. In which case, being irrelevant, and ignored and knowing it would be the worst possible punishment for a man like him. But if he were to spontaneously combust and I was present with a bucket of water at the time, I'd throw it on him. Honest. The minute I finished toasting my marshmallow.

Let's hear it for scapegoating. 250,000 registered FL Dems vote for Bush in '00 - blame Nader! Gore can't carry his own state of Tenn - blame Nader!! Lots of Dems are repulsed by Clinton's Monica-shenanigans and either vote Republican or don't vote at all - blame Nader!!! The Dems in the Senate REFUSE to support the Black Caucus in calling for resuming the Florida vote count - BLAME NADER!!!!

You Dem libs are as closed-minded as your knuckle dragging fundamentalist cousins. "Nader stole our votes!" - who the hell guaranteed any votes to the Dems? They have to earn them, and because of 1.2 million dead Iraqis thanks to Clinton-Gore's genocidal sanctions (remember Madeline Albright on 60 Minutes - "it was worth it"), because of Clinton's bombings of Iraq and Serbia, and his bombing of the only pharmaceutical plant in Sudan which probably killed hundreds unable to obtain medicines as a diversion from Monicagate - because of all this and more, many on the left were sick and tired of Clinton, Gore and the DLC's Republican-lite act. We wanted more of a choice between right and center right - and we still do. Obama has voted for every penny Bush has asked for to carry out his illegal wars; he - a constitutional law professor! has REFUSED to call for impeachment of a President that has broken international and US law - pre-emptive war, torture and spying. He supported the $700 billion - soon it'll be closer to $3 TRILLION giveaway to Wall St - the same Wall St that has helped him raise almost 3 times as much $ as McCain. Since when does a Dem out fundraise a Repub? What will Wall St get for their investment?? "He who pays the piper picks the tune"!

I'll give you clowns 6 months, and when Obama still has 100,000 troops in Iraq, when he's added 10,000 more in Afghanistan, when he's saber rattling (or worse) with Iran and bombing Pakistan, when he continues blank-check support to apartheid Israel, and when he refuses to support major domestic spending programs to create jobs and rebuild the infrastructure, because all the $$ has gone to the Pentagon and Wall St con artists, then you can either junk your so-called progressive pose, or you can actually put your f....in' egos aside, admit that you were wrong, and work to change this country by opposing and not supporting those responsible.

Only Republicans wanted to stick it to Gore and the Democrats

That's a weak assertion at best. Perhaps that's your view seeing how you reside in the ruby red state of Texas. Are you yourself "really that dim" to think that Nader's constant refrain to the MSM didn't reach any of the other 49 states besides yours? Several states in 2000 were decided by margins near as razor-thin as Florida, where Nader's repeated claims of "Gore=Bush" lent a hand in encouraging many Democratic voters to NOT SHOW UP AND VOTE! Nader apologists continually try to rely on some phony abstract idea that only the final FL vote totals decided the entire election. Had enough voters in several swing states showed up for Gore instead of deciding to sit the election out due to Nader's ass-backwards comparisons of the two frontrunners, Gore would have been able to achieve the 270 electoral threshhold regardless of the Florida fiasco. As someone actively involved in the ground game in battleground states in 2000, Nader's never ending torpedo mission on Gore helped depress Democratic turnout in one of the most critical and closest elections dating back generations. His rhetoric, whether intended or not, did more to encourage many voters NOT to become involved in the process at a time when the consequences of apathy could never have been more grave and serious.

It affects me zero whether you respect me or not. It won't change my resolve to go out there today and tomorrow and contribute to an actual effort to bring the change that so many in this country now agree must take place as opposed to the mess Nader helped create 8 years ago. But Nader apologists might get some more respect had they had the sense to acknowledge that his actions in 2000, whether by intention or not, helped undermine the ideas and institutions that they claim to hold so dear. Instead, there's still too many of them that insist that by showing up one day out of every four years to stick it to the system they claim has failed them, that they have somehow done more for those causes than those of us who have devoted hundreds and in many cases thousands of hours to help bring positive reform. Until then, they as well as Nader himself, will continue to be viewed with utter contempt for the damage that he denies any part in helping to inflict.