It’s the summer of a presidential election year, which means it’s time to renew, for the fourth time since 1996, our quadrennial discussion of the hugely consequential role that Ralph Nader is poised to play in November.

The aging consumer advocate, in case you’ve forgotten or didn’t know in the first place, announced his candidacy on Meet the Press over the winter and, besides scoring some headlines in June when an indicted referee lent some (but not much) credence to his NBA conspiracy theories, hasn’t been heard from much since – until this week, when NBC News and The Wall Street Journal included his name in their latest poll.  read more »

 As Ralph Nader becomes the Harold Stassen of the 21st century and a running joke to everyone except Al Gore, we sometimes forget that a generation ago (When Stassen was our perennial candidate for President), Nader was a founder of the consumer and environmental movement. How does someone evolve from one of the most credible policy advocates in the country, to a punch line on late night television?

When you buckle your seatbelts and when your air bag deploys—saving your life—you should thank Ralph Nader. The Clean Air Act, the Federal Environmental Protection Agency and the Federal Water Pollution Control Act are at least partially due to Nader’s skill as an advocate in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s.

I mention the history because Nader did not build his reputation as a consumer and environmental advocate by pushing symbolism at the expense of results. He must know that his popularity is trending down.  read more »

“I say to President-elect Bush that what remains of partisan rancor must now be put aside, and may God bless his stewardship of this country,” Al Gore said on December 13, 2000.

Well, George W. Bush didn’t listen to Al Gore’s advice, and neither so much did God. But Ralph Nader evidently took it as holy writ.  read more »

During a grilling of Ralph Nader on Sunday morning, Tim Russert noted that the 73-year-old consumer advocate is now launching his third presidential campaign and asked if Nader was worried about becoming the Wendell Willkie of his generation.

Actually, the independent bid that Nader announced on “Meet the Press” will be his fifth White House campaign: Besides his 2004 and 2000 efforts, there was also 1996, when he ran as the Green Party’s nominee in about 10 states; and 1992, when he ran as a write-in candidate in a series of Democratic primaries to protest the lack of a “none of the  read more »

In a conversation with NY Press scribe John DeSio:

"I don't think much is going to come of it," says Nader of the current hybrid of politics and technology. "I don't think the electronic media is very motivating for people to really act. I think person-to-person is really the only way. Marches, demonstrations, living room meetings, when people connect human-to-human, not through some screen. That tends to work throughout history. We had greater mass movements 100 years ago without any telephone, automobile, anything like we have today."

The Web site of one of the Green candidates for Governor, Sander Hicks, offers a reason why. Hicks is a pleasant guy who runs a good coffee shop in my Brooklyn neighborhood and who started a successful small press. His main political thrust, however, is discovering who really committed the 9/11 attacks.

"Our campaign does not claim the entire Federal Government was behind 9/11. But a secretive compartment of the US intelligence machine has close ties to Pakistani intelligence and their shock troops, "Al Qaeda". ...[I]ndependent Green candidate Sander Hicks wrote a devastating book about the 9/11 cover-up. Carefully sourced, his book has been called one of the best on the subject.

Vote Green!