[Vision2020] Nader's running

[Sara Anderson]

Josh Marshall summed up my feelings about Nader awfully well the other day on his blog, Talking Points Memo:

"I truly hope that Democrats will not spend too much time abasing themselves, begging Ralph Nader not to run again for president in 2004, as he seems likely to announce he will do on Meet the Press this Sunday.

Certainly, this latter-day political narcissist has already made up his mind what he's going to announce. So there's no point waiting to call him what he is: an enemy of progressive change in this country and a cat's paw of the Republican party. 

If anything, calling him a 'cat's paw' is too generous since a dupe at least doesn't know he's being used.

In any case, I have a rough confidence that this won't be as damaging to Democratic prospects as some fear. Because after the last four years I just don't think that many people will get in line again behind this pied piper of political oblivion.

Late Update: A reader notes that since Nader now isn't even running as a Green, he has apparently abandoned even the pretense that he is in the race to create a viable third party in American politics. If he runs, it would now be strictly on a platform of vacuous moral posturing and self-aggrandizement."

- Sara Anderson