Feb
Ralph Nader starts U.S. presidential bid
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Consumer advocate Ralph Nader, blamed by many Democrats for their loss of the White House in the 2000 election, said on Sunday he is launching another independent campaign for the White House.
Nader, who will turn 74 this week, announced his long shot presidential bid on NBC’s “Meet the Press” saying that neither the Democrats nor the Republicans were addressing problems facing Americans.
Nader called Washington “corporate occupied territory” that turns the government against the interests of the people. “In that context, I have decided to run for president,” he said.
Nader also ran for president in 2000, when he got about 2.7 percent of the national vote as the Green Party candidate. Many Democrats blamed Nader for draining votes from Democrat Al Gore and tipping the election in favour of Republican George W. Bush.
He also ran as an independent in 2004, but got only a tiny fraction of the vote.
Nader dismissed the idea that he could hurt Democrats when voters go to the polls in November.
“If the Democrats can’t landslide the Republicans this year, they ought to just wrap up, close down, emerge in a different form,” Nader said.
Democrats said they do not expect Nader to have much of an impact.
“When you get into running for your third or fourth time, I don’t think people will pay that much attention to it, and I wouldn’t see it having any effect on the race,” Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine said on “Fox News Sunday.”
Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama, asked on Saturday about a Nader candidacy, said, “My sense is that Mr. Nader is somebody who, if you don’t listen and adopt all of his policies, thinks you’re not substantive.”
Obama added that he did not mean to diminish Nader.
Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee, appearing on CNN’s “Late Edition, said he thought Nader “always would probably pull votes away from the Democrats, not the Republicans. So naturally Republicans would welcome his entry into the race and hope that maybe a few more will join in.”
(Reporting by Donna Smith; Editing by Vicki Allen)
(To read more about the U.S. political campaign, visit Reuters “Tales from the Trail: 2008″ online at http://blogs.reuters.com/trail08/)
© Reuters 2008. All Rights Reserved.
