How the Miami Herald Helped Legitimize the Florida 2000 Selection of George W. Bush as President

[Jim Lane]

25. Absolutely! There's a simple point that the Naderites apparently can't understand:

An event can have more than one cause.

That the Supreme Court acted wrongfully doesn't exculpate Katherine Harris and her illegal, racist, partisan voter purge. Both of those decisions were factors in Bush's accession to the Presidency.

Nader's decision to run in the general election instead of in the Democratic primaries was another such factor.

OBLIGATORY DISCLAIMER IN THE HOPE OF FORESTALLING THE USUAL CANT FROM DIEHARD NADERITES: I am not saying that Nader acted illegally. He had a legal right to run in November, provided that he met Florida's requirements for getting on the ballot, which he did. I'm saying that his decision to exercise that right turned out to be bad for the country and bad for the ideals that Nader himself had honorably and tirelessly fought for over several decades.

I'm also not saying that no one should ever run against the Democratic Party candidate (although I will go so far as to say that no one should ever run against the Democratic Party candidate without at least considering the option of a primary challenge). What I am saying is that, under the particular circumstances here present, it was reasonably foreseeable that Nader's decision to run would increase the danger of a Bush presidency.