How're we going to win this way?

[Southern Patriot]

From the AP:
Democrats Won't Appeal Nader Petition Case
September 25, 2004 07:11 PM EDT


MANCHESTER, N.H. - New Hampshire's Democratic Party announced Saturday night it will not appeal a Ballot Law Commission decision placing Ralph Nader on the state's Nov. 2 ballot.

Democrats were upset that a Republican group collected petition signatures to get Nader on the ballot. Some of the signatures were gathered during a visit to the state by President Bush.

Bush narrowly won New Hampshire over Democrat Al Gore in 2000, giving Bush his only victory in the Northeast. In that election, Nader won three times as many votes as Bush's margin over Gore.

On Friday, the state Ballot Law Commission voted 5-0 to reject the party's challenge and to keep Nader on the ballot.

{more} http://start.earthlink.net/newsarticle?cat=9&aid=D85B0IG00_story

[cindyw]

1. It occurs to me that if Nader could only get repubs to get him onto the

ballot, who will vote for him. Those same Repubs?

[Southern Patriot]

4. Nope. THOSE Repubs will be laughing while

principled Naderites give their vote to the candidate who doesn't have a chance of beating Bush--- instead of the candidate who's a lot closer to many of their positions.

[childslibrarian]

2. Because it isn't Nader who will get in our way

It's Karl Rove...

[OneBlueSky]

3. just as an aside, I picked up the current "Rolling Stone" today . . .

the one with Springsteen's article and quotations from many of the "Rockin' Rebels" who are touring to remove Bush from office . . . had to chuckle a bit at Bob Weir's (The Dead) comments . . . here's the first paragraph . . .

"Ralph Nader is the most arrogant and narcissistic guy I've ever met. I had a meeting with him in the early Nineties. I was jazzed going into the meeting, and I was disgusted leaving. I don't think I've ever met a bigger asshole. If he hadn't run in the last election, we wouldn't be in Iraq and thousands of people wouldn't have died needlessly. And still he's well pleased to go in and be the spoiler again!"

[Southern Patriot]

5. Harsh, but accurate.

Weir is evidently a canny observer.

Many musicians would have been blinded by Nader's reputation.

[cheshire]

7. I haven't been able to articulate my feelings about Nadar until now. TY

[PermanentRevolution]

6. Don't alert on me, please...

I want a Kerry victory just as badly as anyone else here, but I've had some serious misgivings about the attempts to get Nader off the ballot. I KNOW he's an enabler. I agree that his bid is fueled more by an ego run rampant than out of any genuine desire to help the country. I think it's despicable that Republicans were gathering signatures to try and get him on the ballot wherever possible, but if the states decide he has a right to be on the ballot, then we have to live with that. We don't need to look like the party of exclusion. We don't need to look like we're trying to strongarm the election. And MOST OF ALL, we don't need Nader voters who might have turned to Kerry voting for Nader instead because they're pissed at the Democrats for trying to block the Nader campaign.

Instead of trying to force him out of the race, we need to be convincing the Nader voters that there's a compelling reason to vote for Kerry. All the 2000 Nader voters I know already think this race is too important to let Nader votes go to Bush. One guy at work is still backing him, but he's promised to vote for Kerry if the polls are still looking tight.

The die-hard Naderites that maintain there's no difference between the candidates are NOT going to turn around and vote for Kerry if we keep Nader off the ballot. They'll just write him in, or stay home and not vote out of protest.

It comes across as bullying a smaller thrid-party candidate, and we don't need that impression of us out there. If you don't want Nader voters to throw the election, make sure you try and convince them that the consequences are too serious to make a protest vote this time around. But trying to force their candidate off the ballot isn't gaining us any support.

Like I said, I want Kerry in. I want him in so badly that it's consuming my life. But I don't think this is the way to do it. Just my opinion. If you honestly think I'm freeping, alert away.

[Southern Patriot]

8. I agree with you in principle.

But, we're in a desperate knife fight here. Progressives have been asleep far too long and the regressives have seized all three branches of the government. If we don't stop Bush from appointing Supreme Court justices then we'll have let the country slip into a new dark age which could last for decades.

I have absolutely NO compunction about shoving Nader overboard if it does one whit towards stemming the regressive tidal wave.