Nader will attend DNC/ABC News debate

[Freddie Stubbs]

Dec. 9 – Ralph Nader, who is surrounded with rumors he may run again for president, will have a chance at Tuesday’s presidential debate to size up his possible competition – in person.

PoliticsNH.com has learned Nader will be the guest of Ohio Congressman and candidate Dennis Kucinich. Nader will sit among the nearly 1,000 audience members in the debate sponsored by ABC News and sanctioned by the Democratic National Committee. Candidates are given an allotment of tickets for staff and supporters. The debate will be held at the University of New Hampshire .

His presence will be interesting given the fact that many Democrats blame Nader for Al Gore’s loss to George Bush in 2000. That year, as a third party candidate running from the Green Party, Nader’s left-leaning voters siphoned off votes that likely would have gone to Gore. Vote totals tell the story. In the closest presidential race in American history, Bush won New Hampshire by 7,200 votes. Nader received 22,200 votes from Granite Staters.

A Kucinich campaign spokesman said originally Kucinich gave Nader an “all access” pass allowing him to roam anywhere in the debate building, including the spin room. A Democratic Party source said on the condition of anonymity this privilege to Nader was revoked.

more: http://www.politicsnh.com/archives/pindell/2003/december/12_9nader.shtml

[buff2]

1. Here we go again......

Nader has to be one of bu$h's best friends. Why can't he just GO AWAY? :grr:

[OhioStateProgressive]

2. he is one of Dennis Kucinich's best friends(nt)

[Frodo]

3. This could be BAD.

What's the chance that Kucinich will run WITH Nader in '04 if/when he doesn't get the nomination?

Kucinich may only get 1%-2% of the vote, but as a third party candidate that could devestate us.

[OhioStateProgressive]

4. none

he has said it at least 100 times over the campiagn...he has been a Democrat since he was 18, and he's not changing


and honestly...I'm not going to respond to this hypothetical...because quite frankly, i believe in Dennis Kucinich, and every ballot that has his name on it that I see, I will put a check next to HIS name...for this is democracy and my right to choose a candidate I believe in...it is an abrogation of my Constitutional Freedoms to force backlash on me for supporting a candidate

not even the first vote has been cast, and people are already saying I need to jump on the Dean bandwagon...even suggesting that I should leave this website now for supporting someone other than Dean...well he isn't the nominee, and that is the crux of it...not a single vote has been cast

[dpbrown]

5. It takes a major party to make world change - Kucinich knows this

Kucinich, more than any other candidate - and frankly, more than most activists - understands that this is a battle for the soul of the Democratic Party.

To make change, you've got to have power. The third party movement has no real power to affect change right now.

That's why the only hope for affecting change in the nation and the world is to take over one of the two major parties. The neocons took over the Republicans - the "centrists" have taken over the Democrats.

Having the neocons in charge of the Republicans has pushed disaffect Republicans to the left. The centrists, by choosing Dean, think there are enough votes there to cement their hold over the Democratic Party.

But having the centrists in charge of the Democratic Party has squeezed progressives out to the "left" and there they've found, and become part of, a burgeoning progressive movement embodied by the Green Party - as yet not powerful enough to take national office.

More than 53 million made a "progressive" choice in 2000, yet the Democrats are pinning their hopes, not on the deeper ranks of the bell curve to the "left" of Gore, but on Republicans disenchanted with neocon rule in Washington.

They expect liberals and progressives to "get in line" BEFORE a single primary vote has been cast, in order to "prove" to the rest of the nation that there is no nascent progressive option for the nation at this point.

This is a lie. There is a progressive option with a candidate who lives and breathes core Democratic values, who takes on corporations and wins, who fights the fights that need to be fought, whose honesty and forthright integrity are desperately needed in this nation at this time.

This is a fight for the soul of the Democratic Party, and progressive activists who care about bringing back traditional core values to the Democratic Party will work their behinds off to get Kucinich a good showing in Iowa.

Dan Brown
Saint Paul, Minnesota

[dpbrown]

6. BTW, Kucinch won Mayor as an independent

Just so's ya know.

;-)

[OhioStateProgressive]

7. I know:)

he wasn't officially recognized by the Democratic Party until he ran for State Senate in 1994

[Frodo]

8. Your post SAYS it's a response to mine... but I don't see it?

Other than the first line.

I'm not trying to get you to support Dean (though if he becomes the nominee and Kucinich runs Green I'll at least ask for your vote). Nor am I talking about a backlash.

I just remember all the people who talked about Kucinich bringing in all the GReen votes because they loved him... now I hear Nader will be Dennis' guest right after Dean becomes more presumptive as the nominee with the endorsement of our LAST nominee.

Is it that big a jump to think that someone is trying to tell us something?

[OhioStateProgressive]

9. it is a huge jump

since two days before I heard Dennis categorically deny he would do it

and, since I trust him, i think it is too far of a jump

but people still constantly ask everyday..."Will Dennis run with Ralph?"

maybe if people would give Dennis the consideration he deserves people would know for themselves answers such as these

[Frodo]

10. OK. Sorry.

I didn't realize you had been bombarded with this every day. I hadn't thought it was a possibility until I read this post.

I tied that with the animosity some of Kucinich's allies here seem to have for every other candidate and thought it was at least possible that he would run in that direction.

Maybe I'm wrong (though I don't see anyone else in the party cozzying up with the man who cost us the last election). What do you think his supporters would do if he DID jump ship? What would you do?

Actually, come to think of it, I do "see other Democrats cozzying up with the man who cost us the last election". Dean just got endorsed by him. :eyes:

[OhioStateProgressive]

12. hmmm

Dennis won't run green


if he did, he would get twice as mnay votes as Nader

Dennis is a serious politician

[a_lil_wall_fly]

20. He stated that if the Democratic party can not get the job done...

by having a Kunnich-Sharpton ticket...he would throw his hat in.

[Rowdyboy]

11. I revise my opinion of Dennis Kucinich

Drastically downward. He goes from 5th to 9th of nine. It would be bad enough if the networks had invited Nader-but a CANDIDATE? For crying out loud, none of them would even be there if not for Nader's colossal ego. I've respected DK since his first run for mayor, and was thrilled when he returned to politics in the 90's. Never again-he's now one of "Nader's Traitors"

[OhioStateProgressive]

13. thanks for the warning...i can put you on ignore now

[Rowdyboy]

15. Be my guest

That makes two for me

[NNadir]

14. This is hardly a surprise.

My guess is that the majority of the Kucinich support is anything but ABB. They're in the Nader-Bush absolutist camp, the same loud 1-2%. I'm sure that if the nomination is decided for someone other than Kucinich (a near 100%) certainty, they'll go stalking off loudly proclaiming the nominee (whoever the nominee is) as being equivalent Bush. It will be as much a lie now as it was in 2000, with the exception that many people are a bit more sophisticated.

Fortunately on the left, this contingent is vanishingly small. Without the disenfranchisement of Democratic voters in Florida in 2000, we would have forgotten that they existed. What's the probability of that happening again?

[redqueen]

16. I respect Kucinich for having the courage to invite Nader

Weak-kneed Repbulicrats (or is that Demopublicans?) are scared $#@&less of Nader.

Well good.

They should be.

They should all know that their time is running short, if the keep running to the right after corporate approval.

Keep quivering, traitors.

I hope they're scared that DK might run as a Green. He'd sure take my vote with him.

I'm tired of being browbeaten and sold out by whored-out 'Democrats'.

[NNadir]

18. As expected.

So much for the notion that Kookinich was a Democrat.

[OhioStateProgressive]

19. "kookinich"...nice slur(nt)

[redqueen]

22. Can you read?

HE said he wouldn't... I posited what would happen to my vote if he should.

Reality is a tricky thing, but if you try, you just might be able to keep track of it.

Oh btw, love the insult-namecalley-right-wingery epithet you used for KUCINICH, the only candidate with real integrity.

:eyes:

[a_lil_wall_fly]

23. NN..like your candidate could not prep a solid enough underling to.....

keep Vermont a democratic state.

Why is it that "the Dr.'s" numbers as the FORMER GOVERNOR of the state slipped the last three elections hmmm....
More registered Republicans voted and more registered 3rd party members voted than the registered Democratic....

Was he house cleaning for the Republican party hmmmmm?????

Shows that Dr Dean has issues within the Democratic party as well as CURRENT CONGRESSMAN DENNIS KUNNICH...but the current congressman is not have citizens in his district not voting for the other political parties or not voting at all in huge precentages.....

Simple and too the point with the facts from the elections offices of Ohio(http://serform2.sos.state.oh.us/sos/) and Vermont(http://vermont-elections.org/soshome.htm). Look at the results..they don't lie.

I have my dislikes for both Dr Dean and Congressman Kunnich..but Kunnich has lesser "policy(future-current-past)" issues than Dr. Dean overall.

[Think Globally]

17. You're all missing the point...

Greens are people of prinicple. They left the Democratic Party because the Dems have repeatedly nominated Republicrat sellouts. Dennis can win the Democratic AND Green nomination! He can bring them back to the Democratic Party, energize the party base, and get bodies in voting booths in November. He can take back our party AND our country! Reaching out to Nader is a start of exactly that, and we all should do the same!

[a_lil_wall_fly]

21. ThinkGlobally..your statement is simple and direct

bravo....

:toast: to you

[redqueen]

24. Yes, we should

But most have been successfully hypnotized / had their heads filled with so much propoganda that they're willing to turn on lefties too.

Witness Dean's "weepy and liberal" comment, and how little outrage that earned him among 'liberals'.