On Friday afternoon, when I saw Ralph Nader’s name listed as the lead guest on Meet the Press, I wondered if Tim Russert was taking the week off.
But this morning, Nader announced he’s running for president… again.
Lefties are probably wailing, and righties are probably cheering, but it’s hard to see him having the kind of impact he had in 2000. He ran in 2004, remember, and had almost no impact at all — 463,653 votes, 0.38 percent of the popular vote.
For an aspiring candidate running to the left of the Democratic nominee, the best opportunity was 2000. In the eyes of dyed-in-the-wool liberals, Al Gore could be tied to all of the compromises and half-measures of the Clinton years. In 2004, the motivation was Bush hatred, and the need to unify around one alternative.
Presuming Obama’s the nominee, I have a hard time seeing many liberals say, “Obama’s just too centrist to me.” (If that’s the case, that’s a sign they’re paying all attention to his rhetoric and no attention to his record and agenda.)
Judging from Meet the Press comments, it’s the same platform, same lines of criticism, same issues… probably will get something in the neighborhood of the same results.