Mark Steyn: America's Three-Candidate Race (The Nader factor)

The Jerusalem Post ^ | March 9, 2004 | Mark Steyn

[quidnunc]

Of all the many meaningless US election polls around at the moment, the one that tickled my fancy was an Associated Press thing from Friday. Here's the score: Bush 46%, Kerry 45%, Nader 6%.

That's Nader, as in Ralph, the gadfly consumer advocate and declared "independent" presidential candidate. In the 2000 election, he got 3%, which embittered Democrats say was enough to throw the election to Bush. Well, some of the embittered Dems say that. The really embittered ones say Bush got his poppa's judges on the Supreme Court to throw the election to him.

But the point is, if 3% for Ralph Nader was enough to throw a close election to Bush, 6% will be enough to throw him a landslide.

That 6% ranking notwithstanding, Nader's a little short of visible supporters this time round, particularly when it comes to leftie celebrities. Horrified by the last four years, the big-time Nader backers of 2000 are now running cease-and-desist anti-Nader campaigns with names like "No, Ralph, No" — which sounds like a demure Democratic Party heroine squealing as the moustache-twirling Nader ties her to the tracks so that the Bush juggernaut can roll over her one more time.

This year, the Democrats have a tough, forceful candidate with a strong message: as John Kerry is wont to say, often and slowly, "I'm on your side against the powerful special interests that control the Republican Party."

And the Dems don't want this message getting all muddled up with Ralph's message: "I'm on your side against the powerful special interests that control the Democratic Party."

Announcing his candidacy, Nader accused the Democrats of being "too indentured to corporations" and being a "corporate paymaster minion." Last time round, he dismissed governor Bush as "a corporation disguised as a human." This time round, John Kerry is a corporation disguised as an anti-corporate human.

-snip-

[swilhelm73]

Your hyperlink isn't working...

[quidnunc]

swilhelm73 wrote: Your hyperlink isn't working...

Both the one in the header and the one at the bottom of the main post are working just fine for me.

[swilhelm73]

All I get is a blank page.

Didn't realize JPost required excerpting anyway, either...

[mrsmith]

I don't get anything either, I think it's because I don't allow javascripting.

[quidnunc]

swilhelm73 wrote: Didn't realize JPost required excerpting anyway, either...

Federal copyright law requires excerpting.

As for your problems downloading the JPost, go to Mark Steyn's home page http://www.steynonline.com/ and see if his link will get you in.

[Randjuke]

Link worked OK for me, though I had to register to read it. I liked this Kerry "quote":

"Mr. Bush supported the war in Iraq, Mr. Nader opposed it. I'm the only candidate who's shown the bold leadership to support and oppose it, in both cases ineffectually. Mr. Bush opposes gay marriage. Mr Nader supports it. I'm the only candidate with the courage to oppose it but not so much that I'll do anything about it. No, hang on, that's my position on Saddam. But the point is sometimes real leadership means having the courage not to have any courage."

[Burkeman1]

Frankly I don't believe Nader was a factor at all in the last election. The were dozens of outrageous examples of massive voter fraud on the part of the Dems that went univestigated but have merit. I don't believe Gore won the popular vote. Bush couldn't have not only won without having to rely on the quick fix of the Supreme Court but could have exposed the voting fraud that is a sickening tratdtion by the Democrats once and for all.

Just as Perot got about half as much as as he did the second time he ran so will Nader- and Nader was never as strong or as popular as Perot was.

[amordei]

I hate to admit it, but Gore did win the popular vote. Maintaining otherwise will consign you to the same dark throes of depression that DUers have when they say that their man was elected, really he was elected.

Gore won the popular vote by maximizing the black vote in this country (Knock and Drag (TM)). The open question is whether Kerry can repeat the feat.

[sine_nomine]

I think you are quite right. Add up the strange stuff in Wisconsin, in Detroit, St. Louis, the military been sent away before they could vote - it adds up to a Bush popular victory. But that does not matter. Conceding that means nothing. The president is elected by electors, not by popular vote. The popular vote is a relevant as the humidity for that day. That is the greatness of our election for president. Every region is significant. The tiny swing states must get attention by the candidates. Otherwise we would be bullied by a few large states.

[sine_nomine]

I think you are quite right. Add up the strange stuff in Wisconsin, in Detroit, St. Louis, the military been sent away before they could vote - it adds up to a Bush popular victory. But that does not matter. Conceding that means nothing. The president is elected by electors, not by popular vote. The popular vote is a relevant as the humidity for that day. That is the greatness of our election for president. Every region is significant. The tiny swing states must get attention by the candidates. Otherwise we would be bullied by a few large states.

[Burkeman1]

I agree. But the fraud of the Dems was just as evident in Florida as it was in the other areas you mentioned and far more. There were other swing states and electoral votes stolen by the dems. Haitian and Caribbean voters who are more likely to vote Republican on national elections were harassed or had African Americans standing over their shoulders in their polling stations. These were actual news stories with merit unlike the fabrications of the Dems.

[Sender]

...a demure Democratic Party heroine squealing as the moustache-twirling Nader ties her to the tracks so that the Bush juggernaut can roll over her one more time

"Stop squirming my dear, soon your troubles will be few."

[Burkeman1]

I don't buy that. There is a rule of thumb that one of my old Democrat relatives told me about. In a congressional election a Republican better win with a margin of at least 10,000 votes because that is about how much they will steal at that level. For Governor or senator is 40,000. At the local or town level in is in the hundreds. Voter fraud has been committed by Republicans. But it is a honored tradition by the Dems who have mastered the art.

I don't believe for one second Gore won the popular vote.

[jocko12]

GO NADER GO

[Burkeman1]

Media blackout on Nader is my prediction. He won't be heard from. The mainstream media is rallying for Kerry and they won't give Nader the time of day. He will be like the Libertarians and the Constitution Party (my preference in a perfect world)- totally unmentioned by the mainstream. We have seen the last of him Gents and Ladies. He doesn't exist to the mainstream anymore.

[1066AD]

That night was when I lost all respect for Jennings- let alone "consultant" Stephanouplos(sp). They called Florida at 7eastern then said oops polls still open in Panhandle, oh well, no-one lives there anyway, and laughed. Wrong, thousands of panhandle voters didn't vote thinking it was all over.
I haven't watched ABC-NBC-CBS network news since.

[swilhelm73]

No, it does not. Only the NY Slimes and Wash ComPost require excerpting on FR, unless JPost has asked for such, and I'm fairly certain they have not - you will note most posters do the courtesy of posting the whole article.

Anyway, Steyn's site works fine for me as always - but it points to JPost, which still does not work. I'm sure this will show up somewhere else though soon as most of his generally excellent articles do.

As for Nader, my big worry is that while Bush will probably win in a landslide, Nader will help bring far leftwingers who otherwise would not vote to the polls to vote for Democrat Senators and Reps.

[Burkeman1]

YES! Thank you! And that was never mentioned again! Instead they concentrated on how hours later, and after the polls had closed that Fox News had announced Bush the winner! What did that matter at all compared to what Jennings had done?

[amordei]

I completely agree that the Dems have mastered voter fraud. However, they have also mastered getting every black person in the country out to vote. The strategy is described in a New Republic piece from 2000.

I think this GOTV effort is the reason so many polls were wrong the last time. Many of them believed that Bush would coast to victory.

Here's a FR archive of that TNR peice.

http://209.157.64.200/focus/f-news/810191/posts