Ralph Nader wins spot on California's presidential ballot

Sacramento Bee ^ | 8/3/8 | Peter Hecht

[SmithL]

Ralph Nader, the former Green Party candidate and scourge of many Democrats who blame him for Al Gore's defeat in 2000, earned a place on the California ballot Saturday as the newly minted candidate of the Peace and Freedom Party.

Nader won the party's presidential nomination over the spirited challenge of a socialist candidate, Gloria La Riva, in an eclectic gathering of the political left in a Sacramento hotel.

The crowd at the Peace and Freedom convention was minuscule when compared to the crowds who will greet John McCain at the Republican convention at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn., and turn out to see Barack Obama accept the Democratic nomination at the Invesco Field football stadium in Denver.

But in a packed, sweaty room at the Hawthorn Suites, Nader emerged as the champion for "progressive" activists who rallied to send a message to the two "corporate" parties, lambasting Democrats and Republicans alike for condoning sustained war, abusing workers and neglecting families.

The Peace and Freedom Party is on the ballot only in California. But Nader said getting the party's nomination – and a place as a candidate in the nation's most populous state – provided a critical jump-start to his bid to qualify for the ballot in as many as 45 states as an independent or Peace and Freedom candidate.

Nader, who ran for president as an independent in 2004, won the Peace and Freedom nomination over current Green Party candidate and former Democratic Rep. Cynthia McKinney, La Riva and fellow socialist Brian Moore.

[SmithL]

Ralph Nader observes from the back of the room at the Hawthorn Suites in Sacramento where Peace and Freedom delegates chose their candidate for president Saturday. Some Democrats blame the former consumer advocate for costing them the White House in 2000.

[SmithL]

Run Ralph, Run!

[ken21]

“progressive”

means

reactionary.

[BunnySlippers]

Love it!!!

[Nachum]

Woo hoo! Run Ralph, run!

[ozzymandus]

Good ol’ Ralph! MSNBC is going to kill him.

[NormsRevenge]

Preamble to Our By-laws
http://peaceandfreedom.org/home/

The Peace and Freedom Party is an open, multi-tendency, movement-oriented socialist party. We are united in our common commitment to socialism, democracy, feminism and unionism and our common opposition to capitalism, imperialism, racism, sexism and elitism.

We recognize that we do not all agree on what we mean by “socialism” or on the strategies and tactics of how to get it. We do agree that it means we can have a world where we can all be part of the democratic decision-making on how the wealth of the economy will be used because we will be owners of it, as well as the cooperative self-managing co-participants in producing it.

[samadams2000]

“progressive” = deathcamps

[NormsRevenge]

an open, multi-tendency, movement-oriented socialist party. We are united in our common commitment to socialism, democracy, feminism and unionism and our common opposition to capitalism, imperialism, racism, sexism and elitism

—

sounds like the dems to me..

[NRA2BFree]

That’s good news. He’ll definitely siphon off votes from Obamanation.

[AlaskaErik]

Peace and Freedom Party?! Pacifists can only enjoy freedom as long as others allow it and defend it. Freedom isn’t free and neither is pacifism.

[hinckley buzzard]

'Rats hate Ralph, though I doubt he'll make a ripple in Colleyfornya. Pennsylvania might be a different matter though, and maybe some hotly contested states if he gets on the ballot.

[Forward the Light Brigade]

Great News! lets split the Democrat-Communist party vote as much as we can out here in Lala land. Every Vote for Nader is a vote for McCain. Lets support the ever wise, “Progressive” Nader every way we can! Turn California into a Green State and pull out out of Obama’s clutches.

[CounterCounterCulture]

Nader won the nomination on the first ballot after criticizing socialism as anti-human rights and a sin akin to the corporatism that he deplores.

I'll agree with him that socialism is anti-human rights.

[ModelBreaker]

Nader’ll get buptkus this year. There’s already a socialist running.

[SierraWasp]

I was so mad at McCain that seeing on a recent PBS show how the Dems STILL seeth at Nader for spliting the vote in FL in 2000, I thought very seriously about voting for Nader on the Green Party ticket. Well, that's the ticket he was on in 2000 and 2004 and since McMistake was swallowing the global warming hoax, I figured if I was gonna hafta vote for some idiot member of GANG-GREEN, I might as well vote for Nader to at least piss-off the Dems a little once again.

Then I learned the other day that Cynthia McKinney, the idiot that bopped a capitol cop was getting the Presidential candidate nod from GANG-GREEN... I was stunned!!!

Now I see what's happened to the idiot Corvair killer... Peace and freedom Party being pushed by avowed Socialists and Unionist!!! So, I guess I'll have to find some other way to punish McGore and piss-off the Dems, now that this has transpired...

The fun has gone completely out of this election campaign for me!!!

[Grampa Dave]

“progressive” means reactionary communists without the balls or honesty to admit they are reactionary communists, who hate America.