Pie in the Face at SF Recall Event [Ralph Nader gets creamed supporting Camejo]
KPIX-TV ^ | August 12, 2003 | Hank Plante
Posted on 08/12/2003 6:53 PM PDT by RonDog
Pie in the Face at SF Recall Event
Ralph Nader was hit with a pie while Peter Camejo talked to reporters.
The recall election against Gov. Gray Davis has been called a circus, and Tuesday, that seemed very apt.
In a San Francisco event to mark the endorsement of Green Party candidate Peter Camejo by Ralph Nader -- who ran on the Green Party ticket for president in 2000 -- Nader was hit by a pie.
The pie thrower got away, and Nader seemed to take it all in stride. But it shows you how unpopular Nader is in some circles for draining votes away from Democrat Al Gore in the 2000 presidential race. Now, some fear that Camejo may do the same thing to Davis.
"I think Peter Camejo and Arianna Huffington play a role much like Nader's role in the last presidential election," said Prof. Bruce Cain of U.C. Berkeley. "They could bleed off support among liberal Democrats into a green vote or an independent vote, and that in the end could hurt Cruz Bustamante, and it could also of course contribute to a 'yes' vote on the recall.'"
The governor himself, meanwhile, was reduced Tuesday to answering questions on live television about whether he would resign. His answer?
"No," Davis said on CNN. "I have an obligation to the eight million people ... who went to the polls last November. They asked me to do a job and I'm going to do it."
But will those eight million people give up on him? No less a political observer than San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown told us over coffee Tuesday that the man getting all the publicity, Arnold Schwarzenegger, is getting a free ride.
"When NBC gives Arnold the opportunity to make his announcement for public office on one of the highest rated shows, when it's followed with the cover of Newsweek and the cover of Time Magazine, this celebrity status is causing him to be exempt from ordinary political inspection.... It's just a matter of time before the press turns on you, because you can only be a glamorous person for so long... But I don't think that time will come within the next 60 days."
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