But former Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader, widely considered a spoiler for taking votes from Democrat Al Gore in the 2000 election, said dropping out now would cost McClintock a major loss of integrity.
"He could become a word in the dictionary: 'McClintocked,' " Nader said. "To be McClintocked is to say repeatedly you're going to be in the race, nothing's going to dissuade you, you're moving forward on basic principles ... and then you drop out."
Many voters blamed Nader for costing Gore the razor-thin election with President Bush three years ago. While references to the Green Party candidate are enough to stoke the ire of some voters, Nader was just one in a long line of spoilers.
Reform Party presidential candidate Ross Perot garnered 19 percent of the vote in 1992. That was enough, some political analysts say, to give the election to President Clinton over President George H.W. Bush. Back in 1912, former President Theodore Roosevelt abandoned his Republican party to run as a Progressive, beating GOP incumbent William H. Taft but losing to Democrat Woodrow Wilson.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/990434/posts
