From tragedy to farce
He's running for president as an independent, not as a Green. He has no organization. He's starting late. Does Ralph Nader's narcissism have no bounds?
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - By Todd Gitlin
Ralph Nader's narcissism has metastasized to such proportions that he came forward to announce his candidacy without being able to brandish a single one of the celebrities who surrounded him in 2000 -- not Michael Moore, not Tim Robbins or Susan Sarandon, not Patti Smith. In fact, more important, he cannot offer the Green Party, whose nomination he disdains to seek -- so much for his claim that he is the principled champion of third parties and their indispensability in American history. To the struggle against "corporate-occupied territory," Nader offers only himself. La troisième partie, c'est moi. He has gone way over into flying saucer territory. He occupies an Area 51 of his own. Will he make the headquarters of his campaign in Roswell, N. M.?
full: http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2004/02/22/nader_candidacy/index_np.html
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Todd Gitlin, former leader of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), and now a sociology professor at New York University, says the backlash helped elect Richard Nixon. Gitlin believes Hubert Humphrey, as president, would have been under far more pressure within his party to end American involvement quickly.
Gitlin: Among those who bear the blame for that turn of events, the ’68 default, are those militants in the anti-war movement who didn’t vote for Humphrey. I don’t exempt myself. Most people I know, including myself, didn’t vote for president that year. That was a big mistake.
full: http://www.americanradioworks.org/features/vietnam/us/waragainstwar.html
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NY Times, February 23, 2004 Nader, Gadfly to the Democrats, Will Again Run for President By ADAM NAGOURNEY and JIM RUTENBERG
Brushing aside urgent appeals from his own friends and Democratic leaders, Ralph Nader announced yesterday that he would run again for president this year, sending shudders through the camps of Democratic presidential candidates just as they had grown hopeful about unseating President Bush.
Mr. Nader said in an interview that he would seek to get his name as an independent candidate on the ballot in all 50 states. He rejected the notion that he was the spoiler who helped Mr. Bush win in 2000 and would do the same in 2004.
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The Rev. Al Sharpton, a Democratic presidential candidate this year, provided Mr. Nader a platform at his headquarters in Harlem in 2000. But Mr. Sharpton said in a telephone interview yesterday that he would campaign across the nation urging Democrats to reject Mr. Nader.
"The only reason he's running is either he's an egomaniac or as a Bush contract," Mr. Sharpton said. "What's the point? This is not 2000 when progressives were locked out. I'm going on a national crusade to stop Nader. This is only going to help Bush."
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Village Voice, February 5th, 2004 8:20 AM A Bush Covert Operative Takes Over Al Sharpton's Campaign by Wayne Barrett with special reporting by Adam Hutton and Christine Lagorio
Roger Stone, the longtime Republican dirty-tricks operative who led the mob that shut down the Miami-Dade County recount and helped make George W. Bush president in 2000, is financing, staffing, and orchestrating the presidential campaign of Reverend Al Sharpton.
Though Stone and Sharpton have tried to reduce their alliance to a curiosity, suggesting that all they do is talk occasionally, a Voice investigation has documented an extraordinary array of connections. Stone played a pivotal role in putting together Sharpton's pending application for federal matching funds, getting dollars in critical states from family members and political allies at odds with everything Sharpton represents. He's also helped stack the campaign with a half-dozen incongruous top aides who've worked for him in prior campaigns. He's even boasted about engineering six-figure loans to Sharpton's National Action Network (NAN) and allowing Sharpton to use his credit card to cover thousands in NAN costs—neither of which he could legally do for the campaign. In a wide-ranging Voice interview Sunday, Stone confirmed his matching-fund and staffing roles, but refused to comment on the NAN subsidies.
full: http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0405/barrett.php
Louis Proyect
Marxism list: www.marxmail.org
