May 20, 2004

ATTA BOY, RALPHIE:

Kerry, Nader Meet and Go Separate Ways: Democrats Want To Diminish Man They Call Spoiler (Dan Balz and Jim VandeHei, May 20, 2004, Washington Post)

Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.) met privately yesterday with independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader, who many Democrats believe cost Vice President Al Gore the White House in 2000, but the private session left the two in disagreement over the best way to defeat President Bush in November and with Nader saying he has no intention of quitting the race.

The 70-minute session at Kerry's headquarters in downtown Washington came amid signs of an emerging two-pronged Democratic strategy to counter Nader's candidacy that tries to avoid mistakes Democrats believe were made four years ago.

The strategy includes keeping lines of communication open between Nader and the Kerry campaign and Democratic Party officials while the party and its constituency groups work aggressively to diminish Nader's candidacy and dissuade voters in the battleground states from supporting Nader in November. Kerry's campaign hopes that former Vermont governor Howard Dean can appeal to potential Nader voters as well.

That marks a shift from four years ago, when the Gore campaign feared that engaging with Nader would only raise his political profile and Democrats launched anti-Nader operations in only a handful of states. In two states that Bush won with razor-thin margins, Florida and New Hampshire, Nader's vote far eclipsed Bush's victory margin, Democrats made little effort to diminish Nader's support.


Here's another mark of a thoroughly undisciplined campaign--what can possibly have been the point of having John Kerry meet with this guy as an equal? How do you then turn around and dismiss him when the Bush team insists he be included in debates?

Meanwhile, there was an interview on NPR this afternoon with a Nader spokesman and they asked him how the candidacy can possibly help John Kerry. The answer was that: (1) He'll force John Kerry to take the posiotions that he should instead of those that are politically expedient; and (2) Mr. Nader can do things like call for George Bush's impeachment, that Senator Kerry can't. So pushing the Senator to the Left and appealing narrowly to the Left himself is Mr. Nader's idea of helping out? Where do we send contributions?

Posted by Orrin Judd at May 20, 2004 7:28 AM
Comments

Actually OJ I thought it magnanimous of Nader to meet with Kerry and give Kerry a chance to drop out of the race early and with his dignity in tact.

Otherwise the election is as follows:

"If it weren't for my candidacy," said Mr. Kerry. "There would be no discussion over my role as a Vietnam war hero or my valiant efforts after the war to reveal the atrocities that I, and others, committed against innocent civilians."

Posted by: h-man at May 20, 2004 7:47 AM

Was not William F. Buckley, Jr. fond of toasting: "Confusion to the Enemy?"

Posted by: Robert Schwartz at May 20, 2004 6:37 PM

Ralph Nader bizarrely believes that his candidacy will draw equally from Bush's potential voters.

He also doesn't much seem to care whether it's a Dem or Repub in the Oval Office, regardless of how closely aligned the Democratic establishment thinks it and Nader's positions are.

Posted by: Michael Herdegen at May 21, 2004 5:40 PM
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