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twotap
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From: BREAKING NEWS
Date: 2/24/2008 9:46:59 AM
To: BREAKINGNEWS Subscribers
Subject: FNC Alert
RALPH NADER ANNOUNCES HE WILL RUN FOR PRESIDENT FOR THIRD TIME
Can you say siphon off votes.
http://www.foxnews.com/
Ralph Nader jumps into presidential race
by Associated Press
Sunday February 24, 2008, 12:53 PM
WASHINGTON -- Ralph Nader said Sunday he will run for president as a third-party candidate, criticizing the top White House contenders as too close to big business and pledging to repeat a bid that will "shift the power from the few to the many."
Ralph Nader, 73, said most people are disenchanted with the Democratic and Republican parties due to a prolonged Iraq war and a shaky economy. The consumer advocate also blamed tax and other corporate-friendly policies under the Bush administration that he said have left many lower- and middle-class people in debt.
"You take that framework of people feeling locked out, shut out, marginalized and disrespected," he said. "You go from Iraq, to Palestine to Israel, from Enron to Wall Street, from Katrina to the bumbling of the Bush administration, to the complicity of the Democrats in not stopping him on the war, stopping him on the tax cuts."
"In that context, I have decided to run for president," Nader told NBC's "Meet the Press."
Nader also criticized Republican candidate John McCain and Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton for failing to support full Medicare for all or cracking down on Pentagon waste and a "bloated military budget. He blamed that on corporate lobbyists and special interests, which he said dominate Washington, D.C., and pledged in his third-party campaign to accept donations only from individuals.
"The issue is do they have the moral courage, do they have the fortitude to stand up to corporate powers and get things done for the American people," Nader said. "We have to shift the power from the few to the many."
Nader also ran as a third-party candidate in 2000 and 2004, and many Democrats still accuse him of costing Al Gore the 2000 election.
Obama, responding Saturday to Nader's earlier criticisms that he lacked "substance," praised Nader as a "heroic figure."
"In many ways he is a heroic figure and I don't mean to diminish him. But I do think there is a sense now that if somebody is not hewing to the Ralph Nader agenda, then you must be lacking in some way," Obama said.
Clinton called Nader's announcement a "passing fancy" and said she hoped his candidacy wouldn't hurt the Democratic nominee.
"Obviously, it's not helpful to whomever our Democratic nominee is. But it's a free country," she told reporters as she flew to Rhode Island for campaign events.
Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, speaking shortly before Nader's announcement, said Nader's past runs have shown that he usually pulls votes from the Democrat. "So naturally, Republicans would welcome his entry into the race," the former Arkansas governor said on CNN.
Nader vociferously disputes the spoiler claim, saying only Democrats are to blame for losing the race to George W. Bush. He said Sunday there could be no chance of him tipping the election to Republicans because the electorate will not vote for a "pro-war John McCain."
"If the Democrats can't landslide the Republicans this year, they ought to just wrap up, close down, emerge in a different form," Nader said.
Associated Press writer Beth Fouhy in Providence, R.I., contributed to this report.
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COMMENTS (1)Post a comment
Last edited by twotap on Sun Feb 24, 2008 2:03 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Sun Feb 24, 2008 10:06 am |
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Dave Starr
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Now Hillary will screech louder than ever.
Where did I put those earplugs? |
_________________
I used to care, but I take a pill for that now.
Pushing buttons sure can be fun.
When a lion wants to go somewhere, he doesn’t worry about how many hyenas are in the way.
Paddle faster, I hear banjos. |
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Sun Feb 24, 2008 11:36 am |
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FlintConservative
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First off, it's on Fox so it can't be true. 
Secondly, in the immortal words of Mick Jagger: I hope I die before I get old.
There's nothing so sad as a former media darling (read uber leftie) crying out for relevance. |
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Sun Feb 24, 2008 11:38 am |
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squash
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Sun Feb 24, 2008 11:45 am |
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FlintConservative
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D'oh!...yer right. My bad.
But at least let the record show that I, unlike many on this board, will admit when I'm wrong. |
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Sun Feb 24, 2008 12:05 pm |
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Demeralda
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| Or there is that SLIM possibility that he's doing it because of the principles. |
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Mon Feb 25, 2008 12:15 pm |
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FlintConservative
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quote:
Demeralda schreef:
Or there is that SLIM possibility that he's doing it because of the principles.
VERY slim, imho.
But then I doubt any of them are doing it because of principles. I'd be more inclined to believe that they're all suffering from a severe case of hubris along with a double dose of megalomania. |
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Mon Feb 25, 2008 12:45 pm |
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Flinn's Journal
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| Sorry, Nader. Your old core of support is supporting Obama. |
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I HAVE SEVERED MY TIES WITH FLINTTALK.COM BECAUSE TROLLS CANNOT BE CONTROLLED ON THIS BOARD. |
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Mon Feb 25, 2008 4:30 pm |
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Public D
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All for it!
Edwards became Kucinich when Dennis dropped out. Hillary and Barack are both trying to become Edwards since he quit – but both are failing miserably. It's good for whoever the Democratic nominee ends up being to be reminded what the real issues are by someone who, no matter what anybody says about him, has been proven right decade after decade. Give 'em hell, Ralph! Change the debate . . . just not too many votes.
http://www.votenader.org |
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Mon Feb 25, 2008 4:45 pm |
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squash
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Ralph has proven to be a man of principles, and usually the smartest guy in the room. We know (and he knows) that he has no chance of being the next president, but he makes the debates a lot more interesting.
Here Here |
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Mon Feb 25, 2008 5:01 pm |
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twotap
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Any of you Nader fans ever actually ever drive a Corvair???  |
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Mon Feb 25, 2008 7:16 pm |
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squash
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| No I haven't but my dad claims to have had one in the way back days. Aren't they the ones with the missle looking thing on the grill? |
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Mon Feb 25, 2008 7:30 pm |
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twotap
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They were the ones that Ralph claimed were "unsafe at any speed" and would basically kill anyone who got behind the wheel of one.  I had a friend who had a turbocharged one that would probably do about 130mph in. He had it for several years and I drove it a few times. Handled like a rear engined car as in VW. Never saw Naders Raiders go after them but of course GM was an easy shot and they sort of rolled over and played dead anytime some consumer advocate made a claim about their products. If Ralph really wanted to do something about highway fatalities maybe he should have tried this approach.
Another Perspective
Unsafe at Any Speed
By Eric Peters
Published 12/10/2003 12:05:58 AM
Speed Kills? Sure, if you're a nation of incompetent drivers. Ask the Germans.
Lack of skill -- not "speeding" -- is the fountainhead of America's traffic problems. If you disagree, then you've got to explain how it is that the Germans routinely drive much faster than we do -- yet miraculously have lower overall accident and fatality rates. If "speed kills," how come it's less deadly if you're German? Is it the water? Or is the skill level of the average German driver higher? And if it is higher, how come? Are Germans truly the Master Race -- on the road, at least -- or do the German authorities simply expect more, in terms of demonstrated skill and experience behind the wheel, before they turn 'em loose on the Autobahn?
Go to the head of the class if you guessed it's more demanding licensing requirements and skills testing -- not anything special about the Germans themselves.
It takes a lot to get a first-time driver's license in Germany -- as much as 25-45 hours of Fahrschule instruction, on the road, in a real car -- culminating in an extensive written and practical test. The cost to pay for the necessary schooling (at an approved Fahrschule) and so forth costs about $1,500-$2,000. They don't mess around. As a result, the road competence of the average German driver is much higher than that of the average American driver.
For example, lane discipline is drilled into German drivers. They are taught to immediately move over to the right and yield to faster-moving traffic. The ubiquitous problem we have of drivers parking in the far left lane and refusing to budge is almost unheard of in Germany -- which is one reason why they can have Autobahns with cruising speeds of 100-mph-plus without problems -- while we have "road rage" and radar traps.
Almost anyone (including a ten-year-old) can pull a lever from "park" into "drive" and get a vehicle rolling -- and that's about all we demand of people before issuing them a valid operator's permit. That and a quickie written test that even Forrest Gump could pass. The "road test" in most states typically consists of a few turns around some cones in the back of a DMV parking lot. No accident avoidance instruction, no imparting of how to merge onto a busy freeway -- no road test in multiple driving environments, including night time, close-in city driving, or high speed freeway, as in Germany. Get around those cones okay -- and answer 20-odd questions correctly -- and you're done.
If we spent more time and energy on fostering better driving -- rather than licensing just about anyone who can walk unaided into a DMV office -- we'd almost certainly have fewer accidents; we'd definitely have a far less stressful, dangerous driving experience. An we could set highway limits at 75-85-mph, which is where they ought to be.
But instead, we have a "dumbed down" driving pool -- and least common denominator traffic laws that assume people are too inept to handle driving faster than 55 or 65 mph on highways designed for safe travel at speeds of 75-85 mph back in the Eisenhower era.
It's a cynical, corrupt system that has turned police into "revenue collectors" who "harass and collect" rather than "serve and protect."
But there's so much money at stake (tickets, insurance "surcharges," etc.) and we've got so many marginal drivers already on the road that it's not likely we'll start emulating the Germans anytime soon. If stricter licensing requirements were laid down, probably 30-40 percent of currently licensed drivers would flunk and need to undergo remedial testing. The massive hullabaloo about people's "right" to drive that would ensue would put a quick end to any such reform. And the fact is that many states and counties have become so dependent upon the revenue generated by trumped-up speeding tickets that it would be financially ruinous for them to change the system to focus on improving the skill of the average driver -- rather than fleecing motorists.
It's a lot like Prohibition in the 1920s.
Everyone knows the law is absurd -- and many routinely do their best to evade it. Few respect it. But there's so much money and political power at stake that changing the way things are done is about as likely as the Redskins or Falcons making the Super Bowl this year.
Eric Peters is a Washington-based automotive columnist and author of Automotive Atrocities: The Cars You Love to Hate (MBI, Spring 2004). He is a frequent contributor to the Detroit News and Bottom Line Personal Finance.
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Mon Feb 25, 2008 7:45 pm |
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squash
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quote:
GM was an easy shot and they sort of rolled over and played dead
From what I've read GM tapped his phone and hired prostitutes in an attemt to trap and discredit him.
Corporate America is tough.
Farvegnugen Out |
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Mon Feb 25, 2008 8:05 pm |
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00SL2
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quote:
twotap schreef:
Any of you Nader fans ever actually ever drive a Corvair???
Not really a Nader fan, but I had a '63 Corvair Monza, leather bucket seats, saddle tan. Loved it! My first car, and if memory serves me correctly it was around $3600 new! |
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Mon Feb 25, 2008 8:59 pm |
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