Nader slams GOP, Democrats in stop

Kate Nash | The New Mexican

8/26/2008 - 8/27/08

For Ralph Nader, it was the same tired, old question, the one about being a spoiler.

For the people in the audience, however, it might have been a new version of the answer he's been giving since the first time he ran for president. Still, it had a familiar ring:

"If we all have an equal right to run for election ... then we have an equal right to get votes, then we have an equal right to try and get votes from one another," Nader said.

"So we're either all spoilers of one another, or none of us are spoilers unless we think that third party and independent candidates are second-class citizens."

Nader, a lawyer and consumer advocate turned perennial presidential candidate, gave a soft-spoken news conference and speech to a group of about 150 people at the College of Santa Fe. He appeared tired after speaking earlier in the day in Albuquerque at The University of New Mexico.

An Independent Party candidate, Nader will be on the ballot in New Mexico this fall after supporters gathered more than the needed signatures to secure a spot.

Nader, who has spent 40 years working on consumer issues in Washington, expressed disappointment at being shut out of the upcoming presidential debates between Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain.

"We're No. 3, and we're kept off the debates. ... Now, last I heard, the 60th seed at Wimbledon had a chance ... but you are No. 3 (in the presidential race), and you are denied access to 100 million viewers," he said. "This is not democracy."

His campaign is working to qualify for one debate in New Orleans this fall sponsored by Google. To participate, though, he needs 10 percent of voters' support in polls. In a CNN-Opinion Research Corp. survey conducted in late July, he was at 6 percent.

During his appearance, Nader was quick to take swipes at both parties and the two-party system. "The professional Democrats don't want to look in the mirror and see why they can't landslide the worst Republicans in Republican Party history, and so they scapegoat the Greens, and people shouldn't fall for that."

He also said both parties have worked to shut members of other parties out of the political system. "They get it into the minds of voters that they are the only show in town, and we're trying to change that," he said.

Nader urged audience members to participate and to vote their conscience. "How can you respect yourself if you don't vote for who you believe in?" he said. "Who else do you vote for if you don't vote for who you believe in?"

One part of his speech that drew loud applause was his discussion of how taxpayer money should be used. Nader called for "no more stadiums built on the backs of taxpayers" while local schools and libraries are falling apart.

Nader's visit comes after Obama and McCain were in the state last week. New Mexico is predicted to be a battleground state.

Santa Fe waiter Matt Buchly said he knows he'll vote for Nader for sure. He said he's tired of politicians who talk in circles. "When he (Nader) talks about something, he talks direct. When somebody asks him a question, he answers direct. He's not talking in all these phrases and around in circles and abstractions that nobody understands, which is the deal with Obama, I think."

Buchly, 23, a registered Green, said he's glad he's got a third-party choice. "I feel like I want to support Obama, but I feel like I don't know what he stands for. When I've seen him in the debates, and I've seen him talk, and I've checked out his Web site, and when I try to understand, it's all abstractions."

Buchly also likes Nader's idea that anyone can run for office. "I've heard him say in this campaign that he believes that the everyday working man should be able to run for office, and it seems like every other party doesn't even allow that kind of option."

Nader today was scheduled to be in Denver at the Democratic National Convention, where his campaign planned to have 14-foot props he said no photographer or reporter there would miss.

The props: a Lady Liberty statute and a huge bottle with a cork. "Uncork the debates," he said. "Stop putting the debates in a bottle."

Nader is running with San Francisco attorney Matt Gonzalez, who was elected to that city's Board of Supervisors in 2000.

In addition to Nader and Libertarian Bob Barr, other minor party presidential candidates expected to be on the ballot are Green Party candidate Cynthia McKinney and Constitution Party candidate Chuck Baldwin, a Florida preacher.

Contact Kate Nash at 986-3036 or knash@sfnewmexican.com. Read her blog, Green Chile Chatter, at www.santafenewmexican.com.

NADER SUPPORT IN NEW MEXICO

While it's anyone's guess as to how many votes Ralph Nader can garner this year, his support here from 2000 to 2004 shrank.

In 2004, he received 4,053 votes statewide, less than 1 percent of the total. That same year, President Bush, the Republican nominee, beat Democrat John Kerry by just under 6,000 votes in the state.

In 2000, Nader received more than 21,000 votes, which amounted to 4 percent of the votes. Democrat Al Gore beat Bush by about 300 votes that year.