Ralph Nader who was blamed for the loss of Al Gore back in 2000 has launched an exploratory committee on Wednesday for another shot at the White House. He told CNN that he is most likely to join the race if he can get his resources together.
“John Edwards, the banner of Democratic Party populism, is dropping out, and Dennis Kucinich dropped out earlier, so in terms of voters who are at least interested in having major areas of injustice, deprivations, and solutions discussed in a presidential campaign, they might be interested in my exploratory effort,” he said to CNN.
So far, Nader has already launched an exploratory committee web site. In a month, Nader plans to make a formal decision. Nader said that he is certain to be in the race if he can show the ability of raising $10 million along with recruiting enough lawyers to deal with the issue resolving ballots.
Nader has not yet formally filed the paperwork with the Federal Elections Commission. But he does not need to yet until he officially becomes a presidential candidate.
He said that both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are not suitable candidates. He added that whoever wins the nomination will not have an impact on his decision to run for president.
“They are both enthralled to the corporate powers,” Nader said in addressing both Democratic candidates. He added: “They’ve completely ignored the presidential pattern of illegality and accountability, they’ve ignored the out of control waste-fruad military expenditures, they hardly ever mention the diversion of hundreds of billions of dollars to corporate subsidies, handouts, and giveaways, and they don’t talk about a living wage.”
Nader had called Obama’s senate record both mediocre and cautious.
“It’s not that he doesn’t know what the score is, of course he does – look at his background, he knows plenty,” Nader explained. He added: “But he’s censoring himself.”
Nader had brushed asides suggestions that his running will spoil the Democratic Party’s chance of winning. He might have implied that those who gave the suggestion are political bigots. In that regard, Nader said: “Because, ‘spoiler’ means minor candidates are second class citizens. Either we have an equal right to run for election, or we are spoilers for each other trying to get each other’s votes.”