Time to play hardball with Nader

[quaoar]

It is obvious that there is no appealling to reason with Nader and that he is willing to get in bed with Bush to fuel his egomaniacal desire to run.

So why has the only response so far been to continue to plead with him, to remind him of how well thought-of he has always been.

Why is everyone basically being so careful and polite with Nader. Why is he getting a free pass? The hell with him.

If he wants to run -- fine. Let's actually run against him. Let's run TV ads showing him for the Republican stooge and egomaniac that he really is.

He's been asking for a political ass-whipping. It's time somebody gave it to him.

[PROGRESSIVE1]

1. Also, we should not HESITATE to "CRACK HIS BALLS"!

[fearnobush]

2. Yes, ads could expose him taking money from right wing hate groups

to bolster his ego driven campaign, these ads could also drive unwitting right wingers to vote for him.

[Mz Pip]

3. Expose Nader

for what he is to his supporters. IT's time someone take him on and stops walking on eggshells around him.

He wasn't to play with the big boys. Well, the big boys play dirty and mean. Sad but true. Nader has a right to run and the Dems have the right to educate his supporters as to what he is about.

Running against him works for me. He is not our friend and his idiotic statements that he is really helping the Dems is just that - idiotic.

MzPip
:dem:

[qazplm]

4. maybe

or then again we could just IGNORE HIM.

He craves attention, its the whole reason he is doing this, I say ignore his butt, and he will whither up and dry away.

[quaoar]

6. Maybe

Or he could be the 2004 version of Sister Souljah.

[lovedems]

5. Apparently Ralph thinks the rules don't apply to him when it comes to

getting on the ballots. He also appears to be in denial about republicans reasons for giving him money.

Screw Ralph. I agree with your post entirely. For hating corporate america, he sure loves those republican corportate donations. Someone, anyone, I don't care who, needs to take Ralph to the cleaners.

Republicans have feelings too? :puke: The only feelings they have are helping Ralph take votes away from Kerry.

[Forkboy]

7. Yep,let's spend limited money going after him

Why is everyone basically being so careful and polite with Nader. Why is he getting a free pass?

You must be new here.That's the funniest damn post in months!

[quaoar]

8. I am new here

And it would be money well spent.

[Forkboy]

12. No,it would be wasting money desperately needed to combat Bush

[Meldread]

9. It's quite simple really.

If Democrats were to attack Nader that would acknowledge his existence. That in turn will get him more press time to spread his message, which might mean more votes that will be siphoned from us. Every vote in this election counts.

With that thought, every vote counts, in mind we also don't want to anger his supporters by horribly demonizing their man, considering we want them to vote for our guy.

After the elections, after we've won, THEN you deal with him. Until that point pretend he isn't there and bide your time.

Have you ever noticed that there are also other third party candidates running, more often than not right wing like Bush? Ever notice that they don't pay any attention to them? There is a reason for that, and I think Democrats would do well to learn to use the same strategy.

Nader is -not- a threat, and if you prop him up to be one then the Media will treat him as one. People will look at him seriously. So it is pointless to attack Nader unless you want to turn the knife on yourself as well. The left, unlike the right, is easily divided and now is not a time to be divided when we are all united in a common goal: defeat Bush.

Let Nader have his ego trip if he wants one. Just pay him no mind. He wasn't much of a threat the first go around, and now that he isn't running with the Green Party Support he's even less of a threat.

[Forkboy]

13. Very well said

[jpgray]

10. But we agree on many things (at least that's true of me)

Nader eked out a good strategic position, because the more the Democrats attack him, the more he can play the wronged paragon of liberal virtue that siphons votes. I agree with a lot of his platform, and I appreciate his consumer work, but personally I think he's a wretch and a hypocrite. Democrats should keep doing what they are--use legal means to deny him and his Republican spear-carriers the ballot he waited too long to pursue, and otherwise treat him gently.

[quaoar]

11. Ignoring Nader

might work. Then again, it might be the newest entry in the Famous Last Words Almanac.

And if Nader's vast legions of supporters don't like it, they can stay home and wallow in their delusions.

[Forkboy]

14. "vast legions of supporters"

He doesn't have vast legions of supporters.Even Greens dont want him.

[quaoar]

15. That was sarcasm

Although he does have vast legions of Republican "supporters."

[Forkboy]

17. ah,ok

sorry,my sarcasm detector has been on the fritz this week.

The GOP wants us to fight over him.They want to create a wedge between the moderates and not so moderates.Going after Nader full bore will not only deplete money we need for the bigger enemy,but will weaken Kerry's support with the people who are genuinely upset with the direction the Dem party is going in but plan on holding thier nose come election day.

Let's not fall for thier game.Nader is only a factor so much as we make him one.

[Meldread]

16. Nader doesn't have a vast legion of supporters.

He could barely put together an exploratory team.

The fact of the matter is Nader will never have enough money to play with the "big boys" and therefore relies much more on the "Free Press". Are you going to give him access to that by constantly attacking and pointing him out, knowing full well that the Press would rally for Bush and therefore would love to prop up Nader, or ignore him... deny him that ability and thus minimize his impact.

If I was someone in charge I would have approached the situation entirely different. I watched him announce his campaign, and then less than an hour or so later I watched Terry rant and rave about it. If I was Terry I simply would have said, "That's great, I'm glad Nader decided to run, I support freedom, I support allowing everyone the chance to run, isn't America great?" Then that would have ended that discussion, and allowed us to talk about some real news.

Think of it this way as well: Every minute that Nader gets in the spotlight is one less minute for Kerry and Edwards.

[mzmolly]

18. I couldn't agree more! Why is it that going after Nader is considered

taboo and divisive, but going after Bush is considered legit?

Both are political opponents. Both attack the Democrats.

:shrug:

[Forkboy]

20. Bush doesn't have the potential to drain off lefty votes

But Nader does,and the more leftys see the Dems attacking THEM instead of Bush it surely will drain some off.It's not a matter of being taboo,it's a matter of being strategically stupid.

[mzmolly]

21. Should we should stop campaigning against Bush because we

may alienate his supporters? After all, some on the left would say Kerry is a moderate. And, a "lefty vote" counts for the same number of points as a "righty vote" does it not?

Sorry, not buying that strategy dude. ;)

Nader supporters deserve to know who he is, just like the Bushiebots do.

[Forkboy]

22. Nevermind

you're missing the point totally.

Do as you feel you must.

[mzmolly]

23. Actually I totally understand your point, because I felt the same way in

2000.

Peace FB. :hi:

[oasis]

19. Keep him out of the debates. He's a snake.

[quaoar]

24. I just don't think

that ignoring Nader is the right strategy this time. We tried that in 2000 and we all know how that turned out. There are a lot of people who will vote for Nader because it will seem like the cool, avant-garde thing to do. They must be shown that it is not only uncool, it is extremely Republican.

I'd like to see an ad that shows Nader's face morphing into Bush's -- a vote for Nader is a vote for Bush.

And as for the argument that it drains precious resources, well I'm ready and willing to pony up extra for it and I'll bet a lot of others would, too. If the ads just ran in college town markets in swing states it might just cripple Nader.

[George_Bonanza]

25. His Republican support has all but discredited him

People jumped on Kerry for routinely accepting a standard minimum of $2000 political donations from shady sources. And Kerry graciously returned the money, since he already had hundreds of millions from good Americans. Contrast that to Nader, who has knowingly and willingly taken donations from extremely immoral sources, for all the wrong intents and purposes.

[DeepModem Mom]

26. Good idea -- run ads in states where he might make a difference... nt