Reply #11: don't beat on him too hard [View All]

[Lexingtonian]

I think the key event of his campaign was the rejection by the Green Party in late June.
After that I think he understood that times had changed. I think it thwarted his egotistical
ambitions and was a return to integrity by the Green Party- away from the power lust of
the 2000 campaign.

The Reform Party label is, in my opinion, closer to what he really is: an economic populist
and social moderate. It's also why he asked Dean for VP consideration and walked into
the Presidential race when Dean dropped out.

But I think June/July made Ralph more honest. The real Greens went over to Kerry during
the year and he was left with his Third Party-voting, Republican-leaning, conservative
Arab-American supporters. That's who he was talking about in March when he said he
took more from Republicans than Democrats. And now I think he's pulled away from
just about any policy position that would draw liberal support and has focussed on just
this support group. He'll get some 'protest' votes from the politically confused and
silly, but drawing about 1.3 million mostly conservative Arab-American votes away from
siding in a Culture War and referendum on a corrupt conservative Establishment is a
partial redemption.

Of course he can't say any such thing out in the open. But we can live with the effect
and occasional odd, fulminating, critique from him. He's trying to redeem himself in
the same way Pat Buchanan did (which was killing off the Reform Party in 2000).