[Previous entry: "Warming Trend Will Decimate Arctic Peoples, Report Warns"] [Next entry: "The Cuban Revolution: Present and Future"]

09/10/2004:

"Nader Says Kerry 'Blew It,' Ensuring Bush Will Win Race"

by Miles Benson
WASHINGTON -- Democrat John Kerry has already lost the 2004 presidential race and the country should get ready for another four years of President Bush's leadership, Ralph Nader said Thursday.

"Bush is mocking him, he's taunting him," Nader said. "There's no strategy by the Democrats."

Nader, battling to get on ballots as an independent presidential candidate, predicted Bush would win by a margin so large that his own candidacy would not be seen as a factor in the outcome. Democratic leaders blamed Nader for former Vice President Al Gore's loss to Bush in 2000.

"The telltale sign" of looming defeat is the Democrats' failure to register 9 million black voters, Nader told reporters.

"They're going to lose it because John Kerry has surrounded himself with corporate consultants who represent some of the seediest and most craven companies and industries, and they are not letting him think for himself," said Nader, whose fight against corporate influence over government and politics is his own rationale for running.

Kerry "blew it," Nader said, by neglecting the Democratic Party's historic roots.

"The biggest winning strategy for the Kerry campaign is the living wage. One of every three workers doesn't make a living wage. That is what the Democratic Party used to stand for."

With just under eight weeks remaining before Election Day, Nader said Kerry and his running mate, Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., have "lost the clarity of being an alternative to Bush and Cheney, even though this is the most vulnerable administration in many years."

Full Article: commondreams.org