Polls show 'Nader effect' waning this time around

From the Houston Chronicle:

After all, some Democrats still blame Nader for costing Democrat Al Gore the election in 2000. But a recent spate of polls show Nader's strength as as spoiler on the wane.

"I suspect he will garner a fraction of 1 percent of the vote and be irrelevant to the outcome," said Thomas Mann, a political scholar at the Democratic-leaning Brookings Institution in Washington.

And

As in past campaigns, Nader is hoping to exert pressure from the left and raise awareness and support for the issues he is passionate about: the defense budget, corporate control of government, social justice and more.

Although he insists his support is stronger than the polls suggest, Nader continues to downplay his prospects for helping McCain by hurting Obama.

"The word spoiler is a contemptuous word of political bigotry, as if small candidates are second-class citizens," Nader said.

And

Part of what's holding Nader back in the polls this year, experts say, is Democratic enthusiasm for Obama.

Nader's past assertion that there is basically no difference between the two parties has lost currency, and personal economic concerns among voters are trumping Nader's message of corporate accountability and social justice.

More here.

On the one hand this is good because nobody will be able to blame Nader supporters for Obama losing, if it comes to that, which it most likely won't. On the other hand, it's a drag because the Democrats won't get the metaphoric bloody nose they received in 2000 and 2004.

You can count votes however you want, but I'm still very much of the opinion that the Democrats lost the last two presidential races all by themselves. That is, if the party had had its shit together, preaching some real progressive messages, or rather, any messages at all, messages that weren't tied to polling or "triangulation," which is the co-opting of GOP positions as "new" Democratic positions, they'd have won both times. I mean, Gore couldn't even win his own state for chrissakes, and Kerry was just a fucking buffoon. Nobody to blame but Democrats and their supporters, which included me in '04, who blessed the whole shit house with their votes.

But noooooooo. It was all Nader's fault.

You know, it's funny. Why not blame the Republicans? They actually won the damned thing. Why is it that anybody left-of-center who doesn't play the Democrat game has to be castigated for fucking up the game? I mean, I don't like their game. Why must I play?

Fucking Democrats are bigger fascists than the GOP. At least Republicans are honest fascists.

At any rate, once President Obama has been in the Oval Office for a few months, and the nation starts to realize that all his "change" rhetoric isn't up to the task of unscrambling the shattered mess his GOP predecessors have left behind, that Mr. Audacity of Hope is really just another corporate-friendly, pro-war, good vibes conservative Bill Clinton type, Nader's clout may see an upswing. It's a shame: the Democrats really do need another bloody nose right about now because they're making the same mistake they've been making for a couple of decades, buying into uplifting rhetoric which masks a right wing agenda.

I think Dead Kennedys' masterpiece "California Uber Alles" well illustrates my point:



Here are they lyrics:

I am Governor Jerry Brown
My aura smiles
And never frowns
Soon I will be president...

Carter Power will soon go away
I will be Fuhrer one day
I will command all of you
Your kids will meditate in school
Your kids will meditate in school!

[Chorus:]
California Uber Alles
California Uber Alles
Uber Alles California
Uber Alles California

Zen fascists will control you
100% natural
You will jog for the master race
And always wear the happy face

Close your eyes, can't happen here
Big Bro' on white horse is near
The hippies won't come back you say
Mellow out or you will pay
Mellow out or you will pay!

[Chorus]

Now it is 1984
Knock-knock at your front door
It's the suede/denim secret police
They have come for your uncool niece

Come quietly to the camp
You'd look nice as a drawstring lamp
Don't you worry, it's only a shower
For your clothes here's a pretty flower.

DIE on organic poison gas
Serpent's egg's already hatched
You will croak, you little clown
When you mess with President Brown
When you mess with President Brown

[Chorus]

Yeah, that's right. Jerry Brown is a fucking Nazi!

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