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Are we really here again? Are we really in another election where Nader may be enough to hand the election to a right wing, war mongering, religious zealot appeasing, supply side welfare for the rich supporting, anti the environment Republican? This is a good thing according to some here.
And they justify this how? Is he better on the issue of the Iraq war than Obama? No
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Barack_Obama's_Iraq_Speech
Not only that but Obama walked the walk and actually voted against the war and has tried to stop it at every occasion. And no, occasionally voting to fund the troops is not the same thing as voting to continue the war. When opportunities arose to vote to bring the troops home, Obama has voted that way.
Nader and his apologists trot out some of the same memes everytime he runs. "Oh, but the Democrats should be able to win easily anyway". Why? Because Nader says so? This is not a monolothic country that thinks the same way that Nader and his apologists think. There are states in which the voters are so conservative that no one from the most conservative DLC member to the most progressive person imaginable and anyone in between has a prayer of winning those states. And states like that are not few in number. The presidential election is about winning STATES. As long as it is like that, a conservative GOP candidate is going to have a good chance to win no matter what anyone on the left does or says.
Rasmussen Reports has come out with their current electoral college vote projection if the election would be held today between John McCain and either Democratic Candidate.
Yes, Rasmussen has the Democrats leading, but the lead is tenuous. There are states with 168 electoral votes that are listed as 'Safely Republican' and states with 21 more electoral votes are 'likely Republican'. That is before the election has started in earnest. So, the GOP Nominee starts with 189 electoral votes. To be sure, if we use the same calculation the other way, the Democratic candidate starts with 238 electoral votes. But that supposed 49 vote electoral college lead would evaporate in an instant if just two of the remaning ten states (Ohio and Florida) voted Republican. The following ten states will probably determine the election:
Florida (27), Ohio (20), Virginia (13), Missouri (11), Colorado (9), Iowa (7), Nevada (5), New Mexico (5), New Hampshire (4), and Wisconsin (10).
Of these ten states, seven were in the GOP column (ignoring for a moment the Florida and Ohio shenanigans in 2000 and 2004) both of the last two elections. So, I would have to give the edge decidedly to John McCain right now.
In this climate, Nader and his apologists say it should be easy for the Democrats to win? This is part and parcel of the fact that Nader and his supporters live in an alternate universe which reality never seems to touch.
It is all very simple, really, a Nader candidacy will probably result in John McCain victories in Florida, Ohio, Virginia, Missouri, Colorado, Iowa and Nevada. That will give McCain 271 electoral votes and the Presidency. And it will give all of us another four years of a GOP President in which we will almost certainly go to war with Iran, give another major tax cut to the wealthy and to corporations, I saw McCain talking yesterday about how our corporate taxes are too high so he plans to enact a corporate tax cut, and we will get at least one more young Conservative "Constructionist" judge. In the meantime, the poor and workers of this country will continue to suffer all sacrificed on the altar of Ralph Nader. Obama AND Clinton for that matter both have (thanks to John Edwards leadership) detailed anti-poverty plans that you can read about on their websites that would make their Presidencies light years better for the poor than a McCain Presidency. Do Naderites care?
Roberts and Alito will probably be on the bench for another 35 years, if we get another conservative judge, that will be three out of nine who will be in a position to stop any progressive agenda voted on by a potential Democratic congress and/or President for a good portion of the remainder of most of our lifetimes.
If the Nader support throws this race to McCain, Nader and everyone who pulled the lever for him will have Iranian blood and the blood of our service people who fight in that war on their hands. Again, all sacrificed at the altar of Ralph Nader. It doesnt get any more stark or clear than that.
So the next time anyone trots out the same BS about Democrats/Obama/Clinton being the same as Republicans/McCain, you all know better. And if you fail to take that into account, the Iranians will learn that difference the hardest way possible.
