The Nader Factor
by Pat Choate
The Choate-Weinberg Report
Feb. 28, 2008

Ralph Nader announced on Meet the Press (2/24/08) that he was running
for President of the United States as an independent candidate.

The New York Times, which has endorsed Hillary Clinton and John McCain
respectively for the nominations of the Democratic and Republican
Party, immediately mocked Mr. Nader by noting:

He argues that his voice is crucial to combat corporate greed, Pentagon
waste and unworkable health care plans. (Remind us. Which candidate is
for corporate greed? Pentagon waste? Bad health care?)

Apparently, those editors do not read their own newspaper. So, let’s
remind them.

The three leading candidates for President – Clinton, Obama and McCCain
– are U.S. Senators. Each has great influence. All have taken massiive
amounts of special interest monies and all have their campaigns run by
the most powerful lobbyists in Washington, D.C. Does that bother the
editors at the NYT?

Obama and Clinton talk endlessly about reforms in health care, but
neither has introduced legislation and carried through on it to make
such reforms. Their solution is to persuade voters to elect them and
then they will do something.

The Pentagon and the State Department are contracting out work that
involves some 160,000 workers in Iraq. The Government Accountability
Office has repeatedly documented sham deals and monies stolen. What
have these candidates done to stop it? Have they asked to head a
special investigation committee, as Senator Harry Truman did in World
War II. Have they proposed creating an independent prosecutor? Did they
tie military appropriations to the creation of new investigations by
outside independent sources? No, they did none of that. Rather, every
now and then, they flay away at the straw man of military waste and say
elect me so I can stop this fraud.

The Bush Administration is contracting out a large portion of the
federal government’s most basic functions. The Washington Post reports
that the CIA has contracted some 80 percent of its intelligence
gathering to firms such as Lockheed, who are building intelligence
networks around the world. Does anyone truly think that anyone who
works for a corporation will risk his life or not sell-out for a higher
price? Please send me any comments that the three candidates have made
about such corruption. I can’t find it on their websites or on the Net.

How about all these alphabet trade deals such as NAFTA, CAFTA and the
WTO? When it mattered, Ralph Nader opposed them all. Clinton and McCain
supported them. Obama now says he would have opposed them, but he was
busy making money at the time.

The list goes on. The major party candidates support corporate greed,
unworkable health care plans and Pentagon waste by their thundering
inaction. They hold Offices that give them the power to investigate,
publicize and stop such corruption but they avert their eyes from those
crimes, largely because they depend on the perpetrators for their
campaign cash and they wish to avoid the controversy.

Ralph Nader truly is an inconvenient man. For more than 40 years, he
has brought national attention to such issues and has profoundly
changed national thinking, including the laws. Can anyone truly say
they do not know where he stands on such issues and in the remote
chance that should he win what he would do? Put another way, if Nader
were to win, 40,000 Washington lobbyists would be at risk of having a
heart attack on election night.

I have known Ralph for many years and co-authored a book with him. He
is a man of integrity. He has not changed his ethics to fit a world
dominated by transnational corporations and the lackeys they place at
the head of our government.

Unfortunately, he will not win the Presidency. Nevertheless, elections
are the one time every four years when Americans pay attention to the
issues that matter. First, however, someone must be brave and
intelligent enough to identify and explain those issues. Ralph will do
that. The other candidates will not. If you think that America is in
trouble and would like a real discussion of the issues that matter,
then the only way such a public examination is likely to happen is with
Ralph Nader in the contest and in the Presidential debates.

Meanwhile, the major media, which is losing their audience because of
their self-created irrelevance and silliness, can focus on the issues
that seem to most interest them, such as whether Congress should indict
Roger Clemens for perjury.

Go, Ralph, Go.

PAT CHOATE