WASHINGTON – Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader is quietly making headway in his third bid for president.
He clinched a major victory last Saturday by getting on the California ballot as the nominee of the Peace and Freedom Party. In 2004, Nader was on the ballot in only 34 states, and that did not include California.
With the major-party candidates in a close race, Nader could have an impact, perhaps as dramatic as in 2000, when the then-Green Party nominee received more than 97,000 votes in Florida, which Democratic nominee Al Gore lost by 537 votes to George W. Bush. Many believe that gave Bush an Electoral College majority and the White House.
Nader is at 3 percent in one recent poll and 6 percent in another.
However, he's complaining about being excluded from the presidential debates, paid for, he noted, by a "corporate duopoly" of the Democratic and Republican parties.
"Why do we ration debates in this country?" he asked. "You can only reach 2 percent of the public without debates."
The Commission on Presidential Debates stipulates that participants must have 15 percent support in national polls to be eligible.
Nader accuses the media of being in a "cultural rut" by ignoring him. He said he'd been on national television only 10 seconds this election cycle.
His critics worry about a repeat of 2000.
Nader, who's called Bush a "raging pit bull," hates the spoiler label that's been hung on him since that election.
As for Obama, Nader said he "lost all respect for him" when the Illinois senator spoke out against impeaching Bush.
While Nader doesn't seem to face a concerted Democratic campaign to block him from state ballots, as he did in 2004, so far he's on only 12 state ballots, according to the newsletter Ballot Access News. Nader campaign spokesman Chris Driscoll said signatures had been submitted in 26 states and that the campaign was on track to win access in 45 states.
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