Horizons Online Edition

Issue date: 3/10/08 Section: News

Here is the scenario, there are five candidates battling it out to become the next President of the United States. Two Democrats and three Republicans are in the race, with each candidate having their own standpoint on the hot issues. What if one thinks that the Democratic or Republican Party is not the way to go this presidential term? Well, for the ones that think this, there is a new runner in this stampede to the White House, and his name happens to be Ralph Nader.

As of Feb. 24, Nader announced his decision to run as a not yet decided party in the upcoming presidential race. This "Consumer Advocate's" reasoning for running as an Independent or Green member is because he feels the Americans are "disenchanted with the Democratic and Republican parties," as [http://msnbc.msn.com] published. He feels that the other five candidates are going about the wrong way on portraying their solutions on issues he feels strong about: corporate crime, Pentagon waste, and labor rights; also mentioned in the same article by MSNBC. Although some Americans may feel Nader is the solution for the upcoming elections in November. However, once his announcement was widely known, the Democratic candidates quickly jumped back with responses.

Senator Hillary Clinton and Senator Barack Obama had nothing but negative comments about this veteran "second-class runner." Such comments as stated by Clinton, "I remember when he ran before. It didn't turn out very well for anybody-especially our country." Obama back-lashed with, "He thought that there was no difference between Al Gore and George Bush, and eight years later I think people realize that Ralph did not know what he was talking about." Not everyone responded with a panic to the announcement; Republican Mike Huckabee had an open arms approach to Nader's ambitions to become the next President. Huckabee spoke out about the fear the Democrats were feeling on Nader taking votes away from the Democratic candidates: "I think it always would probably pull votes away from the Democrats, not the Republicans."

Nader has already portrayed a dislike of the Democratic candidates and as for the Republican side, he specifically points out Senator John McCain on the issue of the War in Iraq calling him a "candidate for perpetual war." This very sensitive and controversial topic, Nader supports more of the pull out of the war; however it may be surprising this topic is not one of his "Twelve Issues that Matter in 2008," which is mentioned on his website.

Nader promises to "fight corporate greed, corporate power, corporate control." With his views leaning more right, he plans to acquire his votes from the Republicans that do not believe in the "War in Iraq, who don't like taxpayer dollars wasted, who don't like the Patriot Act and who treasure their rights of privacy." Although in the past elections, only receiving not even three percent of America's vote and being blamed for the loss of Al Gore in 2000, he is still determined to run. For more information on this zero for three time veteran runner, visit his website at [http://www.votenader.org].

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