Hotline After Dark -- Ralphing It Up
Ralph Nader made the TV rounds last night:
Nader: "I wish someone else would run on the progressive banner. ... But they don't want to do it. And this politics stinks so badly that it drives out good candidates. Good potential candidates don't want to get into it. And when you see that, you've got to go in and try to clean it up. ... I'll decide in the fall. I haven't decided."
Asked if he is more likely to run if Hillary Clinton gets the Dem nod: "No. ... It's not just her, it's the whole rotten system that, you know, turns off half the population who don't even bother to vote because it doesn't mean anything for them" ("Hardball," MSNBC, 6/21).
Asked if he's getting in race: "It's too early to say. ... The others are getting in the race because they have to raise hundreds of millions of dollars and we have to raise thousands of volunteers."
On if Bloomberg gets in: "That would make things very interesting" ("Situation Room," CNN, 6/21).
TEN FOUR GOOD BUDDY
Tom Tancredo was on "Hannity & Colmes" to talk about the immigration bill. FNC's Hannity told him: "Stop it in the House if it passes." Tancredo replied: "I will do my best, buddy" (FNC, 6/21).
A PICTURE'S WORTH ...
Washington Post's Romano, on the "Hillaryland" story and group photo: "They have a couple pushes they're doing right now. One is to humanize her. This is a very important thing. They're doing it through the Sopranos ad, through the video, through everything. And the other is women. I mean, they have made a serious decision that they need to be the dominating force in the women's vote to win this election. So this group of women sitting for this picture went to both of those. And I've got to tell you, more than almost any piece I've done in my career, I got so much reaction today, I mean, dozens and dozens and dozens of emails from people who said it gave them a sense of her" ("Hardball," MSNBC, 6/21). [EMILY GOODIN]
Now, Edwards isn't 100% progressive but I would say he's probably running hte most serious prgressive campaign. The fact that Nader is ignoring this really indicates to me that he's in this for ego and influence and not the "progressive" interestes he campaigns for.
Is Nader talking about the kind or rotten system where the person with more votes loses? The kind of rotten system where one of the leaders of the modern environmental movement is kept out of the White House by a third party candidate who claims to truly care about the state of our environment? If that is the system he is talking about, then yes, it is truly rotten. He probably has a different solution for it in mind than I do though.
Yeah Ralph, what a cipher you turned out to be. I remember you coming into the 8th District of IN in the early 90's and campaigning against a good incumbent progressive Democrat in a very conservative district. You held a press conference with the Republican candidate, a local non-union strip mine operator, and complained about the congressional pay raise of all things. Ralph was a political idiot then and still is. It is all about your ego Ralph.