Since it's impossible for an independent to compete against the established two party system, how about Kerry for President and Ralph Nader as Vice President...A lot better than what we have now.

regardless of how much you dislike about the others, what is it you do like about nader? i mean that he's done or proposed in the last decade.

mb

As much as I hate to say this (because in the past I have always believed that a person should vote their heart), I believe a vote for Nader is a vote for Bush.

I think it is insane form Nader to stay in the race, considering his stance on the ecology, etc. I just do not understand his position -- Nader should do all he can to get Bush (destroyer of all things living and breathing), OUT of office.

I would like to see John McCain as VP. I respect McCain and believe him to be sincere person with integrity, albeit I do not agree with all he says. I believe it would generate a bipartisan administration. Another possible running mate: Jennifer Granholm from Michigan (for her stance on outsourcing jobs). Or Edwards would be nice, my original candidate.

__________________
"What does a former president's son know about the Iraq war anyway?"
-- GW Bush when asked about Ron Reagan's negative comments, 6/25/2004.
www.BushZombie.com

Nader and Green party people hate the Democrats. He would never align himself with Kerry. Read some of their sites, and his official site. There is a lot of hatred for the Democrats there.

Nader got 97,000 votes in Florida. Bush officially won by only 500+ votes. So a Kerry/Nader ticket may help them win Florida, but no way will Nader agree to be VP.

Have you seen any of his speeches? I recently saw him on C-Span and from what I heard it seems he would be the best catalyst for change. He comes across as honest and to the point about the issues such as the wage gap between the upper tier of corporations and the average worker. And I already knew he was for protecting our environment from the special interest polluters. That's why I voted for him the last time he ran. Anyway, what's your take on our choices Marybeth?

i know now that it doesn't matter. while i was into the mindset that the 2 parties don't provide much choice in the last election, we've seen that it actually did make a huge difference. we are literally well on our way toward a dictatorship. i actually thought that maybe if bush won and things got bad enough, people would finally wake up. it's not gonna happen, though, at least not now and in a mass sense. we have to face that we are in an age of globalization and corporatism, so we have to be able to work from that view-most people have no problem with it other than the exportation of jobs. hopefully, we can make small changes for the better.

i'm sure we all agree that he doesn't stand a chance and i don't think he's injecting anything positive into the race this time around. The stakes are really, really high. it could literally mean the difference of a world war. it could mean a further stripping of our rights. (when i say that, i'm just dumbfounded by conservatives who support bush-isn't conservatism usually associated with less government infringement on personal freedoms? anyone?) it means absolutely no chance of protection from chemical pollution. it means the educational and economic stratification becomes greater and greater.

those are pretty big reasons, to me, to vote for someone i don't necessarily care for that much (kerry) but who scares me less than the bush admin and may actually make some wise and thoughtful decisions.

mb

I understand that in 2000 it was the trendy thing to do to vote for Nader and go against the establishment. That was fine, unfortunatly the result of that is the big mess we're in now. In 2000 the message the Nader voters sent was that they were fed up with the lack of choice in politics, and that the Dems and GOP were basically running the same candidate. As it turns out the two who ran were not so much the same after all. This year we need to send another message. We need to let the government know that we're pissed off for all the lost jobs, kids dying in Iraq for no reason, and the corporate backscratching that's going to end up putting us in a deficit we'll never get out of!!! Kerry might not be the greatest president ever, but it's not possible to be much worse off than we are now.

..vote for bush...

After almost four years of bush is there any doubt that old Ralphie-boy was full of poo???

__________________
The last time this country mixed politics with religion, people got burned at the stake.

What is politics?

In one of my university classes one of my professors characterized politics like this: Politics is the art of the possible. (I don’t know where the quote comes from). But what he meant was politics is all about reaching goals through thoughtful compromise.

This is a situation where every vote really does count. There is no doubt that Bush will smear and lie his way into the hearts and minds of many Americans. It is up to the enlightened to remove him from office. In this case, the compromise is NOT between Nader, Bush and Kerry, it is between a ruined nation and Kerry.

The popular vote is not good enough, as can be seen by the last election. We need Bush removed from office while we still have the framework of freedom.

__________________
"What does a former president's son know about the Iraq war anyway?"
-- GW Bush when asked about Ron Reagan's negative comments, 6/25/2004.
www.BushZombie.com

Nader's is nothing but an opportunist who's favorite cause is Ralph Nader, and has been since day one. Even when we have agreed on a particular issue, his arguments have always been to sensationalize and bring attention to him, which has many times damaged the cause he espouses. I have been watching Nader since the mid-60's, and his act never changes.

Ralph Nader is most certainly not honest. His original claim to fame was going after GM for building the Corvair, which was, ironically, the most innovative car stodgy old GM ever put into production, and offered superior fuel economy well before it's time. Nader never bothered to mention that the VW Beatle and every Porsche built up until that time shared all of the alleged failings of the Corvair. Since that time, many more Porsches have been built than the total number of Corvairs, and there were literally millions of VW's built after Naders book 'Unsafe At Any Speed' was published. Nader may have been the originator of self-serving pseudo science, and he was certainly one of the first to use it as a tactic.

Nader is non-technical, has never owned a car, and might have been forgiven as simply being ignorant and misguided, however subsequent developments and testimony before congress revealed that he was perfectly aware his argument was disingenuous. He didn't go after VW because at the time they weren't a big enough target, and because they were popular among those he spoke to.

While Nader's funding often came from those that also supported the Democratic party, Nader never got a seat at the big table within the party, much to his long term bitterness. His pal Joan Claybrook was director of NHTSA under Carter, but that's about as close as he got. During the years after Watergate when politics took a swing to the left, fund raising for his various activities was easy, as he was widely treated with respect and admiration.

When the Democratic party moved to the right under Clinton, the most liberal within the party got left behind, and Nader found them to be easy pickings. We all know what happened in 2000, and a lot of people hoped Nader's funding sources would dry up after that. Whether they did or they didn't, he's back again.

Here's the test when you listen to Nader. Ignore all of his comments on what is wrong with "the system", and listen for his solutions. If you do this, you will be waiting for a long time, because he offers none. If it weren't for the university lecture circuit, Nader would have had to find a real job 40yrs ago. Unfortunately, there is a near endless supply of the young and inexperienced to keep frauds like Nader (on both ends of the political spectrum) in groceries forever.

oc