Obama Supporters Riled by Ralph Nader’s Pending Announcement

Photo credits: AP/Carolyn Kaster

It’s the talk of the Internet this evening: Ralph Nader is expected to throw his hat in the ring tomorrow on “Meet the Press.” Gauging the noise on the message boards, Obamaphiles are the group most riled up over Ralph’s potential entry into the presidential race. And well they should be. After all, a key component of Obama’s base is the extreme left wing of the Democratic party – those elite, upscale liberals who not so long ago were labeled Naderites.

The Kansas City Star’s MARIA RECIO reports, “In an e-mail to supporters from his exploratory committee, Nader asks, ‘What's been pulled off the table by the corporatized political machines in this momentous election year? ‘In what amounts to a preview of his campaign themes, he answers himself: ‘Cutting the huge, bloated and wasteful military budget, adopting a single-payer Canadian-style national health insurance system, impeaching Bush/Cheney, opposing nuclear power - among many others.’"

According to The Wall Street Journal, “Barack Obama said today during a visit at the Ohio State University Medical Center that he wasn’t terribly concerned about the prospect of a Nader campaign. ‘I think the job of the Democratic Party is to be so compelling that a few percentage [points] of the vote going to another candidate is not going to make any difference.”’

Here are a few examples of comments by Obama supporters pulled from the Web on a potential run by Nader; as you can see they get ugly at perceived threats to their leader:

1. Nader’s entry into the race is a clear indication that the GOP fears the inevitable Democrat nominee Senator Obama. As they have done in the past, the GOP will fund Nader’s campaign in the hope that he will take away enough votes from Obama to tilt the election to McCain. No worries. Democrats are turning out in such large numbers that the low single digits Nader’s GOP funded campaign will amass, in fact shall amount to the insignificance they truly represent. we’re an informed electorate now. These sophomoric tactics just don’t work anymore.

2. Go F**king away....now!

3. If Ralph Nader fell in a forest, no one would hear him and no one would care. He is just not important. The only "little guy" Ralph Nader is out to protect is himself. His act has grown tired. Nader's swansong if he announces. 4. There is no way that this old man is going to stop the Obama movement. Nader promises NOTHING! Nader... Unsafe at any age.5. We've been there with Nader before and he will be remembered for giving the Republicans victory when they didn't deserve it.

4. If this stupid jerk had stayed out of the 2000 election, Al Gore would have won by a big enough margin so that the problems in Florida and the political Supreme Court would not have kept him from getting the Presidency that the people elected him for. Al Gore would now be near the end of his second term and the Iraq horrors would never have happened. But in 2004 Nader was irrelevant. And with Obama running in 2008 the young people will be flocking to him and Nader will be an irrelevant footnote. I guess Nader's running is essentially an attention-getting device for him. Without this political stunt virtually everybody has virtually forgotten that he is still around. He has now become a vanity candidate, like Alan Keyes on the right.