US elections

Grow up and ignore Nader

Anglosphere

"Grow up and ignore Nader" is my advice to the Democrats. It's really childish to whine about the "fact" his candidature "gave" Bush the 2000 elections and that he might help McCain in a similar way later this year.

Sure, Nader's 2.7% in 2000 could indeed have given Gore the electoral and not just the popular vote. But let's not forget that in 1996 Ross Perot took a far larger share of the popular vote: 8.4%. That's a rather significant number of voters: 1 in 12. Who knows how close a call the electoral vote between Clinton and Dole could've been..

Or let's go back to 1992, when Perot took a massive 18.9% of the popular vote. Had those people voted Republican, George Bush Sr. would probably have buried Clinton under a landslide so impressive that even Ronald Reagan would have been full of envy.

And people talk about Ralph Nader? Sigh.

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