I hadn’t seen this clip in a long time and just stumbled upon it. It is a great reminder of what Ralph Nader has become and how his thinking has warped over time. He reminds me in some ways of Julian Assange, for some reason. I heard Bill Keller on NPR the other day talking about the Wikileaks leak to the New York Times and how Julian Assange acted throughout the process. Something made me think of Nader, I think it is the narcissism.
Kudos to Shephard Smith for telling it like it is on Fox News, of all places.
Extreme Liberal's Blog 
I rarely watch Faux but Shepard Smith IMO is the only real journalist they have working for them.
I remember how Michael Moore ramped for this guy and can’t help but think that he’ll do the same thing in 2012 as he did in 2000. I’m sorry but I can’t see anyone in their right mind actually voting Nader. Nothing about this guy strikes me as someone who is presidential.
That being said I did vote for Nader when I was 18 and extremely stupid. I now gained some sense and realized how terrible Nader really is.
So we are more concerned with Ralph Nader making a quite accurate, though obviously too racially sensitive of a remark on a network that swims in bigotry of one kind or another every day with every one, including this self-adulating-holier-than-thou hypocrite Sheperd Smith? Who was more interested in showing off his own pious ignorance than recognizing the national importance of the narrative being given him. Instead of focusing on the serious content of the point Mr. Nader was making? In that interview Nader predicted exactly what has come to pass. Ralph Nader panders to no man or woman. He is absolutely the only person alive who has the experience, expertise and courage to stand up to our corporate-run government. When one side has all the cards and dirty tricks, there is barely a line between “compromise” and capitulation. Anyone, including Michael Moore, who did more harm than good for Mr. Nader’s run for President, and has done no good at all for this country that I can tell. Except make a couple of movies that have themselves brought no serious change to our society. Anyone who took a little time to study the candidates before an election. Study for themselves I mean, and not just take some celebrity’s word, would have seen that Obama would throw us even further out to the sharks of industry than Bush or Clinton or even Reagan did. You only had to look at his Harvard Law Review presidency to see how he would behave once given the reins of power.
And to further call Nader a narcissist is about as funny as it gets. The man doesn’t even own an automobile. You obviously know nothing about this man’s life, his upbringing, his family. He comes across like that because he is a citizen and he is pissed. That is why he became an advocate in the first place. To try and correct injustices that affected everyone, including him and his family. If you knew anything about him you would appreciate that fact, instead of belittling him. Every day his advocay 40 years ago still save lives. Lives in the thousands each year. Maye someone you know even.
It’s no wonder this country keeps choosing the wrong people to lead us out of this darkness, we don’t understand any longer the kind of strength of character and selfless virtue that is needed to throw off the temptations of power and greed. No my liberal friend, it is we who are the narcissists. Or at best, simply fools.
That’s the problem with “liberalism” versus progressive thinking. And probably why you can’t see the double-standard in your own judgments against Ralph Nader. What you mistake for vanity is rage. What you interpret as ego is self-assurance. And he is only like Julian Assange in that he is purveyor of the truth. Why is it that neo-cons and liberals both seem to like pretty faces and a politically correct demeanor more than they do honesty and perseverance?
I hope he runs again. There is no other truly progressive voice out there which could stand up to the status-quo and survive it, even defeat it.
“That being said I did vote for Nader when I was 18 and extremely stupid. I now gained some sense and realized how terrible Nader really is.”
A comment with absolutely no substantiation. I’m 58 now, and one of the things I marvel at is how in so many ways I was smarter when I was 18. And technically speaking if you were “stupid” at 18, then unless you found some “smart” pills, you are still stupid. The brain has quit developing by 18. But I only say that really because my Mom tried to teach us that it wasn’t nice to call someone stupid. I meant nothing personal by it.
Oh, wait, this whole debate is about name-calling isn’t it? I’ll be, we’re all guilty…
Boy you know what reading through your rants I’m left laughing at you. For one Nader really doesn’t believe in helping the working class and is actually anti-union. He rails against big business but when his own employees wanted to start their own union he did every trick in the book to make sure it doesn’t happen.
Nader is a fraud and your a fool and misinformed to believe that he’s some big time liberal that has your best interest at heart.
That was some crazy rant wasn’t it, Jeff? It’s just too big and stupid to even attempt to take a crack at. Besides, it stands by itself really, as an example of some strange thinking going on in some people’s heads.
For the record, this post has touched a nerve with a few Nader trolls who have typed some really nasty stuff towards yours truly that I don’t feel I need to post on the site. Now if he actually wanted to talk about the issue, I would be glad to post his comments. But hurling insults and nonsense at me and the democratic party isn’t really that entertaining or enlightening.
And these trolls usually post and flee, never to come back and argue any responses anyone posts to the comments. Of course insults usually only beget insults, so fuck that. :)
The first progressive blog I ever posted on over a decade ago was Cafe Utne. However, over the years a clique of Naderite trolls hijacked the blog and insulted any of us who didn’t agree with their blathering. I finally gave up trying to talk to any of them and just let them take over…life is too short to waste my time. They must all have been unemployed or retired as they seemed to be online 24/7. There are more myths about Nader than Reagan.