[Sosfbay-discuss] Ralph Nader interview and a misinterpretation of what he said

[Drew Johnson]

Ralph Nader interview:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/22302093#22302093

No transcript found.

Note that a poster on DemocraticUnderground.com misinterpreted RN's
responses as being 'I won't run if Edwards is the nominee, but will if
Obama is',
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x77200
but if you listen to the interview Nader doesn't say that.  He just says
Edwards is the most progressive front running Dem candidate in a long
time.  At the end of the interview Matthews asks Nader if he would join in
a 'Democratic coalition' if Obama is the nominee and Nader says no because
Obama 'doesn't have the agenda'... if Edwards wins the nomination and if
Edwards doesn't back down on the progressive agenda...  (he doesn't really
finish the thought, so its hard to extrapolate exactly what he meant by
his answer in relationship to Matthew's question.  It wouldn't be accurate
to assume as some did that he was saying he wouldn't run if Edwards was
the Dem nominee).

RN also critiques Obama's lack of criticism for corporate power and says
Obama's taken himself out of consideration for progressives because he
"doesn't have the agenda"

There's a lot of discussion about 'vote splitting' 'robed elections',
'vote shaving' and Nader comes back fairly effectively against Matthews,
saying that researchers have shown that Nader and the Green campaign
actually raised Gore's vote total by pushing Gore to more progressive and
more popular positions.