Nader wins?

[TommyC1776]

could Nader win any states this time?  Could he win Alaska if he won any?

[Fritz]

Ummm, no, he can't.

[MODU]

Not a chance.  

[Fmr. Gov. NickG]

Nader certainly won't win any states, but he could possibly finish 2nd in Alaska if he spent the next three months actually campaigning there.  None of the other candidates will go to Alaska or run ads there, and liberals won't have to be worried about tilting the state to Bush by voting for Nader.  

[Gabu]

Given that he has less than 5% support in every single state, he'd have to win over at least 40-45% of the population of a state to win it.  As far as I can tell, most of those who support him will likely always support him and most of those who don't will likely never support him.

So, in short, no, Nader has absolutely no chance of winning any states.

[khirkhib]

funny, funny, funny.  Yeah there really are no outside goals for the Nader campaign.  He knows he's not going to win the election, he can't win a state (though I do like the concentrate on Alaska idea)  He isn't even with a Party.  Many people voted for Nader last time because if Nader got a combined 5% than it would qualify the Green Party for gov't funds.  Since Nader isn't with a party even that doesn't matter.   No nobody wins with a vote for Nader except maybe Bush.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

Do you think there's a strong possibility that Nader might quit the race and endorse Kerry?

I'm sure candidates can quit any time they want, because Perot kept doing this in 1992.

[Gabu]

I don't think there's any possibility of that whatsoever.  Nader has repeatedly said that he will not and knowing how stubborn he's shown himself to be I have a feeling he's going to stick to that.  Even if he'd consider it, I can't imagine Nader liking Kerry enough to do so, anyway.

[khirkhib]

No.  I can't really figure out Nader's motives of late.  I just don't know what the goal of the campaign is.  Badnarik's goal is to make the Libertarian party a player, a spoiler, get them attention so the party can grow.  Codd wants to build an alliance with the Democrats so that they get the Green issues into the main stream.  I think every third party has a goal except for Nader who says he wants to give choice, when their is choice and he says he wants to get Bush out of office but he recieves money and signitures from the republicans - doesn't he feel just a little bit like a sap.

I can't figure it out.

[Giant Saguaro]

I don't think it matters what Nader does - stays in, gets out, endorses Bush, endorses Kerry, or whatever - he'll probably get much less now than he did in 2000, to say nothing of him even being competitive.

[Gabu]

Hearing Nader talk makes me think there's exactly one reason he's running for President: because he wants to be President.  I can't tell if he honestly is so dense that he doesn't know he has no chance, but given his absolute disdain for both the Democrats and Republicans, and given his seemingly enormous ego, I personally think he believes that it's his God-given right to be President of the United States, so much so that he'd accept help to further his campaign even from a party that he despises.

Maybe I'm wrong and maybe I just have too low an opinion of Nader.  I doubt it, though.

[specific_name]

Hearing Nader talk makes me think there's exactly one reason he's running for President: because he wants to be President.  I can't tell if he honestly is so dense that he doesn't know he has no chance, but given his absolute disdain for both the Democrats and Republicans, and given his seemingly enormous ego, I personally think he believes that it's his God-given right to be President of the United States, so much so that he'd accept help to further his campaign even from a party that he despises.

Maybe I'm wrong and maybe I just have too low an opinion of Nader.  I doubt it, though.

I have a feeling you're right on about Nader's motives. I also predict he will recieve far less votes this election than in the last one. I'd expect Badnarik and Peroutka to make a bigger impact (combined).

[A18]

Saddam Hussein has a better chance of being elected President than Ralph Nader (and he'd take a lot more votes away from the Democrats than Nader could). He's probably less anti-war, too.

[Gabu]

Given that he's started two wars now, yes, I'd say so.

[Fmr. Gov. NickG]

I really do think Nader might drop out.

If he did this, he would be hailed as a savior bey Democrats, repairing the damages to his legacy that 2000 created.  If he had simply never run in 2004, a lot of people would stil be mad as him over 2000.

And Nader has not completely dismissed questions about whether he would drop out if the race was extremely close a couple weeks before election day.

[Posterity]

Nader won't win anything except maybe an award for persistence.

[cwelsch]

Nader won't win anything after he drops out in disgrace.