Anti-Climacus

WELL: lots of thoughts on the Ralph Nader announcement:

Joe Carter thinks it might be a bigger problem for Republicans than Democrats. I think the analysis that he won't be repeating the "Republicans and Democrats are the same" lie from last time, but I don't think this is going to benefit the Democrats. After all, he gets his marginal votes from Ds, not Rs. A much more likely line of attack is "everything that's happened in the last four years is the Democrats' fault, because they had the opportunities to stop Bush but chose not to." This would be bad for the Ds, obviously, and in no small part because many of them have capitulated on various parts of the Bush agenda (I tend to think that's a good thing, on the whole, but I'm also not a potential Nader supporter).

Josh Claybourn thinks Nader's poll numbers indicate he still has a significant base of support. I tend to think this is just his announcement-related bounce. Keep in mind, after all, that The Nation (which was very much divided on Gore/Nader in 2000) has already come out telling Ralph not to run. People on the left want to win more than anything, and they know they're not going to win with Nader.