Nader

I am not one of those who thinks Ralph Nader "stole" Al Gore's votes in the 2000 presidential election. They weren't Gore's votes. They belonged to the American citizens who cast them.

As a natural-born citizen who had reached the age of 35, Nader had as much right to run for president as Al Gore and George W. Bush.

That having been said, I have to add that I would take Nader more seriously as a candidate if he had spent any of the time between his unsuccessful runs at the White House doing something in the political realm to make the lives of Americans better. After he lost as the Green Party's nominee in 2000, he did nothing to help build his party into genuine political force. He dropped off the radar until 2004, when he failed to win the party's nomination.

If Nader wanted to make a difference in electoral politics, he could have run for congress in 2002. He could have run for governor in his home state. He could have run for mayor in his hometown. He could have run for city council, or for school board, or for president of his neighborhood association. He didn't do any of those things. Instead, he pops up out of his hole every four years and announces he is running for president. His reason? That the people feel "locked out" of the political process. I wonder, has he ever seen an Obama or Clinton rally? They are already speaking to the people who want the keys to their government back. Of course, this is exactly the sort of rationale that one would expect from someone who insisted in 2000 that there was no difference between Al Gore and George W. Bush.

Republican contender Mike Huckabee does as good a job as anybody in summing up what Ralph Nader brings to the 2008 presidential race.

"I think it always would probably pull votes away from the Democrats, not the Republicans, so naturally Republicans would welcome his entry into the race and hope that maybe a few more will join in," he told CNN.

So, you do what you have to do Ralph, if you can find a party that will have you, or a constituency that will vote for you. Who knows, you might even help John McCain to get elected. That really would end the control of our government by corporate special interests.

And if you believe that, I have a couple of million acres of prime real estate on Mars that you might be interested in.