Re: No Bounce for Kerry

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

If there's a great untapped reservoir of leftish populism in the
American masses, why did Kucinich do so badly in the primaries,

1.  Kucinich is nice, poor, and white.

2.  Kucinich is short: 5 feet 7 inches.

3.  93% of Americans are still unsure about how to pronounce his last name.

and why is Nader now down around 2%?

1.  According to Gallup, Nader appears to have peaked at 5% in the
June 3-6, 2004:
<img src="http://media.gallup.com/POLL/Releases/pr040713ii.gif";>, so
his inability to get on the Green Party ballots brought down his
popularity.

2.  Nader is forced to waste money fighting off Democrats' demagogy
about Republican funding and legal challenges to his ballot accesses:

<blockquote>While Mr. Nader digs in his heels, the Democrats are
trying to sideline him. The party has enlisted Howard Dean, the
former Vermont governor, who has declared an "extraordinary
emergency" to stomp out Nader votes. And some former associates of
Mr. Nader are organizing an extensive, well-financed national
campaign against him. Organizers include Toby Moffett, a former
congressman from Connecticut and onetime "Nader Raider," who lost a
close race for the Senate in 1982 after his former boss endorsed his
opponent.

Mr. Moffett, now a lobbyist in Washington, worked against Mr. Nader
in six states in 2000, an informal effort that he now calls
amateurish. With that experience under his belt, he said, "we're
vowing not to let it happen again."

Mr. Moffett and others from labor and feminist organizations spent
their time at the Democratic convention coordinating six or eight
anti-Nader groups. Calling themselves United Progressives for
Victory, they are raising money through an independent political
committee known as a 527, named for the section of the I.R.S. code
that governs it, and are working with other 527's that are already
identifying sympathetic voters. (By law, such committees can raise
unlimited amounts of money but cannot coordinate with the Kerry
campaign.)

The group is armed with a poll conducted by Stanley Greenberg, who
was President Bill Clinton's pollster. The group includes Roy Neel, a
former Gore associate who worked for Mr. Dean and is now preparing
the computer model for finding the 2.8 million people who voted for
Mr. Nader in 2000 and might vote for him again.

Mr. Moffett said there was no chance that Mr. Nader would drop out,
so the only way to stop him from throwing the election to Mr. Bush is
to discourage his supporters. . . .

. . . [For instance,] when Nader supporters learned that Mr. Nader
had accepted help and money from Republicans to get on the ballots in
various states, they dropped away. And one of the few public figures
who has credibility with Nader backers is former President Jimmy
Carter, who is perceived as not compromised by or profiting from the
political system. So some of the group's officials say they have
discussed redeploying Mr. Carter, who they say has indicated a
willingness to help.

The briefings in Boston drew dozens of donors, lawyers and activists,
including Arianna Huffington, the columnist. . . .

Mr. Moffett said that he and Elizabeth Holtzman, the former
congresswoman from New York, were coordinating with election lawyers
in several states to challenge Mr. Nader's ballot petitions. Their
strategy, he said, is to try to undercut Mr. Nader <strong> not only
in swing states where he could make a difference but in safe states,
"to drain him of resources and force him to spend his time and
money."</strong> . . .

Mr. Nader has raised $1.5 million, tens of thousands of it from
Republicans, who also collected the signatures to get him on the
ballot in Michigan. But he shrugged off the significance of their
help, saying, "We had nothing to do with it." . . .

"I wish Republicans who support us would send us some donations," Mr.
Camejo said. "In polls, 25 percent of our vote is from Republicans
and only 5 percent of our money."  (emphasis added, Katharine Q.
Seelye, "Convictions Intact, Nader Soldiers On," <em>New York
Times</em>, <a
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/02/politics/campaign/02nader.html";>August
2, 2004</a>)</blockquote>
--
Yoshie

* Critical Montages: <http://montages.blogspot.com/>
* Greens for Nader: <http://greensfornader.net/>
* Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/>
* Calendars of Events in Columbus:
<http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/calendar.html>,
<http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/>
* Student International Forum: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/>
* Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/>
* Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio>
* Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>