Now that Bloomberg has announced he is not running, can we stop paying attention to whiny narcissists (see Nader, Ralph)? You have a clear choice this election. You can go vote for the third Bush term with lots more war and with the filth still in charge, or you can vote to end the nonsense of the last 8 years. The choice is clear.
If you choose to vote for some asshole third party candidate, you deserve the rogering you get from another Republican administration and you probably deserved the last eight years. So please STFU- you get to choose between evil and not evil in November. Deal with it.
MarkusB
Roger that, JC.
TR
Broder certainly is no one important, so the title fits.
Sam
That Op-Ed was also upper quintile dumb. The more bipartisan candidates won their nominations (assuming Obama wins the nom,) and on the issues that Bloomberg names (trade, immigration, education, global warming, and guns) both Obama and McCain agree with him on at least 3 of the issues. Additionally, his supposed “independent solutions” for education are a bowl of mush, which sounds just like NCLB accountability standards.
Zifnab
But David Broder specifically told me how America was crying out for a strong, non-partisan, civil, educated, and experienced voice. And he said that Bloomberg was that guy.
I don’t understand. How can America say no to another billionaire tycoon with “compassionate conservative” credentials when this is what we truly need as a country to get us through these troubled times? I just don’t understand?
Zifnab
Also, screw you!
We need a god damn Green Party in this country, because if my choice is Dem Dianne Feinstein or GOP Jack Meholf’in’an’airport’restroom, I still don’t have an good choices.
We lucked the fuck out with Obama and finally got a “good v evil” ticket rather than a “shitty-but-not-totally-incompetent v asshole” ticket. Don’t expect to be so fortunate eight years from now.
And for Christ’s sake and the thousandth time, Ralph Nader didn’t steal the election from Al Gore. Check the god damn poll numbers you silly little wanker. Half of Nader’s voters would have slept through the damn ’00 election. Another 20-odd% would have voted for Bush anyway.
You want to blame someone for the shitty government we’ve had for the last eight years? Maybe you should start with the people who VOTED FOR BUSH TWICE!
Wanker.
John Cole
When a green party candidate for President polls higher than herpes and elective root canals and siphons votes from the GOP rather than the Democrats, get back to me.
BTW- I am clearly talking about the national election here, and not your local races.
Tsulagi
And if those half who didn’t sleep through it and managed in environmentally sensitive ways to get themselves to the polls voted for Gore instead, particularly in Florida, what would have been the outcome? I particularly like the irony that really smart voters like Michael Moore and Bill Maher voted for Nader because Gore wasn’t green enough.
sean
here’s an interesting article from the NY Daily News on the pros and cons of an Obama/Bloomy ticket
r€nato
Reasonable people can differ over how much Nader’s candidacy affected the outcome of the 2000 election. I also blame Gore’s campaign, the shitty ballot design in Palm Beach County, and the shitty reporting in general.
But to completely deny that Nader’s candidacy helped prevent Gore from winning Florida outright? C’mon. Not buying it.
Epicanis
“Now that Bloomberg has announced he is not running[…]”
Please be kind, I’m in a delicate emotional state over this, as my fervent desire for a Paul/Bloomberg vs. Gravel/Kucinich race has now been thoroughly crushed by Bloomberg dropping out. (sniffle)…
clone12
Until the Greens apologize for their “Gush Bore same difference” lie, I’ll continue to regard the Green Party as the irrelevantly dishonest party that it is.
The Other Steve
I could see it. I think if Obama wants to cement the death of the Republican party, it would be fairly wise to go outside the party wankery and find someone very competent rather than someone who it’s their turn.
Bloomberg wouldn’t be a terrible choice. He’s done very well in New York.
fecapult
Time machine fix.
sean
TOS – I could see it too. but could a ticket made up of a “scary Moozlim” and a lisping Jew really win in this country? i’m not sure how well it would fly, outside of states like NY, NJ, FL, CA, etc. Maybe Bloomberg would be a better fit as Treasury Sec.??
Jen
97,000 / 2 = 48,500, plus your 40% discount for People Who are Idiots in Whole New Ways to be Idiots = 29,100 > 537
Wait wait, I can do this. 97% of Nader voters would have stayed home, and 40% of those who turned out would’ve voted for Bush. Eh, Kerry still wins by 45 votes. Okay, wait, 97% stay home, 40% vote for Bush, and 5% go for Pat Buchanan because of the butterfly ballot. See? Nader had nuttin’ to do with it!
zmulls
I would have been very impressed if Kerry had won the 2000 election.
Jen
Oh, fine, Gore, whatever, pick nits. :)
Billy K
LOL Rogering. Been watching BBC America, John?
Neal
I’m going to get some shitty comments for this.
I voted for Nader in 2000. Not because I loved Ralph, but because of the protest vote – because I didn’t like Gore OR Bush or the parties they represent. The only hope I saw at the time was for a third party to break 5% nationally. I was young and dumb. Oh well. I think the 20,000 “votes” for Buchanan in Palm Beach were a little more to blame personally. I’m not proud of “assisting” Bush at all but I still detest Al Gore…and maybe if he could have carried his home state, it wouldn’t have mattered.
I voted for Kerry in ’04 but it was an anti-Bush vote. How the democrats ended up with Kerry as a nominee in such a pivotal election, I really still don’t know. Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory I guess. Did they really think he would sell nationally? The traditional “Northeast Liberal”? It was a like one big present for Rove.
The Other Steve
Good point. Maybe Obama should pick someone like Harrison Ford to play the part of VP. He did pretty well in Air Force One.
The Other Steve
You know, the main thing I remember Gore for was attacking music.
Zifnab
Perot helped gank 41 in ’92, and the party survived and flourished for the next 16 years. Maybe third party ideologies in the race aren’t the worst thing for the party platform (and if the platform isn’t batshit crazy, for the nation too).
Its hardly Moore/Maher’s fault that Gore only decided to grow balls AFTER he lost. Big Al was trying to tip-toe around the Big Oil fuck-the-environment movement so he wouldn’t get slimed. And he got slimed anyway. Kerry tried the same trick with his war record and still got a kick in the balls.
That Gore wasn’t flashing his Green street cred at every appearance because he was too much of a pussy just makes Nader that much more important on the political scene. God willing, he taught someone that there’s a 5% floating voting block who will give you their vote for being a little more left leaning than Joe Lieberman.
SGEW
But Harrison Ford is Jewish, and Obama is anti-semitic. Haven’t you heard?
Martin Sheen, maybe.
Neal
Precisely. As a younger and more rebellious lad, I hated Al and Tipper for that. Part of my rationale at the time.
Andrew
I still feel bad that I might have possibly maybe somehow considered voting for McCain in 2000.
demimondian
You know, John, every time I’ve ever picked “not evil” over “evil” — and I’ve had a number of chances to do so in my life — I’ve quickly figured out the “not evil” merely meant “evil in a somewhat different, but no less corrosive way”.
One six pack of root beer says 2008 works out the same way. (I still owe Tim a six pack of real beer from the stolen superbowl of two years ago.)
DougJ
He’s Jewish too. He changed it from Sheenstein.
I think this footage would really hurt Sheen if he gets into politics.
Neal
Me too. But remember, that’s back when he was still John McCain – before the robotic brain implant that is now causing him to abandon whatever small amount of decency he once had in order to suck up to the crazies on the right.
I do give him credit for talking down Cunningham – if it was legit…but I’m doubtful that it was.
Michael
as a European who’s interestedly following your politics, I have to say: Yes, you guys _do_ need a Green party. Maybe not the one you have now, but some Greenish party. And one or two others as well. But please, PLEASE, not this time around.
I have to admit that Mr. Obama’s choise of advisors scares me a bit, but nobody here in this blog seems to have seen or discussed this yet .. (that Zbigniew Brzeziński-guy, or however you spell him. something like that anyway)
demimondian
If there’s one thing of which I’m sure, it’s that the US does not need a Green party. What the Greens fight for was discarded many years ago on this side of the Atlantic. You on that side will wake up in — I estimate — about ten years, when the price of fuel and repeated failures of the various alternative -snake oil-…er, I mean energy…vendors finally convincesthe Germans that a no-nukes policy really is as stupid as the French think it is.
MMM
“If nominated, I will not accept; if drafted, I will not run; if elected, I will not serve.”
William Tecumseh Sherman
jcricket
Good riddance. Bipartisanship is not a good, by itself. It is not a goal to “work with everyone”. Good governance is a goal. A functioning social safety net is a goal. Fighting wars only when we actually have to. That’s a goal.
There’s only one party that has any interest in these goals, and approaches the issue with good faith. That’s the Democrats.
I think there’s more chance of Republicans becoming a reasonable/functioning (not crazy) opposition party if the Democrats successfully paint them as not worthy of debating/engaging, than if we continue to pretend that people like Tancredo need to be involved in immigration debates.
Tsulagi
Yeah, I can see it was Gore’s fault he didn’t know Nader voters couldn’t do the math.
One of two candidates was going to be president. One, as VP participated in negotiating the Kyoto Protocol and symbolically signed it on behalf of the U.S. The other candidate was an idiot who couldn’t stay upright on a bicycle calling himself a small business growth. Yep, I can see their confusion as to which one might be best for their interests. Hard call.
Hey, next time Kucinich should go with lessons learned from Gore’s failure. Go hard after the UFO vote. Don’t be a pussy about it. There could be a literally floating 5% voting block out there just waiting to be enticed back to Earth.
Ravi
Looks like Nader scared the shit out of Bloomberg.
A covering Bloomberg will go hide below his desk now.
The Other Steve
I don’t think you guys understand Nader’s appeal.
Nader might have been a Green party candidate, but he doesn’t give a shit about the environment.
OriGuy
Nader named his running mate today. Matt Gonzales, a former San Francisco city supervisor who lost a run for mayor in 2002.
The Green Party will never be a force in this country until they get people elected to local and state offices. Third-parties in the US don’t have any success by working top-down. Nader could have had a lot of influence by campaigning for Green candidates at lower levels, but that’s not Ralph’s way.
ThymeZone
I can’t say anything until I see lukasiak analyze the numbers for six months.
myiq2xu
The distinction between “bad” and “worse” is far more important than the one between “good” and “better.” – Robert A. Heinlein
jake
Here’s a list of Green Party members who currently hold elected office [h/t whoever posted it the first time]
We’re supposed to let this run the entire fucking country? I don’t think so. A group with no experience lead by an egomaniac in the White House sounds too familiar for comfort.
Birdzilla
Ralph Nerdier is a liberal wack he is just another butt headed twit