Subscribe to Common Dreams News Updates
Most Popular This Week
Popular content
Today's Top News
Published on Wednesday, November 5, 2008 by The Real News Network
Ralph Nader Speaks On An Obama Presidency
On election night, The Real News speaks with Independent Presidential candidate, Ralph Nader
Part 1:
Part 2:
Part 3:
© 2008 The Real News Network
- Posted in
Comments are closed
74 Comments so far
Show AllPlease give Barack Obama a chance Ralph Nader...
I truly believe that Obama will be a champion for the poor. I truly he will. For all I know he will arrane for mass murders of any and all people who would stand in his way to defend the middle/lower class MAJORITY in the USA!
Mr. Nader, BarackObama said what he needed to say to be elected, and HE WAS! Now, the million dollar question is...what is he going to do? I do not know but the future of the Unioted States of America rests on his shoulders! Dig it! That is reality. So please sit back and enjoy the show...
Who said Ralph Nader is not giving Obama a chance?
I dig it, but no, absolutely do NOT sit back and enjoy the show! The only show there will be if we sit back is the dog and pony show that doesn't change a thing. Do NOT sit back! Get out there and push Obama and the Democrats as hard as you can.
Give Obama and the American people their due - we won a big one! But the honeymoon is over - there is no time to waste. Let's turn our own chapters and agitate as if our lives depend on it, because they do!
"It is not true that it's one damn thing after another - it's one damn thing over and over." Edna St. Vincent Millay
I am a terrible speller
Go away, Ralph.
You have embarrassed yourself - and hurt our causes. Again.
Obama never promised to get you out of the oil wars of the Mideast. He never promised to repeal the Patriot Act or a restoration of the Bill of Rights. He never promised single payer health insurance. He never promised corporate transparency. He never promised to end the death penalty. He never promised equal justice for high level lawbreakers. I'm a little unclear what your "causes" are, but you are right that Nader has not advanced them.
Ditto to all of the above. It may well be that Obama may stifle these causes, as the rope that progressives hung themselves with (certainly not the first nor last time -- it seems to be a cyclical capturing of the young/idealistic people). Those of us at middle-age or older are more jaded. I don't see any particular reason to be optimistic about an Obama administration just yet. The rhetoric will be less inflammatory and we may return to a nation under rule of law, but it remains to be seen whether any "progressive" causes will be delivered.
If you have life experience, then you know that the President cannot do anything on his own, that is the work of the Senate, Congress, and the constituency. No President is a savior or super hero. They set the tone and are the public face and voice of the nation. If you want to see certain specific changes - then you need to champion them yourself.
How did you think Nader - without any true party to support him - could initiate any change or renewal? The man is intelligent but his only method of change is to point out what is wrong and say what he thinks would work better - but did not inspire a lot of support. Without it, he has no more power to initiate change than you do. Without a support team - a cooperative Senate and Congress, and a multitude of citizens - Nothing changes... unless you, like the Bush Administration, believe that you can do whatever you want - regardless of Constitution or due process of law.
The optimism of the Obama campaign is that he seems to have a gift of overcoming obstacles and is a masterful speaker who sways hearts and minds to a better purpose - He will not be able to do it alone, but he has inspired millions to action - and that is the first and most important step on a journey of renewal!
Live Simply So That Others May Simply Live
It is a problematic situation you sketch here in your post. Are you suggesting that Nader needed to hire a charismatic actor to inspire Americans to accept his platform? Or that by reason of Obama being a masterful speaker we are now in motion, off in some unspecified direction which we fervently hope will result in positive renewal? We must reject substance if it has no fan club, or follow appealing personalities even if they can't tell us where we are going?
I agree that Nader is an obsolete and unelectable character. He is not the Pied Piper. He just sees our options correctly, and might have been the only candidate to declare what needs to be done to rescue ourselves from the consequences of prior bad choices. But he is not sexy enough to actually vote for. Whereas Obama's credentials are that he is very sexy and he is not George Bush. Given the political reality that we live in a television culture that values style over substance, we will likely always prefer a beauty contest over anything more taxing. I'm glad Obama won. He seems like a nice enough fellow, and he has Congress in the bag, so he will do more than set the tone. Maybe we will luck out with this guy. But for the future we should remember that a lot of unsavory people are out there right now working on their charisma.
"… The optimism of the Obama campaign is that he seems to have a gift of overcoming obstacles and is a masterful speaker who sways hearts and minds to a better purpose - He will not be able to do it alone,…"
So he picks a right-wing Zionist for his chief of staff and is considering for Treasury Secretary a chauvinist who once advocated sending pollution from industrialized countries to "under-polluted" third world countries.
Is this statement satirical?
How is Nader hurting "our causes" unless you and other unquestioning Obama-defenders are actually right-wingers, in which case, you are just proving Nader's point!
www.november5.org
Nader has not embarrassed himself again. He has stood strong again and has challenged us to get some fire in our bellies to make the changes we want in our government. I am going to form a group in my congressional district to attempt to get our 'representative' to really REPRESENT US! I want the conditions Ralph mentioned that they have in Europe. Why can't we have the same here? Let's not settle for less than we deserve. We have to DEMAND more and do it from a point of strength of numbers of the people in the Congressional district. Come on people. Let's not wait and see what our new Democratic President will give us. We might get more of like what Bill Clinton gave us. Let's not fall back into a stupor after the excitement of the campaign season. November 5 is the time to get even more involved. Check it out. www.november5.org
Right on! This is the real way to get change. While I've long admired Nader, I do believe that a strong "lobby group" can achieve more influence than a "political party", because of focus. Political parties by their nature are more scattered, lobby groups are more focused. And citizen power at the congressional district level, focused and organized, will do wonders. Good interview!
You actually recommend strong lobby groups? That's like breeding stronger foxes to guard the hen house.
The unanswered question in these videos is, how do we get people motivated?
I agree 100% with Pat's post.
The honking horns and parties in the street last night here in Oakland - are we celebrating war? torture? spying? drilling? the death penalty? come on now. I know it is amazing to see an African American family go to the White House, but what about the issues?
In regards to issues, all I am hearing in radio interviews (from progressives like Zinn), is hopes that Obama will do things he has explicitly said he won't do.
I am trying to be hopeful, but this feels like the time I heard about the Google/YouTube debates in New Orleans. My eyebrows raised, my heart pounded. Finally the new intelligent wealthy middle-class generation would trash this old corporately controlled system and the internet would bring democracy, and real Presidential and VP debates to all computer users! There was no way that Google AND YouTube could be turned down...
What a disgraceful thing to say!
Nader has been the only torch of truth in the past three elections. Despite all the rhetoric coming from Obama to get elected, it is clear already by who he is considering for his team that he is going to go full steam ahead on the road of imperialist policies that Bush paved for him.
Don't expect relief for the Palestinians, the Afghanis, or the mass of US citizens being illegally spied on. And don't expect the promised relief for the middle class, other than through trickle down from relief to the hugely wealthy.
I think that is the most important question asked of a presidential candidate in 2008. "What is left for the American people to decide?" Ralph Nader really knows the correct questions to ask. He has a good point, people need to make a great president out of Obama by holding Obama's feet to the fire.
Welcome to the Same World Order.
Once "progressives" see the sort of people Obama fleshes his cabinet out with -- if it's all insiders and ivy league the answer will probably become self-evident before he actually steps into office.
With all due respect, I and maybe many others here cannot use this type of format. I refuse to get cable /DSL.
In addition, I spent forty bucks for REALTIME, which does not work. Do you know how many hours you can spend on the phone with EarthLink, talking to people in India and the Philippines?
Ralph, please go away. You have become a parody of yourself and are no longer relevant, I am truly sorry to say.
au contraire! Ralph's new website and the activism it seeks to promote is exactly what Ralph Nader does best. Ralph is exactly what the progressive movement needs to keep prodding it to keep prodding Obama (and the Democratic Party) to do what I think he knows is best but will have to be forced to do by a force more powerful than Wall Street money (as did FDR by the likes of Huey P. Long)--masses of people still angry and motivated enough to:
increase the Senate majority in 2 years to 60 or more so we don't get anymore Mitch McConnell led fillibusters.
force "universal healthcare " to be "single-payer" medicare for all.
force the repeal of the USA Patriot Act.
force the reduction of the Pentagon budget.
force closing of and release of Guantanamo prisoners.
force the repeal of Gramm-Blilly-Leach, Taft-Hartley, the MIlitary Commissions Act, and FISA "reforms" for starters.
restore progressive income taxes so that the wealthy pay proportionately more for the greater privilige granted to them to acquire their superior wealth.
As Ralph said to Amy Goodman on Democracy Now today, (quoting Eugene V. Debs) "the American people can pretty have anything they want, and it amazes me that they want so little".
Poet
"As Ralph said to Amy Goodman on Democracy Now today, (quoting Eugene V. Debs) "the American people can pretty have anything they want, and it amazes me that they want so little"."
The problem is not that Americans want so little. It is that they are too lazy, afraid, or worn down to organize and fight for what they want.
As I replied to another poster not too long ago, the accusation of "self-parody" is usually a cheap put-down when the accuser has no viable rebuttal. It's basically a meaningless slur.
It's so true in Ralph's case. Every progressive knows that Nader has devoted his energy to great causes and has accomplished a lot of worthwhile things. But he is no leader and he can't organize at the movement level worth a shit. And running for president every 4 years cannot possibly accomplish anything positive. Any progressive should understand that it's certainly not the way to do basic organizing. All he can accomplish is to cause real bitterness amongst progressives and possibly hand over the White House to fascists.
He is totally a parody of himself, something that happens easily to hard-driving, egotistical achievers whose egos won't allow them to recognize when they've outlived their usefulness. (Bill Clinton is another good example of someone who appears to be in the process of creating his own parody.)
Now is it really Ralph Nader "causing real bitterness amongst progressives" or is it identity problems with wanna-be progressives emotionally dependent on a Democratic Party which treats them as children to be lied to constantly?
Touche!
Nader is right(people hate the truth).
Wait to see who else he picks besides Rahm Emmanuel, Israeli military man.
Ralph needs to pick one positive change that is just possible with the new Congress and help make it happen. The bomb throwing campaign should stop until Obama is the roadblock to a more progressive country.
Obama was not a stealth candidate. What we saw is what we'll get. But yes, it'll take an extraordinary amount of pressure. Just holding his feet to the fire might not be sufficient. Might have to Tie him to the stake.
Ralph, you have some great ideas, but you'll never be president. Why? Well, you can't win by being a lone wolf who can't even garner a measly 1% of the popular vote. I know your few thousand supporters are disappointed. Most of them post here on Common Dreams regularly. Most of them seem to be cynical pessimists. Having a loosing attitude never wins hearts and minds. Nice try old Ralphie. Now go see if you can help our new president clean-up the mess the Reaganites have gotten us into. Or else just retire. You look like you need a well deserved rest. Thanks for everything pal! Bye-bye now!
Don't go, Ralph. We need people like you. We don't need people like Moondoggy. If you retired we would find out just how effective your activities are. Bye-bye Moondoggy.
Our new president Obama want nothing to do with Nader, he is anti-business, anti-free enterprise, a tree hugger, a wacko-peacenick. And everyone knows how mush Obama hates peacenicks!
What happened to the last seven minutes of the third segment?
My hope is that Obama and the Congress will listen to the organized voices of an aroused grass roots. Having got into the White House with a half-assed healthcare proposal Obama may respond to pressure and support universal health care. He may feel emboldened by his victory and begin to support the Palestinians, and remove US troops from Iraq, and negotiate with the Taliban. The Democrats have no more excuses, as Nader says, but nothing will be changed unless the people make noise, the same noises that Nader makes. This historic election of a black man is a smoke screen. It means no more than Colin Powell's ascension in the Joint Chiefs, Condi Rice as Sec of State, or that black moron on the Supreme Court. It's just PR, really clever and cynical PR. We must hold Obama's feet to the fire.
That's exactly the right way to look at it, in my opinion. It's not time to bitch, it's time to organize.
Thanks for your post.
The probelm is, if we present our much more audacious dreams than those Obama has - abolishing the war machine, healthcare for all, living wages for all, justice in Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan, he will accuse us of being "negative" and not having "faith in the greatness of America".
Only Nader articulates these dreams, nobody else!
I think the important thing to take away from this is that Nader is giving us all a wonderful means to organize IMMEDIATELY via www.november5.org. I hope that everyone signs up right now! We can absolutely disagree, if we must, with Nader's tactics of entering the presidential race as a third party, but he is spot-on with the issues and at the end of the day the issues are what matter. We have an historic opportunity to organize and get some things done, so lets do it!
YES http://www.november5.org - Signed up first thing today - It would be wonderful if Nader could help the citizenry organize toward joined aims. While I am definitely optimistic about Obama's potential and influence, it is Democracy in Action that will accomplish specific goals.
I hope everyone who believes in Nader's ideals, and Obama's declared commitment to the people, will sign on as well.
Live Simply So That Others May Simply Live
That's right, go away, Ralph.
And take your seat belts, air bags, the EPA, OSHA, the Freedom of Information Act, the Safe Water Drinking Act and all your self-righteous mess with you.
And we dont want any criticism of our sacred democratic party. If you're not 100% with us, you're against us.
I think you're a terrorist...
Yes, Nader has done some good things and has a lot great ideas. But this interview and the follow-up on FOX shows that Nader is all about Nader and doesn't have the grace or humility we need in the White House.
To bash Obama before he even gets into office and then defend calling him an Uncle Tom on Fox News seems to add credence to the DLC claim that you're a self-aggrandizing egomaniac who is just pissed that HE will never get to the Oval Office. John McCain, of all people, was more gracious last night. Even the Nazi on Fox thought Nader was a jackass for the "Uncle Tom" crack.
But alas, Nader is too full of himself and many of his followers too ardent to admit that he was out of line. Thus another reason why the progressive third party politics fails -- its waiting on self-absorbed cranks like this to lead us.
And your beloved Obama - and every other politician, isn't self absorbed and egotistical???
Are you liberals minds only wired to make personal attacks?
Which of Nader's positions don't you like?
I look forward to all of you cheering after the first Afghan wedding gets bombed after Jan 20 when Obama will become your commander in chief!
Wow, thanks for proving my point. Nader could have come down off of Mt Olive with a copy of the consitution etched in stone by YAhweh himself. He'd still be a jackass.
This isn't about positions, its about a man whose many ideals I support and who I've met several times taking a hot piss on a historic moment for African Americans and the country. Even a Jackbooted cretin on FAUX News realize that calling the first Black President an Uncle Tom is, well, asshole-ish thing to say and it didn't even dawn on Nader.
Its one thing to not agree with Obama. Fine, I don't agree with him on everything. There is a way to say "Okay, Obama got elected, but we have apply progressive pressure". That was the core of his statement. How he said it, OTOH, revealed rather nasty things about his character.
To use racially charge language and call Obama a coward with no fire or passion is insulting. It shows the kind of nasty scorched earth character that Nader has, and why he would never been president. Even the most cynical Republicans said you know what, lets put aside the BS for one night and celebrate history. Nader is too full of himself to realize that last night wasn't about him.
He didn't call Obama an Uncle Tom. The accusations that he did are classic USAn illiterate idiocy - unable to even interpret the structure of a sentence correctly.
He said Obama can either be the people's Uncle Sam, or the corporation's Uncle Tom. It was a challenge for Obama to lead.
I have already read some posts in other blogs from several black Americans that they didn't consider the remark offensive at all.
This is being blown way out of proportion, and as usual, people are jumping on the hate bandwagon to trash Nader, pulling a sound-byte out of the context of the message and using it as a weapon against him, without paying any attention to the meaning of his statement.
It was only out-of-line if you believe it's important to adhere to strict political correctness, which Nader does not, and never has. So if you're offended, oh boo hoo. You're just wasting your energy on a contrived distraction. And of course, loving all your arrogant hate-energy. Shouldn't you be channeling your energy in a more positive direction?
Funny how all the good things Nader has done were done so long ago.
What have you done for us lately, Ralphie?
Since his ego went haywire and he became a joke of a perennial loser candidate he has done great harm to those causes I shared with him long ago.
november5.org? Give me a break. Like he has any standing as a critic.
Take your 0.00021% of the vote and...
Go. Away. Ralph.
You are always right. You must be very bitter about something. Why, I wonder? Why do you have to trash a guy who has spent his entire career fighting for your safety, your health, your rights, and justice for you?
How many people do you know who's lives were saved by Mr. Nader's good works? Probably very many.
Democracy is breaking out like a rash on the ass of the beast. Don't let this pregnant moment pass, it is hard to get to this point of heightened awareness.
On another note, don't you think Ralph would make a great Sec'y of the Treasury??
He knows how to talk to corporations..."OK, boys line up for corp welfare right over there..."
snydly
What the Captain meant to say---"Democracy is breaking out like a yeast on the back of the ass. Don't let a pregnant hard ass get past a heightened point. It's a mess." And, no, I never drove a limo for OBL. Never. Really.
frances
You may just be joking, but I think progressives whether Democrat, Green, or unaffiliated should be pushing for cabinet and other administration positions for movement leaders. The risk of course is cooptation, but let's not be content with letterwriting.