photo courtesy of patia

Sunday on “Meet the Press,” consumer advocate Ralph Nader announced that he was entering the presidential race. . .again. Nader, a successful consumer advocate who pushed for everything from seatbelts in cars to eliminating misrepresentation in advertising, ran for president for the first time in 1996, but had no impact on a race in which Bill Clinton beat Bob Dole in a landslide.

Nader infamously ran again in 2000, earning over 90,000 votes in Florida (which Al Gore lost by less than 1,000 votes), tipping the balance in that critical state and, in the eyes of many, handing George Bush the White House. Though in an Obama-McCain race, Nader would likely attract barely any votes, in a Clinton-McCain scenario, he would likely be slightly more successful, and either way Nader’s candidacy is simply annoying to the Democratic Party. Nader seems to have learned nothing from the Florida disaster in the ridiculously close 2000 Election, but as Democrats cringe at the possibility that Nader could be a spoiler all over again, they are fervently hoping that the voters have learned their lesson and won’t let history repeat itself.