Choice Appears: Panic Ensues

Ralph Nader has a bigger than normal following in Minnesota; Minneapolis has a number of Green city councilpeople, so reality is not a big constraint on a lot of the Twin Cities electorate.

But Ralph Nader has them in a panic.

Via the Strib's Rene Sanchez:

David Larson, a Nader volunteer in Iowa, said he is being shunned even by friends whom he has joined at political protests in the past.

"People really seem to think they can get in our face and intimidate us," Provencher said. "We're hearing ridiculous stuff."

I'll bet. Must be like working at a GOP campaign office.

Tom Unzicker, who is driving a van around Minnesota this week for Nader, said he is amused by the threats he keeps hearing from Democrats. "What are they going to do us -- take seat belts out of cars?" Unzicker said, referring to one of Nader's seminal achievements as a consumer advocate.

At St. Olaf, English and her friends said they figured crashing the Nader rally would end in failure.

They were right.

Some Nader supporters were wearing T-shirts that said, "Kerry and Bush Make Me Want to Ralph."

Did anyone mention the liberals are the intellectual ones?

"Shame on you!" a student backing Nader told English's group as she passed through their gantlet of signs.

English and her friends took the taunts in stride. "It's not that we have vendettas against Nader people," said Helen Behr, who had come along from Carleton College. "Kerry just really needs these votes."

"The stakes are too high," Ambuel said.

The crowd coming to see Nader kept growing. Still, English's group found reason to hope. One woman who scoffed at their signs as she passed came back to talk with Behr.

"I agree with a lot of Nader's ideas," Behr told the woman. "It's just that it's such a close race. Any vote for Nader this time could help Bush."

"I've started to think about that," the woman said.

Nearby, a middle-aged man wearing a Nader T-shirt from the 2000 presidential race bellowed to no one in particular: "I'm so conflicted!"

Let it be said for the record that I speak on behalf of all conservatives when I say we don't want the vote of anyone who'd yell such a thing...

Posted by Mitch at October 29, 2004 05:00 AM | TrackBack