Sun, Jul 05, 2009

Nation

Nader to campaign for president again

Bloomberg News
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 02.25.2008
WASHINGTON — Ralph Nader, the consumer advocate who ran for president in 2000 and 2004, said he's going to make another bid for the White House this year.
"I have decided to run for president," Nader, 73, said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press." He said felt a duty to enter the race because the major-party candidates aren't adequately addressing the influence of lobbyists and wasteful spending in government.
"When you see the paralysis of the government, when you see Washington, D.C., be corporate-occupied territory, every department and agency controlled by overwhelming presence of corporate lobbyists, corporate executives in high government positions, turning the government against its own people, one feels an obligation to try and open the doorways," he said.
Nader risks the wrath of Democrats, many of whom blame him for the failure of former Vice President Al Gore's 2000 presidential bid. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton called Nader's decision "unfortunate."