Obama sniffs at Nader

Here's Barack Obama discussing Ralph Nader:

"My sense is that Mr. Nader is somebody who, if you don't listen and adopt all of his policies, thinks you're not substantive," Obama told reporters when asked about Nader's possible candidacy.

"He seems to have a pretty high opinion of his own work."

Obama said Nader "is a singular figure in American politics and has done as much as just about anyone for consumers."

"I don't mean to diminish that," he said. "There's a sense now that if someone's not hewing to the Ralph Nader agenda, he says they're lacking in some way."

(Obama then inhaled a sliver of snuff, mounted his carriage, and instructed his coachman to take him back to the estate.)

Here's Nader responding:

Nader called Obama "a person of substance" and "the first liberal evangelist in a long time" who "has run a good tactical campaign." But he accused Obama of censoring "his better instincts" on divisive issues.

And:

[Nader] criticized the Illinois Democrat for having been "pro-Palestine when he was in Illinois, before he ran for the state senate" but now "supporting the Israeli destruction" of Gaza.

Quite a contrast between Obama's dismissive condescension and Nader's straightforward assessment.  As usual, Nader is spot on, and his criticism of Obama closely matches my own.  And as for Obama, along with his "excesses of the 1960s and 1970s" jab, this is another clear indication of how he wants to distance himself from progressive ideals—and is willing to abandon his previously-professed principles to do it.  It's that willingness to put the desire for power ahead of other considerations that leaves me with no hope that there'd be meaningful change in an Obama presidency.

MORE OBAMA CARPING: John Nichols of The Nation lauds the wisdom of Obama's response to Nader's candidacy.  One highlight (for me):

"Ralph Nader deserves enormous credit for the work he did as a consumer advocate," Mr. Obama said while campaigning in Ohio "But his function as a perennial candidate is not putting food on the table of workers."

I've looked and looked, but I've been unable to determine exactly how Obama's senatorial and presidential campaigns have put food on the tables of workers.

Comments

[SteveB]

Well, I've been subjected to so much rampant thanksralphery over the past seven years that Obama's remarks actually seem pretty mild. I suppose he'll leave the "blood of a million Iraqis on his hands" line to his surrogates.

But I don't think this really has all that much to do with Nader. Like all politicians, Obama is stuck in "politics is the art of the possible" mode, and would have given the same condescending response to any mere citizen expressing dissatisfaction with the compromises needed to win a place at the table. Obama's probably been getting shit from a lot of his lefty former friends and allies, so to him, Nader is just a stand-in for all the folks in Hyde Park who think he's a sell-out.

[Duncan]

I hadn't heard "the blood of a million Iraqis on his hands" used of Nader; after all, it has much more relevance to (Bill) Clinton -- it's the Democrats who have that blood on their hands, but they think the price is worth it. (And that's leaving aside their support for Bush's war, which adds at least another half-million to the tally.)

[Donald Johnson]

People are assuming that Gore as President would have been against going into Iraq. I suspect there'd have been immense pressure on him to go in, not least from his own Vice President. He'd have been blamed for 9/11 by a lot of Republicans representing a sizeable chunk of the country.

He might not have gone in, but one can't judge a mainstream politician by the stands they take when they have no desire to run for public office. They can be honest under those circumstances, or as honest as anyone who's spent a lifetime in "public service" can be. I gather from what I've read in various places (including this blog, I think) that Gore was less of an environmentalist when he was actually in office.

As for the Iraqis who died under sanctions, since Clinton is partly to blame most mainstream Democrats don't care or will respond robotically that it was all Saddam's doing. One of the fascinating things about American politics is that one now hears about those deaths from prowar advocates making the case for the invasion.

[SteveB]

I hadn't heard "the blood of a million Iraqis on his hands" used of Nader

Well then, you must not hang out with Todd Gitlin.

[Jonathan Versen]

I'm not crazy about Nader running again, but it's not because I think his general critique of the phoney-baloney two-party system is wrong-- I don't-- but for tactical reasons, insofar as the field of candidates representing such a critique will only get diluted with his presence in the race, given the likelihood that Cynthia McKinney will run as the Green Party candidate, and the possibility of Ron Paul running as a libertarian(once his house seat is comparatively secured in the Texas primary March 4th).