[Am-info] Ralph Nader

[Gene Gaines]

I have attempted to set down my thinking about three issues which
are strongly related in my mind:

    - The national election
    - Ralph Nader
    - Microsoft

Let's explore a chain of facts, as I understand them.

1.  Some months ago, Microsoft's Melinda and Bill Gates foundation
    gave (if I remember) $5 million to the state of Florida.

2.  The state official who announced and publicized that gift is
    the state official now with the authority to oversee the
    election recount and is the referee, or sole judge, of decisions
    relating to the election.

3.  Microsoft and the state of Florida is conducting a small, not
    publicized operation which amounts to an online voting
    experiment.

4.  The votes cast through that online voting experiment are 
    greater than the number of votes required to decide the 
    Florida presidential election, thus the votes of the Florida
    electoral college members, thus who becomes president of the 
    United States.

5.  There are two candidates for president -- Gore and Bush.  
     - One has a policy and a track record supporting the DOJ 
       and antitrust work, such as the Microsoft case. 
     - The other has announced, several times, and certainly 
       confirmed this through his staff, that he will not
       permit the DOJ case to go forward.

6.  There are a number of cases of proven voter intimidation and
    fraud in Florida.  As far as I see, these are in areas which 
    can be expected to vote for Gore.

8.  Those in control of the state have no intention of permitting
    a recount to result in a Bush loss.

9.  Nader's message heard in Florida was a campaign based powerfully
    on criticism of his opponents -- the Nader message which was   
    heard in Florida was "I disagree with Bush's party's philosophy,
    and Gore is a bad man, not to be trusted."  (Hew, that's right,
    let's hit em where they are the most vulnerable -- I have seen
    that political thinking before, and it nauseates me.)

    So, it was Ralph Nader who took the low road in his election
    messages in Florida.  

    I could never have believed that Ralph Nader would surround 
    himself with hired political hacks and be seduced into taking
    the most dishonest campaign approach of any of the candidates
    that I have observed.

10. Nader pulled about 92,000 voted in Florida.

    Nader, promoting the image of an honest do-gooder in Florida,
    in effect saying "you can trust me to be truthful", echoed the
    dishonest personal attacks on Gore's which have been pounded
    home by the Republican machine. 

    It was this politically expedient, do-what-it-takes-to-win 
    approach taken by the Nader people which was believed by many
    Floridians.  Nader, reinforcing and verifying the personal
    attacks launched by Republicans, in my opinion cost Gore many
    time more than 92,000 votes.  Honest voters who believed that
    Nader was affirming the Republican attacks on Gore as a person,
    "he is given to exaggeration, he lies, he is forever stained by
    being in the same administration as the reviled Clinton, he is
    the son of a politician and we can't have that kind of person in
    our government (duh), he stated that he invented the Internet." 

11. Last evening, a Florida voter stated to me "Yes, I voted for
    Bush ... I hear Ralph Nader also condemn Gore for saying that he
    invented the Internet."

12. It appears that TWO FACTORS are likely to result in Bush becoming
    president, the HUGE backlog of court appointments being flushed
    and filled with conservative Republican judges, the Supreme
    Court replaced during the next four years with a conservative
    majority, the Microsoft and similar antitrust cases being 
    dropped, etc.

FACTOR 1:  Microsoft "deals" with the state of Florida will
           control enough counted votes, possibly, to decide
           the national election.

FACTOR 2:  Nader's turn to low-road campaigning result, will
           be an important element in Gore losing the election,
           if that is the outcome.

13. Nader's low-road campaigning, like most such negative
    campaigning, is resulting more in harming others than 
    helping himself.

Personal comment.  There are not many things which turn my stomach
more than the self-serving minister, fraudulent tent show preacher,
or dishonest do-gooder.  I have seen a few of those in my time.

Ralph Nader, you have joined that crowd.

Comments?

Gene Gaines
gene.gaines@gainesgroup.com
Sterling, Virginia
   

Paul Rickard wrote:
> 
> ========== On 11/8/00 7:49 PM, Jim Warren typed: ============
> 
> >I couldn't agree more!
> >
> >Is there ANY chance of am-info returning to the topic it was designed to
> >cover?
> 
>    Anybody else get the 8 messages I sent out of here earlier, or did
> they fall down some kind of black hole? They were the most on-topic
> messages sent through here in weeks.
> 
> ======== Paul Rickard, Editor of The Microsoft Boycott Campaign =======
> --------------------------------[ Http://www.msboycott.com ]-----------
> 
>   "Even as a longtime critic of the company, I must admit that
>    Microsoft occasionally flirts with the truth. Well, perhaps 'flirt'
>    is too strong a word. Let's just say Microsoft sometimes honks and
>    waves as it drives by her house."
>        -InfoWorld Editor Nicholas Petreley, 06-14-99
> 
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