[Am-info] Re: questions of 'integrity'

[Mitch Stone]

I think we agree on the allegations made against Nader and his campaign. 
Where we disagree perhaps is on whether it is appropriate to criticize a 
candidate for energizing their own voting base at the expense of another 
candidate. 

I believe the operating assumption here is that Nader, or any other third 
party candidate, ought to engage in the same sort of "lesser of two 
evils" reasoning that we as voters often use; in other words, compromise 
their own campaign in order to throw the election to the candidate who's 
views most closely resemble theirs, once it is clear that they cannot 
win. Of course this sort of reasoning condemns third party candidates to 
permanent ignominy.

As you'll recall, H. Ross Perot ran his campaigns of 1992 and 1996 
precisely as he wished, and may well have thrown the '92 election to 
Clinton as a result. A lot of people cried in their beer over that one 
too. As a minority president, Clinton recognized that he had to run the 
country from the political center, and for the most part (despite what 
the talk radio people say), he did. This is one aspect of being a 
minority president I believe George W. Bush as not yet reckoned with, and 
it may well come back to haunt him.

 Mitch Stone  
 mitch@accidentalexpert.com