Ralph Nader announced he is entering the presidential race Sunday on NBC as an independent, raising a wave of indignation among many Democrats.

“Washington Rule number one Never underestimate the ability of Congress to repeat its mistakes,” is the opening sentence of the message from Ralph Nader in the Nader Letter, an eight-page monthly newsletter dedicated to the “critical need for consumers to be heard and to have a real voice and a significant role in the legislative and regulatory decision-making process on financial issues.”

Some Democrats believe that Nader’s 2000 campaign with the Green Party is the reason for Al Gore’s loss to George W. Bush.

“I was surprised and disturbed by his decision to run,” Politics professor Sonya Kruks said. “If the Democrats have a chance of winning, it will not be by much.”

“The Democrats will need someone who has history of fighting for democratic values,” Charles Sohne, a first-year college OC Democrat said.

Sohne doesn’t think that Nader’s candidacy will be detrimental for the elections, since all candidates have large appeal to voters.

Apparently Ralph Nader himself does not expect to get many Democrat votes in the elections.

“Democratic members will come back into the fold. The party that is out of power finds that its members come back into the fold, so this candidacy is not going to get many Democratic Party votes,” Nader said.

However many are still concerned that Democrats will lose more left-leaning voters to Nader.

“Nader will probably get around three percent of the popular vote, just as he did in 2000. This will hurt Kerry and help Bush,” Michelle Malkin (OC ’92) said.

Malkin is a journalist who wrote an article about Nader and Bush for Capitalism Magazine in 2001.

Even though his exit prompted Nader’s entrance, Governor Howard Dean responded with disapproval to Nader’s last minute candidacy.

“I said I would support the nominee of the Democratic Party, because the bottom line is that we must defeat George W. Bush in November, whatever it takes,” he said.

Although most of the prevailing opinions on the new candidacy seem negative, Ralph Nader has supporters.

Winston Vaughan (OC ’03) expressed excitement at Nader’s decision to run.

“I think its great to have two candidates running against Bush,” Vaughan said. “I think Nader will allow progressives to richen the critique against the Bush Administration, and that Nader will take steps that Kerry is either unable or unwilling to take,” he said.

“I think Nader decided to run because some of his concerns are not voiced, so he is looking for a platform in these elections,” Kruks said.
“It is not as simple as Nader causing the Democrats to lose in 2000. Maybe he doesn’t think he stands a chance either, but he needs the publicity of the elections.”

“In the long term, however, Nader’s candidacy may help liberal causes by causing the Democrats (and perhaps the Republicans) to move left on certain issues,” Malkin said.”

“There is a precedent for this. Eugene Debs was the Ralph Nader of the early part of the twentieth century. He ran four times for president as a Socialist. Though he never got more than six percent of the popular vote, Democrats were so nervous about the Socialist threat that they adopted and implemented much of the Socialist Party platform,” she added.