The New York Times is reporting today that Ralph Nader is expected to be "the threat Democrats feared." They make no mention of any other third party candidates in the article. This is utterly ridiculous. Take a look at this Zogby poll. Between August 30 and September 19, Nader's support fell by more than half, from 3% to just 1.4%, while Libertarian Michael Badnarik's support QUADRUPLED from .3% to 1.2%. I haven't been able to find any current polling data, but if the trend has continued, the results should be obvious. Furthermore, according to Ballot Access News, Michael Badnarik will be on 49 ballots, compared to only 35 ballots confirmed and five more contested for Nader. Even while being almost completely ignored by the mainstream media (even when his campaign sued Arizona State University and the Commission on Presidential Debates to block the third Bush/Kerry debate and he and David Cobb of the Green Party were arrested when they crossed a police line while attempting to serve a court order on the Commission on Presidential Debates at the second debate in St. Louis), Badnarik will take significantly more votes than Nader. As of this moment, the campaign has raised $64,713 for a massive ad campaign in battleground states to be purchased Monday. The campaign had originally hoped to raise $53,200 for this purpose. When they exceeded this amount a week in advance of the deadline they raised the goal to $70,000. Donations continue to pour in. With only $5,000, the Badnarik campaign was able to double name recognition (raising that number to nearly 50%) in the state of New Mexico in only ONE WEEK in August. Ever since his own party refused to nominate him, Nader has been officially over. Turning in ballot-access petitions signed "Fred Flintstone" here in Pennsylvania didn't help his cause any either. It's time for the media to wake up and cover a real third party contender. No more blackout. There IS a third option. His name is not Ralph Nader. Vote Michael Badnarik, Libertarian for President, and tell the major parties that they can't just go on nominating bozos and expect your continued support!
Note (11/9/2005): Comments have been disabled on this post due to excessive spam.
Posted by Kenny at October 15, 2004 3:58 PM