Mon, August 2, 2004
"You ruin everything, ruiner!"—10:07 AM
NYT on Nader's refusal to get out of the way. Egad! The massive ego on this guy. He says he doesn't even care if he costs Kerry the election. That's just stupid. I'm with Arianna Huffington: "My main message is that when your house is on fire, it's not time to talk about remodeling. First you put the fire out." (Huffington/Dean '08!)
An unrepentant Nader voter: "If they don't keep that door open for a third party, some day the ballot is going to say 'yes or no' and it's going to be one name, and that's my fear if we limit our choice now." This is exactly the kind of idiot lunacy that is incredibly difficult to argue against. One candidate? I'm pretty sure that's unconstitutional. Unless she's speaking metaphorically about the homogenization of the two parties, but even that isn't a fight worth fighting this year. Save it for when the stakes are lower. I'm glad people hurl epithets at her for her Nader bumper sticker.
If he's just hanging around, hoping to get into the debates, fantastic. More power to him. I'd love to see him make both candidates more accountable. But if he stays in after that, he's just needlessly spoiling things to make himself feel important. (The Times says he'll need 15 percent to get into the debates, which itself is a pipe dream.)
If the polls were 60/40 (in favor of either Bush or Kerry) I'd be fine with Nader; but not if it's going to be close, and it's going to be.
Joe Mulder — Mon, 8/2/04 6:45pm
"One candidate? I'm pretty sure that's unconstitutional."
I could check, but, I don't think there's actually anything in the Constitution at all about political parties.
"michwagn" — Tue, 8/3/04 9:40am
Indeed, the Average Mulder reveals his intellect to be above average. There's nothing in the Constitution about political parties. In fact, in Federalist No.10, James Madison argued that we should be worried about "factions" which he basically meant to be parties and interest groups (though he doesn't explicitly say that). We didn't even really have parties for our first few years as a nation, and then people realized that they help organize debate and help aggregate interests and help win elections and the rest, as they say...
"michwagn" — Tue, 8/3/04 9:41am
Also, Ralph Nader is a hump.
Bee Boy — Tue, 8/3/04 11:53am
He sure is. (I don't mean parties, necessarily, but you're sure that it's perfectly dandy with the Constitution if we just have one name on the presidential ballot? That seems odd. Leave it to me to actually know less than a Nader voter.)
"michwagn" — Tue, 8/3/04 12:30pm
Here's the 12th Amendment, which changed how we vote for president...it does not seem that any names are required to be on the ballot for the Electoral College. The electors have to write them on themselves.
The electors shall meet in their respective states and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves; they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President, and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President, and of all persons voted for as Vice-President, and of the number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate;–The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted;–the person having the greatest number of votes for President, shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed; and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by states, the representation from each state having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-thirds of the states, and a majority of all the states shall be necessary to a choice. And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a President whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth day of March next following, then the Vice-President shall act as President, as in the case of the death or other constitutional disability of the President. The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice-President, shall be the Vice-President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed, and if no person have a majority, then from the two highest numbers on the list, the Senate shall choose the Vice-President; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two-thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a majority of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice. But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.