General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Yes, Nader cost Al Gore the presidency in 2000. [View all]lame54
(35,445 posts)it came down to 536 votes
Choice point purged over 100,000 voters
the butterfly ballots cost over 3,000 votes
the choice of Lieberman is surely worth at least 536 votes
you dismiss Gore's terrible campaign with an etc. - ultimately it was his race and his responsibility to earn votes
The Bush team pulled every dirty trick in the book
Gore could have fought harder but gave in early
The SCOTUS pulled a notoriously sketchy move with their bullshit one-time non-precedent setting decision - illegal as hell - but hey, no higher court to appeal to
Nader ran on a legal 3rd party ticket - which will never happen again because of the whining and scapegoating that is forever attached to it - 2 party system forever
His platform is similar to libertarian - which probably siphoned from votes from Bush as well
Too many big factors involved to oversimplify like this
*I did vote for Nader in CA - Gore easily took that state - Was not impressed him at the time and wanted to support someone with different ideas even though I knew he couldn't win - In short Gore didn't earn my vote