Deja vu

He's doing it again. Ralph Nader says the Democrats and Republicans haven't done enough to fight the big corporations. He says someone needs to stand up for the consumer. So he's running for president.

The announcement began a series of groans from the left and quiet cheers from the right. Both sides thought of 2000 and remembered that Nader helped their guy lose or win. Maybe he'll do it again, they thought. People will go back and think Nader is the reason we're in Iraq; Nader is the reason John Roberts and Sam Alito on are on the bench; Nader is the reason our phones are being tapped; Nader is the reason we are torturing people.

But that's all sour grapes. Clearly, I would have preferred that Gore won in 2000, and the vast majority of this country is sick and tired of the Bush administration. But I don't buy that it's Nader's fault.

Even more importantly, if the Democrats lose in 2008, it won't be because of Ralph Nader. He won 3 million votes nationwide in 2000 and just half a million in 2004. The country is so angry with George Bush and the Republicans, that I can't imagine he would improve on that in 2008. And if he does, it will be from the portion of the electorate that wouldn't vote in an election with just a Republican and a Democrat.

In announcing his candidacy yesterday, Nader said: "If the Democrats can't landslide the Republicans this year, they ought to just wrap up, close down, emerge in a different form."