About 100 cheer Ralph Nader at Syracuse rally
Syracuse Post-Standard
October 17th, 2008
Syracuse, NY -- About 100 Central New Yorkers cheered today for the only presidential candidate likely to stump for votes in Syracuse.
Populist Party candidate Ralph Nader raised an estimated $4,000 during a two-hour rally at The Westcott theater in which he railed against Democratic frontrunner Barack Obama, corporate America, the two-party system and the national media.
"You will not see in New York State Barack Obama or John McCain," Nader predicted. "Obama has the state sewn up and is not going to waste his time. John McCain has given up on it."
Nader, who is getting 2 to 3 percent of the vote in recent polls during his fourth presidential campaign, said his campaign is proposing policies that most Americans support, like universal government-paid health insurance for all Americans, ending the war in Iraq, and requiring corporations to pay "living wages" to full-time workers.
But he has no expectation of even coming close to winning because he has been excluded from the presidential debates, ignored by the national media and most voters don't know he is running.
"He's a corporate tool," the 74-year-old Nader said of Obama. "Prepare to be severely disappointed."
Nader said he would make deep cuts in the military budget and spend the money on fixing up crumbling highways, bridges, schools, and water and sewer systems.
"Have you ever heard Obama or McCain talk about consumer protection?" asked Nader, who became America's most-famous consumer advocate after he wrote "Unsafe at Any Speed" in 1969.
When he ran for president in 2004, Nader received 84,247 votes in New York and 3,027 votes in Onondaga County. He captured 1 percent of the votes cast statewide.
In his 2000 presidential bid, Nader did better. He received 244,030 votes in New York and 7,670 votes in Onondaga County. That equaled 3.5 percent of the statewide vote.
After that vote, many Democrats blamed Nader for helping Republican George W. Bush become president by stealing votes from Al Gore. Nader said Florida Democrats who voted for Bush, election fraud, and the U.S. Supreme Court were more to blame.
Nader appeared at the rally with Green Populist candidate Howie Hawkins, who is running for the 25th Congressional District seat against Democrat Dan Maffei and Republican Dale Sweetland.
He called Hawkins, who is Nader's Syracuse campaign coordinator, "the number one public citizen in Syracuse."
Nader and his vice presidential candidate, Matt Gonzalez, a former San Francisco Board of Supervisors president, are on the ballot in 45 states.
Post-Standard staff writer Mike McAndrew will have a full report on the rally in Saturday's Post-Standard. McAndrew can be reached at mmcandrew@syracuse.com or 315-470-3016.
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