Ralph Nader is guilty of 'false advertising' about Green Party status, say Libertarians!

WASHINGTON, DC -- Libertarians are charging former Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader with "false advertising" as a result of his claim on NBC's Meet the Press that the Greens are the nation's third-largest political party -- a distinction that actually belongs to the Libertarians.

"How can Nader claim he's going to 'clean up the political system' when he can't even come clean on national TV?" asked Libertarian Party Political Director Ron Crickenberger. "Next thing you know, he's going to claim he invented the Internet."

Nader, the rumpled, self-professed consumer advocate who ran for president in 1996 and 2000 as the Green Party candidate, appeared on NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday to discuss the Enron scandal and other issues. In response to a question about the Florida ballot controversy from moderator Tim Russert, Nader claimed, "The Green Party now is the third-largest party in America."

"Unfortunately for Nader, saying so doesn't make it so," Crickenberger said. "According to any objective standard, the Libertarian Party is today's largest, most successful third party. Year in and year out, we run more candidates for office, and achieve more election victories, than all other third parties combined."

In fact, here's how the Libertarians and Greens really stack up:

* Elected officials: 302 Libertarians, 131 Greens.

* Election victories in 2001: 96 Libertarians, 58 Greens.

* Candidates for office in 2001: 347 Libertarians, 281 Greens.

* Registered voters: 224,713 Libertarians, 194,873 Greens.

* Money raised in 2001: $2.1 million Libertarians, less than $0.1 million Greens.

"Libertarians wouldn't claim that our candidate, Harry Browne, came in third in the 2000 presidential race -- because that distinction belongs to Mr. Nader," Crickenberger said. "In the same way, Nader has no business claiming that his party is larger or more successful overall than the Libertarian Party, because that's not true either.

"The real yardstick for third-party success is how many candidates you run for office, and how many of those candidates win elections. The fact is that the Libertarian Party consistently runs more candidates than all other third parties combined, and we have more people in office than all other third parties combined.

"And those differences can be staggering. For example, in 2000 alone, the Libertarian Party ran 1,420 candidates, nearly twice as many as the Green Party has run in its entire history.

"It's simply irresponsible for Nader to continue to mislead the public and the news media by making claims to the contrary. How can any third- party candidate claim he's different from Democrats and Republicans when he dissembles in the same way that they do?"

Noting that Nader's new book is titled: "Crashing the Party: How to tell the truth and still run for president," Crickenberger said, "Libertarians understand the book has received excellent reviews, and we urge Mr. Nader to read it."

-- Michael Tator (Razzor-D@WebTV.net), January 16, 2002

Answers

Well, I'll see you guys around (in text, that is)

I shall continue to keep the fires lit here as the lone gunman. Just to see what happens. We have a link to the new forum here in one of the threads.

Adios, Amigos!!!!

-- Okie Dan (okiedan@oklahoma.net), January 16, 2002.

Im voting Communist.

We've already run to my forum, but for reasons which I think you all should know, Im not posting a link to it here. So, I will allow Tator the responsibilty of the address, if he so chooses.

-- Krunch Kobra (??????@??????.???), January 16, 2002.

heh... another new forum.... bagh, it took me for ever to finaly accept this one as a useable forum.

-- Bob Knob (Bob@Knob.com), January 16, 2002.

I have visited the new forum too.

It is extremely slow loading on my computor, so I will not be visiting it as frequently as this one. It is very kewl though!!! In the upcomming months time will be an extremely limited resource for me.

I think for most of us, this forum isn't about anarchy, its a political and social issues debating ground. Oooohhh!!!!! A new forum title "Political and Social Issues Debating Grounds"

Any takers?

-- Okie Dan (okiedan@oklahoma.net), January 16, 2002.

I'm there...

-- Davey Rootbeer (yankeefans2@juno.com), January 16, 2002.

I think when you put Anarchy in the title of a forum you attract New freash, Idealistic people, not to mention the assholes, but thats what makesthese forums a little lesss boring. ----------The colorful folk

-- Bob Knob (Bob@Knob.com), January 17, 2002.