Nader Makes the News

Of course, it would have to take the form of a scandal. He was interviewed by the Denver Rocky Mountain News and made the mistake of saying that Senator Obama's purported avoidance of inner-city poverty issues was part of an attempt by the Democratic candidate to "talk white." It's strange that Nader thinks poverty is a "black" issue, but his opinion probably reflects an understanding that his only hope to make an impression this time around is to reach out to what he imagines are the most disaffected and alienated parts of society. He'll probably still have his faction of alienated college kids, but everyone who goes that way knows that they ought to reach out to inner-city blacks, even if they have no idea how to do it. The problem with such an approach is that the most alienated people, the ones most ready to listen to an alternative to the American Bipolarchy, are themselves never enough to topple it. Whoever may succeed in toppling it will not tailor his or her rhetoric specifically to the most alienated people. The person who pulls it off will be the one who cracks the code and makes the majority see the system for what it is, and convinces them to do something about it. My great fear is that that moment won't come until the country is in far more dire straits than it is now. But I feel more certain now that Nader, for all his virtues, isn't the man to solve the problem.

The New York Times website has the Obama campaign's response and Nader's rejoinder.