Nader says he may run in 2008, especially if Hillary gets the nomination

Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader holds a press conference Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2004 in southeast Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta) Ran on: 11-17-2004 Ralph Nader has caught the recount bug, challenging vote tallies in a few New Hampshire precincts. less Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader holds a press conference Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2004 in southeast Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta) Ran on: 11-17-2004 Ralph Nader has caught the recount bug, ... more Photo: MANUEL BALCE CENETA Photo: MANUEL BALCE CENETA Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Nader says he may run in 2008, especially if Hillary gets the nomination 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

2007-02-15 16:16:00 PST SAN FRANCISCO -- Former Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader said he is considering a presidential run in 2008 and strongly suggested today he would enter the race if Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton wins the Democratic Party nomination.

"She's just another bad version of (former President) Bill Clinton," Nader told KGO radio host Ronn Owens in San Francisco.

Asked to describe Clinton, a front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination a year in advance of the primaries, Nader said: "Flatters, panders, coasting, front-runner, looking for a coronation, not taking on the huge waste in the military budget as a member of the Armed Services commission, never going after the corporate crimes against pensions, against workers. ... She has no political fortitude."

Asked specifically if he would run in 2008, Nader said it is "too early to say. ... (I'm) considering it. We're going to see what the Democrats come up with."

Nader made the statements in San Francisco while on a book tour to push his new memoir, "The Seventeen Traditions." Nader also spoke at the Commonwealth Club in California.

Nader gained more than 2.7 percent of the national popular vote as the Green Party candidate for president in 2000, which some analysts said came primarily at the expense of Democrat Al Gore and helped Republican George W. Bush win the White House. In a second run four years later, Nader gained less than one-half of 1 percent.

Phil Trounstine, who worked as communications director for former Democratic California Gov. Gray Davis, said Nader's hint that he might run for president again may tarnish his reputation as a longtime progressive and consumer advocate.

"To an awful lot of people, Ralph Nader appears to be threatening, once again, to play the role of a spoiled brat whose purpose in life appears to be ... electing Republicans by draining off votes from Democrats," said Trounstine, who heads the San Jose State Center for Policy and Research.

Nader's presidential aspirations are viewed by many as evidence that he is on "an enormous ego trip with potentially destructive impact," Trounstine said.

Nader's is the subject of a searing new documentary, "An Unreasonable Man," which chronicles his early work as a consumer advocate and the turn in his career toward presidential politics. In the film, critics lambaste Nader, the author of "Unsafe at Any Speed," for abandoning his consumer advocacy, and suggest he is the ultimate egotist.

None of that jabbing appears to bother Nader, who says he is not interested in legacy, but in holding politicians' feet to the fire. On his trip, he has been highly critical of Democrats in Congress, saying they haven't held Bush accountable or done enough to stop the Iraq War. He has urged progressives to form a "Pelosi Watch" group and planned a visit to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's San Francisco office to underscore his opposition to the war.

And he assessed the other leading Democratic presidential contenders, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama and former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards.

Obama "has capacity ... whether he gets specific in his proposals, that's what a lot of people are waiting for," Nader said. "He hasn't shown that much political fortitude ... in his two years in the Senate."

And of Edwards, Nader said, "I like the way he's emphasizing the poverty in the country, the sinking of the middle class." But he said Edwards, who met today with high tech executives in the Bay Area, is "not very good on foreign relations. He doesn't challenge the military budget. He should go after things like abuses of the Patriot Act against the civil liberties of the American people."