"The REAL meeting"

John Kerry and Ralph Nader political cartoon.

May 19, 2004...

The Nader-Kerry meeting

Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader met for an hour today with presumptive Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry. Prior to the meeting, Kerry told the Associated Press:

"In the end, I hope I can make people aware that a vote for Ralph Nader is a vote for George Bush," Kerry said. "A vote for John Kerry is a vote for the principles and values they care about." and that he believes he will "reduce any rationale" for Nader's candidacy, but he would never ask another candidate to abandon an election bid.

Duly noted in the AP report following the meeting, Kerry (avoiding another flip flop) did not request Nader to drop out.

Both candidates maintained the meeting had been friendly:

"He's a gentleman and he understands we all have to do what we have to do, as he put it," Nader said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.

What did Nader and Kerry talk about? Reportedly, they discussed Nader’s sucking [politically correct term... ‘siphoning’] votes away from Kerry – a contentious issue amongst the Democrats, who hold to the belief that Nader was the “spoiler” who ruined Al Gore’s bid in 2000.

According to Nader:

"We talked about that and I told him of my belief that I would take more votes away from Bush than from him," Nader said. "He basically said it all comes down to what happens just before the election."

Other topics of discussion: Kerry and Nader’s common battles – corporate welfare, consumer and abortion rights. As for the much-anticipated subject of the War in Iraq, both candidates maintain they did not discuss it.

Both men have agreed to meet again at some point in the future, pointing out their common goal to oust Bush from the White House.