06
Apr
Nader supporters turn on, tune in and drop out.
Looks like Ralph’s support this year may be a bit soft.
Political observers had expected Nader would easily draw 1,000 supporters at a Monday evening convention organized for the purpose of making Oregon the first state where Nader would qualify for the 2004 ballot.Only 741 people showed up to sign the petitions – about 300 short of the 1,000 required by Oregon law.
“Even the best basketball player doesn’t get a slam-dunk every time,” Nader told his supporters.
Nader vowed not to abandon his quest to qualify for the ballot. He said he would make use of an option under Oregon law of collecting 15,000 signatures* over a three-month period, rather than 1,000 signatures at a single gathering.
Aside from the pleasure of seeing the Ralph founder in one of his strongholds, the thing I really like is the writer’s handy explanation of the math — “Only 741 people showed up to sign the petitions – about 300 short of the 1,000 required by Oregon law.”
Uh, thanks, Doc.
====================
*edited for more mathy fun: the 15,000 signatures Nader needs amount to about 20% of his vote total in 2000. Grabbing that many signatures will be quite a challenge, and it’ll eat up some time and money and perhaps further weaken his support elsewhere. Of course he might pull a Sharpton and get some GOP cutthroats to fund him and gather signatures.
![[del.icio.us]](http://www.btcnews.com/btcnews/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/delicious.png)
![[Digg]](http://www.btcnews.com/btcnews/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/digg.png)
![[Google]](http://www.btcnews.com/btcnews/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/google.png)
![[LinkedIn]](http://www.btcnews.com/btcnews/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/linkedin.png)
![[StumbleUpon]](http://www.btcnews.com/btcnews/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/stumbleupon.png)
![[Windows Live]](http://www.btcnews.com/btcnews/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/windowslive.png)
![[Yahoo!]](http://www.btcnews.com/btcnews/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/yahoo.png)
![[Email]](http://www.btcnews.com/btcnews/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/email.png)
Cute, but the sad fact is that the big ego could, in fact, do it again.
April 6th, 2004 at 6:14 pmI think reality will triumph this time around. We’ve still got seven months for his supporters to reflect on their sins. That’s plenty of time for the White House to come up with yet more stupidity and for Kerry to come up with some sort of contrasting plan for Iraq, as you noted over yonder.
April 6th, 2004 at 6:36 pmafter all, if Michael Moore repented, why not many more?
April 6th, 2004 at 7:32 pm