Nader argues that Howard Dean -- the former Democratic presidential contender -- was a factor in the low turnout for the Nader mini-convention in April. Just hours before that event, Dean urged Oregon voters to ignore Nader and support Democrat John Kerry. The 70-year-old Nader said he hopes Dean won't try to interfere with his June 26 gathering.
"I thought what Howard Dean did was unnecessary extracurricular activity," Nader told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "We hope he will not be casting negative aspersions on our effort to be on Oregon's ballot."
In an interview with The AP, Dean said he's not planning to weigh in again on Nader's upcoming Oregon event. But he said his message to Nader's supporters in Oregon hasn't changed: "You better vote for John Kerry, because otherwise we end up with four more years of George Bush," said the former Vermont governor, who has a strong following in Oregon. "This is not the year for a third party."
http://www.tdn.com/articles/2004/06/20/oregon/news02.txt
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For some reason I really don't have any pity for Nader. Do you?
Howard Dean still running, this time for Kerry and Dems
First things first. This is Chicago, and Howard Dean wants to clear an opening in his political appearances to see the Cubs play the Oakland A's.
"It's not too late to bail out of that," he tells his host, political consultant Kevin Conlon, about an event. "I've never been to Wrigley Field, and I really, really, really want to go."
The former Vermont governor, who went from front-runner to third-place in the Iowa caucuses after being painted as a hothead by his rivals, can shout all he wants at the Cubs game.
Now, to the matter at hand: what Dean is doing to help John Kerry and, through his Democracy for America project, other Demo-cratic candidates from Barack Obama in his U.S. Senate race down to county commissioners and school board candidates around the country.
"I think the Democratic Party needs to be rebuilt from the ground up," Dean said. "We're running candidates in places like Utah. I know we're not going to win Utah in the presidential election. But if we don't start building it now, we'll never win Utah. I'm going to Mississippi. I'm going to Texas, where there's a candidate running against [House majority leader] Tom Delay."
Let Kerry concentrate on the more winnable battleground states -- Dean will plant seeds for the future, he said. Kerry has not asked Dean to be his running mate, and Dean has no comment on the advice he has given the candidate.
"I think he's focusing on jobs, and that's what he should be doing," Dean said. "We did a great couple of days in Portland, Ore., talking about jobs and health care. Iraq is important because it brings into question the credibility of the president. When people worry about whether the president is telling them the truth or not, they tend to vote against him ... But I think people still end up voting bread-and-butter issues, and that's jobs and health care."
Dean is in town for a union health care rally, to do a reading with Studs Terkel and to address a gay rights dinner. Then he is off to Missouri. He just got back from London, where he addressed Americans living abroad and was surprised to find many of those traditionally Republican businessmen poised to vote for Kerry.
"They feel like they're under siege just because they're American," Dean said. "People don't like America at all anymore. We were the moral leader of the world from the end of World War II until the day we went into Iraq. The British used to love us. They certainly don't now. Tony Blair is the last Brit that seems to like us much. That's hurt our place in the world terribly. We're not as important a country as we used to be, thanks to George Bush."
Dean speaks with conviction, but not with the raised voice that fueled questions from Kerry and other rivals in Iowa about his temperament. "They managed to raise doubts about me, which is what their job was," Dean said. "They were pretty successful."
Does he have any hard feelings?
"We can't afford to have hard feelings," Dean said. "We have to beat George Bush. We cannot afford four more years of foreign misadventures and horrendous economic policies like running half-million-dollar deficits. This president is totally insensitive to what the average working people have to deal with."
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