Ralph Nader has expressed "strong support" for John Edwards.
 
Resent-Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2008 23:07:35 -0600 (CST)

January 1, 2008 Nader blasts Clinton, says he's for Edwards Posted:
10:00 AM ET

Nader said he likes Democrat John Edwards for president.

MUSCATINE, Iowa (CNN)  Consumer advocate Ralph Nader criticized
Democrat Hillary Clinton Monday, and gave his seal of approval to
her presidential rival, John Edwards.

In an interview with the Politico, the consumer advocate urged
liberal Iowans to "recognize" Edwards by "giving him a victory."
He added that Clinton would "pander to corporate interest groups"
if elected.

Nader, who has long said Democrats and Republicans are almost
indistinguishable, called Edwards his partys "glimmer of hope."

Clinton, Edwards and Obama are either tied or separated by just a
few percentage points in most recent polls, with Iowas first-in-the-nation
caucuses just two days away.

Nader is a controversial figure within the Democratic party  a
liberal icon who is blamed by some for Vice President Al Gores loss
to George W. Bush in the 2000 presidential race.

Nader has said before that he is not a fan of Clinton or Obama.
During a June interview with CNNs Wolf Blitzer, Nader took a few
jabs at Sen. Clinton for not using her political capital to shift
power to challenge abuses of power.

In another interview, with MSNBCs Chris Matthews, Nader accused
Obama of excluding himself from the progressive coalition.

On Monday, the four-time presidential contender specifically accused
Clinton of failing to challenge military spending because "she is
a woman who doesn't want to be labeled as soft on defense and she
doesn't want to be shown as taking on big business."

"The issue is corporate power and who controls our political system
and it's not who has experience for six years or two years," he
said, alluding to an ongoing debate over experience between Clinton
and another Democratic presidential hopeful, Illinois Sen. Barack
Obama.

This isnt the first time that Nader has expressed his support for
Edwards. In his 2004 campaign for the White House, Nader pushed for
Democratic candidate John Kerry to pick Edwards as his running mate,
saying he would be an effective spokesperson for citizens rights
in court

http://news.yahoo.com/s/thenation/20080102/cm_thenation/45264571

Tue Jan 1, 10:13 PM ET

The Nation -- Politico reports that consumer crusader and former
presidential contender Ralph Nader has expressed "strong support"
for John Edwards.

Nader has been edging toward this "endorsement" in the last couple
of weeks.

In an appearance on "Hardball," in mid-December, he said Edwards
"now has the most progressive message across a broad spectrum of
corporate power damaging the interests of workers, consumers,
taxpayers, of any candidate I have--leading candidate I have seen
in years." He went on to explain that "the key phrase is when he
[Edwards] says he doesn't want to replace a corporate Republican
with a corporate Democrat." Nader told Politico, " it's the only
time I've heard a Democrat talk that way in a long time." For Ralph
Nader--and take my word for it, please--that is rare praise for a
leading Democratic politician.

In throwing his support to Edwards, Nader was scathing in his
criticism of Hillary Clinton--calling her a "corporate Democrat
..[ who ] ... has not led the way against the avalanche of military
contracting, corporate crime, fraud and abuse."

Edwards' passionate populism, which has been dismissed in too many
mainstream articles in the past weeks as "angry" or "over the top,"
is speaking to the reality of the concentration of power and wealth
in a few hands--a concentration that is working against the vast
majority of Americans. Why is what Edwards is saying "over the top"
when 72% of the American people told "Business Week" in 2000---
that corporations have too much control over their lives and jobs.

Will Nader's support encourage progressive Iowans to give him a win
in Thursday's caucuses? Hard to know. This is an extraordinarily
fluid, tight, ideologically fascinating race in which progressive
champion Dennis Kucinich has just urged his supporters to go for
Barack Obama in a second round. And there's no question that Nader
remains controversial among many progressives who believe that he
took enough liberal votes from Gore in 2000 to give Bush the
presidency.

Whatever happens to Edwards in Iowa, his full-throated populist
message is unlikely to disappear from this race. Clinton and Obama
are already sounding populist appeals in their speeches. It's up
to progressives to keep the heat on so that taking on corporate
power, taking back govenment, empowering workers and disempowering
the lobbyists remains a cornerstone of small-d politics in 2008 and
beyond.

As Nader says, "Edwards is at least highlighting day after day that
the issue is who controls our country: big business or the people?"

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