Nader on the ballot in 50 states

This piece, by Scott Sonner, is one of the best newswire stories about a Nader event I've seen so far.

RENO, Nev. (AP) Consumer advocate and Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader predicted Monday that he will qualify for the November ballot in all 50 states.

Nader said that while the Reform Party is somewhat fractured, his party is ``growing quite readily'' as an alternative to the Democratic and Republican parties ``which is really one party with two heads wearing make-up.

``We're going to be on every state's ballot,'' he told about 100 people who turned out at the University of Nevada, Reno. ``This is going to be a four-party race in November.''

The progressive Green Party, founded in 1996, shares Thomas Jefferson's and James Madison's view of government as ``a public check against the excesses of monied interests,'' Nader said.

The abolitionist, trade union, environmental and consumer movements all have targeted the same evil ``excessive concentration of power and wealth,'' he said.

...

Meanwhile, Nader said Republican George W. Bush should welcome him as a participant in presidential debates with Vice President Al Gore, not only as a strategy to divide liberal votes but also to help mask what he said were Bush's poor debating skills.

``If you aspire to the presidency, you should be able to speak without a TelePrompTer and without cue cards for more than 15 seconds,'' Nader said.