United Liberty

Ralph Nader has apparently gone off and written a novel. The effort, called Only The Rich Can Save Us!, is an antithetical retort to Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged (which I’m sure more have read than ever voted for Nader in his myriad presidential efforts) depicting a group of rich celebrities who save the word by embracing altruism.

One of the best elements of a political satire is the creative effort of the author to mask who they are satirizing. Christopher Buckley, William F. Buckley’s son and the author of Thank You For Smoking!, was a master of this, as was Michael Crichton. The overtly political storyline of Revenge of the Sith led interviewers to ask if the character of Palpatine represents George W. Bush, as he had never overtly spelled it out. There is apparently no such subtlety in Nader’s work:

Even the character names Nader invents are mostly sophomoric wheezes on other notables. There is a bloated right-wing blabbermouth named Bush Bimbaugh, identified as the king of shout radio; another broadcaster is called Pawn Vanity. When there is nobody in particular to lampoon, the names are often tritely alliterative: Lancelot Lobo, Michelle Mirables, Roland Revelie, Wardman Wise. The chairman of the House Transportation Committee is Harry Horizon. There is a CEO named Cumbersome and a senator named Crabgrass, bringing to mind a postmodern Pilgrim’s Progress.

The names he came up to resemble the real political world sound like I’m tuning into Michael Savage’s radio show. Apparently writing is not what Nader was intended to do. It would be wise to suggest he stick to - well - whatever is he has been doing up to now.

Republicans hoping to unseat Chris Dodd in Connecticut next year may have a welcome boost from Ralph Nader:

Consumer activist and Connecticut native Ralph Nader said Friday he is “absorbing” the reaction he’s receiving about a possible bid for the U.S. Senate, saying he wants to first gauge the level of grassroots support before making a decision.

Many people have called on Nader to jump into the hotly contested race to challenge Democratic Sen. Chris Dodd, who has been struggling in recent polls. Nader said he’s getting increasingly more requests from Connecticut Green Party members, independents and supporters of Ned Lamont, the upstart Democrat who challenged Sen. Joe Lieberman in the 2006 election.

“I’m just absorbing a lot of the feedback before I make a decision,” said Nader, who appeared at the Noah Webster Library in West Hartford, where he was signing his new book, “Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us!”

Dodd is trailing two of his Republican opponents. While I’m sure that the GOP would deny that this would be a good thing for them, Nader’s presence would likely deny Dodd re-election.

As election day is dawning upon us, emotions are running high, particularly among those entrapped in the major political party of their choice, urging those of us who cannot abide either of the major party nominees to pick the “lesser of evils”.  The reason given depends on which side of the divide from which it comes.  I’ve been hearing, or expect to hear, from my Obama-supporting friends, “You MUST vote for Obama, because we cannot have eight more years of Bush”.

When I first heard about Bob Barr’s Libertarian Party run, I actually looked at his past as a Republican congressman as a positive. Most people don’t join independent parties first crack out of the box, and I certainly didn’t. I found myself defending him against attacks that he was a “neo-con” or a pol seeking to advance a dying career.

That began to change as I heard more from him. The various news appearances he made were filled with canned rhetoric. He sounded like the stereotypical politician. It was hard to really tell if he believed what he was saying, or if he had just decided to leach onto the movement started by Ron Paul’s candidacy.

Sources say that Libertarian Party Candidate Bob Barr did not make an appearance at Dr. Paul’s press conference as agreed and is instead having his own press conference, per a flyer being handed out by LP Communications Director Andrew Davis.

As much effort as Dr. Paul put into promoting this press conference, one has to wonder what effect this will have on his relationship with Barr and how Ron’s supporters will respond.  If the reaction at Ron Paul Forums is any indication, missing this press conference was a mistake.

Update:

Reason’s Dave Weigel at Hit and Run is now reporting this-

*Update- We can now include links to Dr. Paul’s full statement to the press and the policies about which Ron and the four third-party candidates all agree.  Once video becomes available, we’lll add that as well.

*Update* Amanda Moore, from the Baldwin campaign, has sent out an email claiming that Chuck Baldwin will be attendance at this announcement, and an official from the Barr campaign has confirmed that Congressman Barr has been invited, but is not sure that attendance will be possible.  Rumor is that Nader and McKinney have also been included.

Campaign for Liberty just put the following press release on their blog-

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                      CONTACT: Jesse Benton
September 5, 2008

ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA – On the heels of his historic three-day rally in Minneapolis that drew over 12,000 attendees, Congressman Ron Paul will make a major announcement next week in Washington at the National Press Club.

More details will be announced Monday.

There’s something very peculiar about the general media coverage of the election campaign.

While it’s strikingly obvious that a good swap of the mainstream media has fallen head over heels in love with Barack Obama, that hasn’t necessitated friendliness to the potential Republican “spoiler,” Libertarian Party candidate Bob Barr.

In an interview on CNN, anchor Kiran Chetry downplays Barr’s relevance. It’s in slight but significant ways, such as Chetry saying that Barr is only on 34 state ballots when he is in fact on nearly 40 ballots. Chetry also goes on to say that Barr is only polling at 3%, when he is in fact polling at 6%. This isn’t hostility towards Barr’s ideas, but instead hostility towards his very presence.

A Zogby poll released today shows that American’s want ‘Real Choice’ in the upcoming election. The poll showed that 55% of those polled would like to see Bob Barr in the national debates, with 59% saying they would like to see Ralph Nader in the debates. In response to the outcome of this poll,  John Zogby had this to say:

“This election will be won in the political middle, and independent voters are the major prize up for grabs. It looks like independents want a full debate this fall to get a wider range of views and voices out onto the table.”

The full poll data can be viewed here.