{news} (The Nation) Greens hear Nader , McKinney and ponder the Politics of 2008

[Green Party-CT]

        Greens Hear Nader, McKinney and Ponder the Politics of 2008    John Nichols                                              
  The Green Party's national meeting in Reading, Pa., highlighted the fact that there are a good many Americans who want an alternative to the often disappointing choices offered them by the Republican and Democratic parties. Featuring major addresses by consumer advocate and former presidential candidate Ralph Nader, as well as former U.S. Rep. Cynthia McKinney ☼, D-Ga., the annual "Green for a Change" gathering held July 12-15 attracted hundreds of activists from across the country. 
   
  Neither Nader or McKinney is running for the presidency now. But their appearances at a meeting that was seen as an opportunity for announced and potential candidates to meet and greet Green activists from around the country was significant. 
   
  Many Greens believe that disenchantment with the failure of congressional Democrats to draw down the war in Iraq and hold President Bush and Vice President Cheney to account will provide an opening for a third party of the left in 2008. There are also Greens who believe that a possible independent candidacy by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg might free up thinking with regard to the presidential race -- get voters thinking outside the two-party box -- and in so doing create opportunities for a Green presidential candidate to get more attention. (A similar scenario played out in 1980, when the independent candidacy of maverick Republican John Anderson drew attention to Libertarian and Citizen party campaigns.) 
   
  To make any kind of breakthrough, however, Greens will need a national ticket that can earn notice from a media that does not treat parties that go by names other than "Democrat" and "Republican seriously. 
   
  It is no secret that there are Greens who would like to see a "name" candidate like Nader or McKinney as the party's presidential nominee in 2008, and some who would like to see the two maverick political figures team up as a Nader-McKinney or McKinney-Nader ticket. Even a few of the party's lesser-known contenders are indicating that they would step aside to make way for Nader, McKinney or the both of them. One announced candidate for the Green nomination, veteran New York activist Jerry Kann, released a statement declaring that he was running in hopes that his campaign would lay the groundwork for "individuals of real stature to be the Green Party standard-bearers in 2008." 
   
  Said Kann, "The Green Party has a tremendous opportunity this year to step up to the plate and be the independent third party that so many Americans want. And I believe there are two individuals who are far and away the best choices to lead the Green Party in 2008--Ralph Nader and Cynthia McKinney."
   
  Whether Nader or McKinney run, the Greens will be a presence in 2008. The party, which is now active in 46 states -- thanks to the recent affiliation of the West Virginia Mountain Party, a previously independent third party that always had a green tint – has committed resources to a campaign to obtain ballot status in all 50 states and the District of Columbia by next fall. 
   
  That's a tall order. The deck is stacked against small parties that are seeking places on ballots that Democrats and Republicans prefer to keep to themselves. In particular, Democrats who believe that Nader's 2000 candidacy cost them the states of New Hampshire and Florida – and, with those losses, the presidency – have been aggressive about trying to keep the Greens off state ballots.
   
  Nader has made opening up the political process a major focus of his work in recent years. On Saturday, he headlined a "Ballot Access Rally" in Reading. 
  Nader was brimming with ideas about establishing federal standards for ballot access in order to prevent states from erecting unreasonable barriers. Denouncing what he described as a "two-party dictatorship," Nader sounded like a candidate – or, at the least, like someone who wanted to make sure that American voters would have more than two choices in 2008. 
   
  Asked specifically if he plans to run, Nader replied, "It's too early to say. I'll make up my mind before the end of the year." But he did say he has been encouraged to consider another run. 
   
  McKinney was similarly circumspect. The former congresswoman's not a candidate yet, she said, but she is talking seriously to a number of Green activists. And, McKinney added, she too is getting plenty of encouragement to make the race. 
  That was evident in Reading on Sunday, when McKinney's speech was greeted with chants of "Run, Cynthia, run!" 
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  John Nichols' new book is THE GENIUS OF IMPEACHMENT: The Founders' Cure for Royalism. Rolling Stone's Tim Dickinson hails it as a "nervy, acerbic, passionately argued history-cum-polemic [that] combines a rich examination of the parliamentary roots and past use of the 'heroic medicine' that is impeachment with a call for Democratic leaders to 'reclaim and reuse the most vital tool handed to us by the founders for the defense of our most basic liberties.'" 
           
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