Letters

From the August/September 2002 issue

(Page 5 of 5)

John Kovach
Austin, TX

Matt Welch replies: Several polls were conducted to measure what Nader voters would have done had he not been a candidate. Of all those, Nader quoted the single one that came closest to supporting his thesis -- i.e., that he didn't tip the election to Bush. Instead of reacting to the widely disseminated Voter News Service poll the morning after the election, he deferred to Tom Brokaw -- who happened to utter the comment that came closest to supporting Nader's thesis. Neither Nader's quoted poll nor Brokaw's uttered speculation can be found anywhere in the vast literature of post-election number crunching, except in Nader's book (which, to reiterate, is subtitled "How to Tell the Truth and Still Run for President").

This is a selective and dishonest use of math, and it is typical of Nader's conduct on the campaign trail, as his own former campaign staffers freely admit. Why does it matter? Why target Nader? Because he and the loose movement he represents depict themselves as being among the few souls brave and pure enough to "speak truth to power." It is a conceit and a delusion, one worth the consideration of Naderites and non-Naderites alike before the 2004 election.