I regretted not registering in time to cast the vote for Gore/Lieberman as a politically apathetic albeit liberal-leaning young college-age person in 2000, but in retrospect, I did not. More on that later.
Ralph Nader was commonly denounced with regular vitriol by aghast and dejected members of the Democratic Party as "the spoiler" who cost Al Gore the presidency in the contested election in 2000. Blame it on U.S. Supreme Court and the corrupted voting process under the supervision of then-Secretary of State Katherine Harris while George's brother Jeb Bush was the governor of Florida.
It is not the responsibility of the third party for the final outcome of the election, no matter how close the vote count is between the two major (read: established political powers) parties. Third party gaining the significant number of votes, by either major party, is perceived as a spoiler which makes it convenient to trot out the scapegoat when the party loses a significant state to the outrage of some staunch members.
While Ralph Nader may have problems -- many accuse him of megalomania in announcing his decision to run for president on Green Party ticket -- he offers the alternative choice for those who have the intense dislike of Hillary Clinton when it comes down to Clinton versus McCain in the presidential race, or those who distrust Obama's stances (especially his support of U.S.'s continued entangling alliance with Israel under the powerful influence of American Israel Public Affairs Committee which he participated in a speech(text) at the conference last year).
The American media, controlled under the microscope of the conglomerates with stake in lucrative contracts and other decisive factors favorable towards further consolidating power of corpocracy as members of the military-industrial complex, fall "head over heel" for Clinton and Obama, with media mogul Rupert Murdoch (owner of News Corp; Fox News Channel) and CNN favoring Hillary Clinton's presidency while MSNBC likes Obama to a certain extent. The broadcast channels - ABC, NBC and CBS - is middling between McCain or Huckabee and Clinton or Obama while completely ignoring the other two remaining candidates (one of each for the major party) that hung on to presidential campaigning after Fred Thompson, John Edwards, Dennis Kucinich, Rudy Giuliani and others dropped out.
NBC, owned by General Electric, stipulated that Mike Gravel and Dennis Kucinich have substantial campaign fund as well as significant poll percentage to continue participating, and they rejected Gravel outright since mid-October of last year (partly due to Gravel blaming AIPAC in the televised PBS Newshour inverview for the problem of Washington policio on domestic & foreign relations) while deflating Kucinich's participation on the further debates until he drops out. The competing national media outlets followed thereafter, crushing any mention of Kucinich and Gravel unless they announce dropout, albeit in passing sentence in newsprint.
I believe Mike Gravel to be the honest and viable choice who has said on the record he advocates citizen participation in the national initiative proposal, abolish the War on Drugs & legalizing all drugs for regulation, lowering drinking age from 21 to 18, fair tax & abolishing IRS, alternative energy and protecting the environment, ending the protracted international wars (Iraq) to focus on crucial domestic affairs and defend national security by rebuilding sovereignty & restoring the credibility & relations with the world.
These are Mike's principles and he will not apologize for being so candid as to be politically incorrect, and -- in some Democrats' view -- a "crank". This is the man who took on Obama, Hillary and the rest(1) of the Democratic presidential candidates for their potential subservience to Big Business (corpocracy) and foreign power while failing to institute the promised changes that leave the U.S.'s economy, environment and sovereignty in frail condition.
Because of Mike Gravel's condemnation of AIPAC and the military-industrial complex's influences, the resulting treatment is media blackout designed to completely derail the campaign to oblivion just because he told the brutal truth so profound they recoil in horror that round off the raucous jeers of ridicule and laughter.
While it's clear -- partly owing to the mainstream media's influential role as the king-maker -- Mike Gravel's campaign remains obscure after being ejected from the nationally televised debates after October 2007 in conjunction with his candidacy recognition in consistently poor polling and struggling with funding, the Democratic Party establishment find Gravel so odious for being too candid it's uncomfortable to even provide a minusule support except the passionate grassroots campaign which still exist as long as Gravel stays on the campaign run as the modern equivalent of Don Quixote. Grassroots campaigning by the supporters isn't unheard of; Ron Paul remains defiant in its quest for Republican presidential nomination, however high the odds are.
With the recent announced presidential candidacy of Ralph Nader, considering my semi-favorable view of Barack Obama (a very personable presidential contender with JFK-esque charisma) because I consider myself a progressive and a patriot most concerned about the state of the nation's welfare & security, I contemplate my decision to cast the ballot for the candidate that will keep the word to institute genuine change and progress for the better, prosperous & less cynical era.
Hillary Clinton is as execrable a choice as John McCain because of their negative characteristic traits of preening arrogance and stubborn rejection to bring about positive change (as Mike Gravel studiously points out in response to Hillary's claim of being a progressive) as the demagogues in order to uphold the status quo favoring the oligarchy's rule over the manifest destiny of America.
Barack Obama may be a viable alternative to bring change, but he does so at the mercy of the corporate mainstream media that wield the mighty pen & videotape of exaggerated, slanderous propaganda to influence the American public's mind in attitude. This happened to President Bill Clinton who had an ordeal to deal with the media frenzy when the Monica-gate rumor and scandal became the national front page news while virtually ignoring the crimes of Bush-Cheney administration in terms of compliance and preference for lurid, tabloid-style sensationalism. The mainstream media is just as guilty in their role as the king-maker that also serve as the agitative denouncer that can break the knees.
With this in mind, when Ralph Nader has chosen Mike Gravel (or perhaps Kucinich) as the running mate while Ron Paul's failure to secure the GOP nomination & his refusal to run third party inevitable, I will change to cast the ballot for Nader and his chosen mate from the Democratic Party considered a true progressive. This will be my intractable choice -- when the presidential run of the two parties come down to Hillary versus McCain.
And the indisputable fact is, Mike Gravel ended the mandatory conscription for the U.S. military by defiantly serving (1, 2) as a one-man filibuster and read the large portion of the divulged classified file The Pentagon Papers into the Congressional record in the early 70's for permanent posterity. For these deeds he is a true hero risking his career as a two-term Alaskan senator actually serving the constituency and the American people. If not for the dissolution of the mandatory draft due to Mike Gravel's tooth-and-nails effort, there would be hundreds of thousands more foot soldiers fighting the wars at the behest of the Establishment, including the second episode of Iraq war.
Put together, Nader and Gravel make a great team (Nader endorsed Gravel on CNN's The Situation Room) on the ticket for the Progressive cause that the Democratic Party have neglected and rejected to a considerable degree when the hypothesis of Hillary Clinton versus John McCain race is forced upon U.S. voting public to make their narrow choice.
BTW, I was right about not voting for Gore out of political bias and ignorance -- because Joe Lieberman turns out to be the traitor as a DINO (Democrat in Name Only).