This idea was expressed today very eloquently at Liberal Oasis. I want to repeat it here, though, because this is a classic example of why I find is so hard to cut McAuliffe and the DNC some slack, as if often suggested in these parts.
Here is part of his reaction to the Nader announcement from a CNN article:
Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe, appearing on CBS' "Face the Nation," called Nader's decision "very unfortunate." But he said he believes the candidacy by the consumer advocate and former Green Party presidential candidate "will be different from 2000."
Nader's announcement was widely watched by Democrats, many of whom blame him for siphoning off votes in Florida in the 2000 election that might have gone to Democratic nominee Al Gore, who lost the state and the overall election in a split decision by the U.S. Supreme Court.
The possibility of Nader allowing a Bush victory in 2004 by drawing votes from the left side of the political spectrum troubles some Democrats.
I'm going to skip re-hashing the stupidity of this kind of reaction, you can read it at
http://www.liberaloasis.com
but it boils down to giving the media reason to consider Nader a 'serious' candidate when he has no business being considered one this year.
The DNC should have organized a response to this to push him out of the limelight. The Kerry and Edwards campaigns did it no problem, why couldn't the party? It's not like this was a surprise - everyone knew it was coming, so why do the party elders look like they're hitting the panic button?!