News
In the summer of 2004, Michael Moore got down on his knees and begged his fellow guest on Real Time with Bill Maher, then-presidential candidate Ralph Nader, to drop out of the race. At that time, Bush and Kerry were in a dead heat in the polls—and just four years before that, Nader had led an energetic left-wing campaign that won almost three percent of the popular vote, resulting in a wave of accusations from liberals that the consumer advocate was directly responsible for Al Gore’s failure to carry Florida, and thus, the electoral college. Proponents of the “spoiler” argument pointed to Bush’s razor-thin margin of victory in the state as evidence that Gore would have won the election had Nader not been on the ballot.
By
Cole Stangler
November 1, 2012
