NPR: Nader: "Go to my rallies, but vote for Kerry"

I'm not sure that that is the straightforward message Ralph Nader gave to NPR in this 11+ minute audio interview. But the headline is NPR's so I'll keep it, even though it represents manipulation of Nader's message by NPR... I never heard that quote in his interview.

Nader confirms in the interview that he is a manipulative man. Where he says he "owes it to his volunteers" to run in the swing states where he has support, his supporters are not considering him to be running to "refine" the message of the Democrats, and few of them -- I suspect -- will vote for Kerry.

His attitude is disingenuous. He is trying to please everyone, to show that he is passionate to his base, and to show that he is politically sophisticated to the press. He's not "flip-flopping" -- he has developed a strategy that insists that you accept his inconsistencies as virtues.

I think he is very much self-deluding on this.

He says he needs to run for office to have the same voice in public affairs he had as an activist in years past. Could this be because he doesn't understand modern media? The man still writes on a manual typewriter, and avoids computers entirely.

Nader in 2004 -- unsafe at any speed.

*sigh*