05 October 2004	Tuesday	19 Shaban 1425

FLORIDA: Ralph Nader surveyed a packed hall of Florida students who had come to hear about his third-party tilt for the presidency. "I am not here to flatter you. I'm going to take you to task," he warned in his opening sentence.

"I am looking at the future," he said dismissively, glaring at the sea of, in his view, apathetic and politically unaware young faces. "And the future looks much like the past."

Many politicians start campaign speeches with an attack on an opponent. Few start with an attack on their audience. Then again, Nader is no ordinary campaigner. Nor is it an ordinary campaign.

No figure divides America as much as Nader, the long-time liberal consumer activist turned political revolutionary, who is standing this time as an independent. Democrats blame him for robbing Al Gore of vital votes that cost him the 2000 election. Republicans love him for the same reason. Now both think it might happen again.

Democrats are right to be worried. Nader has defied the odds and is in the final stages of crafting a presidential challenge across most of America. He is on the ballot in 31 states and expects that number to end up as nearer 40. Many are battleground states.

That prospect has Democrats terrified. Last week, several new opinion polls showed how crucial Nader could be. In New Jersey the independent has just 2 per cent support, but Bush and Kerry are tied at 48 per cent.

In New Hampshire, Bush and Kerry are tied at 46 per cent, while Nader again has 2 per cent. In Colorado, the former consumer crusader has 3 per cent, leaving Bush with a one-point lead over Kerry. Without Nader, Kerry would probably be winning there. Some Democrats are starting to see the nightmare of 2000 all over again.

Nader can still draw crowds, as he proved when he criss- crossed hurricane-torn Florida last week, touring the swing state that still haunts Democrats. In the steamy resort town of Sarasota more than 300 people packed a university hall, overflowing into the corridors outside.

They clapped and cheered his speech. In Tampa a day later another 150 people came to a theatre to hear him. "Not even the hurricanes can stop you coming," Nader told them.

Hurricanes may not have put people off Nader, but the Democrats have tried to: they have launched a huge legal effort in many states to keep Nader off the ballot. Nader activists have been harassed and the signatures of support that the campaign has collected have repeatedly been challenged in court.

At some Nader meetings Democratic stooges have stood up to beg the audience to vote for Kerry to stop Bush. High-profile liberals, such as Michael Moore, publicly begged Nader not to run. Democrats refer to Nader as "a spoiler" candidate who will let the Republicans win.

The effort has backfired, however. Nader comes across as a very angry man, and much of that anger is directed at Democrats, not Bush. At press conferences and rallies the same message is pumped out again and again: the Democrats are the same as the Republicans.

"They are gutless, clueless and spineless. The Democratic Party is a shell of its former self. The fact that they can't landslide Bush shows their decadence," Nader says.

He is also fired up by the Democratic lawsuits, which have cost many thousands of dollars to defend. "They are going to pay a woeful price for this. People don't like bullies."

For Democrats, people like Adam Tebrougge, 42, a lawyer who has been active in the Sarasota Democratic Party but is now supporting Nader, are a deeply worrying sign that their plans to eliminate Nader have hurt only themselves.

In Sarasota, Tebrougge listened as one Nader aide begged the crowd for a $500 donation. His hand shot up and a few minutes later he handed over his cheque.

Tebrougge said: "I was very affected by Kerry's attempts to get Nader off the ballot. That might even have made the difference with me." Nader is clear what he thinks will happen in this election: Bush will win. He is clear too about who will be to blame. "Kerry is taking away more votes from himself than I ever could," Nader said.

The truth is more complex, however. Behind Nader's campaignlies a complex web of Republican support - often unsolicited but usually welcome - that seems to play into the hands of the Bush White House. Many Republicans see Nader as another weapon with which to beat Kerry.

Nader denies that it is a concerted Republican effort, but it seems widespread. Nader's legal fight to get on the ballot in Florida was crucially backed by Governor Jeb Bush, the President's brother. In other states it is Republican law firms that have successfully fought Democrat attempts to stop him standing.

Some Republican groups have collected signatures to try to get him on the ballot. In Nevada, the man behind the effort was Steve Wark, a top Republican consultant.

The Nader campaign has also used the Florida-based firm JSM, whose parent company previously helped the election campaigns of Ronald Reagan and the elder George Bush. JSM has been dogged by repeated allegations of collecting fraudulent Nader signatures, especially in the swing state of Ohio.

Republicans have also played a role in financing Nader. Several large donors to Bush's war coffers have dug in their pockets for Nader. They include billionaire John Egan, one of the most prominent financial backers of Bush's political career, and Houston businessman Nijad Fares. One study showed that nearly one in 10 of those who gave Nade $1,000 or more also gave to the Republicans.

As some Democrats complain about dirty tricks, however, Nader is striking a chord with others on the main issues. Unburdened by the prospect of success, he is free to make his unbridled opposition to the Iraq war a popular part of his platform.

He is lobbying for a withdrawal of US forces in six months' time. Nader's biggest cheers always come with the mention of getting out of Iraq. He compares Iraq to Vietnam, warning darkly of a reinstatement of the draft. All this makes good ammunition for attacks but it is Kerry, not Bush, who is the target.

"I have never seen a Democrat be so reluctant to have an exit strategy. He now says he wants out in four years. Well in four years it will be worse than Vietnam," Nader said. His speeches are unlike those of the main candidates. They change with each venue, appear to be mainly ad-libbed and attack the system, especially big business, with ferocity.

Nader poses as an outsider aiming to bring the house down. That is not hard to do when, as Kerry and Bush whizz around in hired jets, your air tickets are bought at a pensioner's discount price. -Dawn/The Guardian News Service.