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.
The crowds Nader is attracting this time, however, are much smaller than those of four years ago. Some of his speeches can also veer into the bizarre. He can sound like an angry old grandad, lecturing troublesome children. 'What happened to playing kick the can in the backyard?' he cried at one meeting in Miami as he ranted against Nintendo.
But the real problem for Nader is people such as Vanessa White. Clutching Nader's book after the Sarasota meeting, she was fired up by his speech. Yet her vote was going to Kerry: the overriding thing was to get rid of Bush. 'I just really don't like Bush,' White said. 'That's what matters this time.' Nader knows he cannot hope for victory, especially when both major parties have combined to deny him any hope of appearing in the two remaining presidential TV debates. Nader jokes he may gatecrash the final debate, planned for Arizona.
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