Former Green presidential candidate — and former presumed Democratic spoiler — Ralph Nader doesn't plan to run again this time around. But that isn't keeping him from political machinations. Nader's plan for 2012: Obama's gonna win anyway, so why not put some pressure on him to move leftward?
Obama's win is basically guaranteed, thanks to Republican fractiousness and the president's big-business backing, Nader wrote in a recent op-ed. So a little peer pressure in the form of some primary challengers could make him more palatable to far-left constituents, without ruining his chances. Nader's putting together a crack team of progressive candidates to show up at debates and go "c'moooooooonnnnnnn" until Obama gives in:
Obama is “really in a very, very powerful position” to win reelection, Nader told POLITICO, and the slate of candidates wouldn’t be meant to give Obama a serious challenge for the Democratic nomination, but instead to “structurally pull him in the opposite direction” than he’s taken since his 2008 campaign.
If there was a group of people from the president’s own party geared up to debate him in Iowa and New Hampshire, “it is harder for him to say no,” Nader said. “His strategists can say, ‘Don’t fight it, Barack; use it, revel in it; you’re good on your feet.”
