BillCosby

Ralph Nader, the Connecticut native who became the nation's best-known consumer advocate, is looking to run for president for the fourth time.

Nader, who turns 74 in late February, launched a web site Wednesday that announced the creation of an exploratory committee that would set the groundwork for him to run for the nation's highest office. If Nader can raise money, hire talented staff, and gather enough pro-bono lawyers to fight the inevitable lawsuits that will be designed to keep him off the ballots around the nation, then he will make his final decision in about a month.

Blamed bitterly by many Democrats for tipping the balance to Republican George W. Bush in the highly contested race in Florida in 2000, Nader is not giving up as he flicks away the vitriol that is hurled toward him. In his trademark style, Nader railed against corporate welfare and completely dismissed the idea that he was a spoiler in the 2000 race.

"If we all have a right to run for office, then none of us are spoilers,'' Nader said.

Nader called The Hartford Courant on Wednesday afternoon to spread the word on his potential candidacy, which has been covered by CNN, ABCNEWS.com, Reuters, and others. He expressed surprise that Republican John McCain has resurrected his candidacy through huge victories in New Hampshire and Florida. "It's amazing - his comeback,'' Nader said.

At the same time, Nader derided McCain as "the candidate of perpetual war'' for being one of the most outspoken supporters of the American troop surge in Iraq.

If Nader decides to run, he will base his campaign on the issues he has pushed for 40 years - safer cars, cleaner air, fewer defective products for consumers, and lower insurance rates. He favors term limits for members of Congress and closing down nuclear power plants.

As he nears 74, Nader has honed those issues through a lifetime that traces back to his early days in Winsted, a Litchfield County community of about 11,000 people that is about 30 miles northwest of Hartford. His father, who died in 1991 at the age of 98, operated a landmark Main Street restaurant in Winsted and instilled a crusading spirit in his children. An immigrant from Lebanon, Nathra Nader moved to Winsted in 1926 and opened a small candy store that was eventually expanded into a spacious restaurant.

The young Ralph Nader graduated from the Gilbert School in Winsted in 1951 before earning degrees at Princeton University and Harvard Law School. When he went back for a speech at Princeton, he told the students that they were in the top 1 percent in the nation - adding that he bet that no one had ever told them that before. After law school, he worked for a year in former Hartford Mayor George Athanson's law firm and taught history at the University of Hartford.

WIth the publication of the bestselling "Unsafe At Any Speed: The Designed-In Dangers of the American Automobile,'' Nader burst onto the national scene at the age of 31. He has remained there for more than 40 years. The book sharply criticized General Motors' Corvair as unsafe, and the giant automaker hired detectives to dig up dirt on the young author. That experience, Nader says, had a profound effect on him - prompting him to never give out his home telephone number or his address.

Reporters who have traveled with Nader on his campaigns have seen a senior citizen who often has more energy than the young journalists who are assigned to cover him. Without a wife or children, he pours all of his time and energy into his causes. That schedule often lasts 16 hours a day, 7 days a week.

A close friend who is now working on the 2008 exploratory committee, attorney Carl Mayer, once told The Courant, "He's like Lou Gehrig. He wears out the younger people.''

Nader has no love for Bill Clinton, whom he ran against in 1996. During that campaign, Nader said of Clinton: "The guy would have no trouble running a concentration camp if his political career was at stake.''

While keeping his eye on the national picture, Nader has often gotten involved in Connecticut issues. During Democrat Bill Curry's run for governor in mid-October 2002 against John Rowland, Nader fired off a letter that slammed Connecticut's two top Democrats - Senators Christopher Dodd and Joseph I. Lieberman - for having "abandoned'' Curry at a time when he needed it the most. Nader said the two senators had offered only token political support and had failed to help Curry raise much money against the well-funded Rowland.

"For years you have had a publicly unspoken arrangement with John Rowland to avoid competition,'' Nader said in the letter to the senators that was released to The Courant. "The Republicans put up nominal candidates against each of you, and you lay off criticizing the incumbent governor or having a strong challenger to him.''

Dodd and Lieberman strongly denied Nader's comments, but the issue set off a political firestorm within the Democratic Party. Curry lost the race, and Rowland went on to win his third term in office. But he resigned less than two years later amidst an impeachment inquiry into corruption charges, and he served about 10 months in a federal prison after pleading guilty to a single charge in a plea-bargain deal. Rowland was recently hired for an economic development job in his hometown of Waterbury.

--Christopher Keating

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Preventive war is not war!!!!Counter-terror is not terror

cheapseats

Doing the same thing, expecting a different result.

By the by, that is the definition of insanity used by Alcoholics Anonymous.

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guest1234567

What result do you think he is expecting?

mudwhistle

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Yes we can!

BillCosby

He may have a place....................

FOr those that can not vote for hillary...........

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Preventive war is not war!!!!Counter-terror is not terror

jdanton

Finally, Heretic has a candidate.

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Author: Memoirs of a Sleepless Mind, a book you CAN judge by its cover.

BillCosby

I have always thought he was a joke........... No chance of winning.....

But given the choice between Mcbush & hillary bush he don't look so bad....lol

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Preventive war is not war!!!!Counter-terror is not terror

jdanton

I always thought he could have oranized a large block of voters and changed the system to be multi party friendly.

Simply "running" doesn't do that.

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Author: Memoirs of a Sleepless Mind, a book you CAN judge by its cover.

PursuitOfHappinessParty

If you check out his background and platforms and then compare him to any he's ever run against he doesn't look like a joke at all. The joke has been the Dems and GOPers complete fear of what he would achieve and since they own the MSM, the word is "Nader's crazy" or "Nader's a joke". Corporatists wouldn't have the stranglehold on Washington if Nader had won either of the last two elections. Now, he's kinda too old.

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" Tie two birds together and though they have four wings they cannot fly " Blind Master in 'Circle Of Iron'

guest1234567

He's only two years older then McCain. And I think his energy level is about 15 years younger.