Ralph Nader should heed the words of Saint Paul: "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith." Once once a very brilliant and influential consumer advocate, the 73-year-old, worn out and tired crusader has become a national joke. He's like the old professor, formerly a respected scholar, now shuffling around the campus, mumbling to anyone who'll listen, that the university should allow him to teach again. As with the other doddering old man, Nader should just shut the hell up and quietly fade away.

While we fondly remember the brave, young Ralph Nader jousting with the American auto industry, challenging and criticizing them for building big, fat, gas-hog clunkers that were unsafe at any speed, those fighting days for him are long behind him. Anyhow, despite Nader's jousting with then, the clueless American auto industry keeps destroying itself with its big, fat, gas hog clunkers. Despite his warnings of the past 30 years, the automakers doesn't need any help from Ralph Nader to run itself into the ground, and continues to be outclassed by much smarter foreign competitors.

If Nader has any logic left in his mind, he knows full well that by becoming a candidate again, as hopeless as his attempt will be, he will take away votes from the Democratic candidate, and help the Republicans. Is he so concentrated on polishing his tarnished ego, that knowing he'd never have a chance to win an election anyhow, that there's some dark cause behind his token candidacies? Doesn't he realize that he hurt the Democratic candidates in close races in 2000 and 2004, and he may have been the cause for George W. Bush's disastrous Presidency? Is he determined to do it again in 2008, and see yet another Republican in the White House?

On the surface, it seems Nader may have his own reasons for damaging the Democrats once more. Although he has not come out publicly against either of the leading candidates, does he fear one or both of the party's potential winners, Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama? If so, does that mean he's for Republican John McCain? Probably not, but is it possible that the old, peaceloving environmentalist can support an old Navy pilot who may have once napalmed the hell out of North Vietnamese rice fields and bombed their water and power systems?

Nader once was a great voice for the consumer, and even in his dotage, can still serve as an old watchdog with a few sharp teeth still intact. We can always use his experience and knowledge to fight for the rest of us. We still need voices like Nader's to continue to expose all the dangers in our environment, on the roads, in the labs and other areas where cynical government and manufacturers put profit above safety.

Learn more about this author, Ted Sherman.
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