The Ralph

In all the hoopla over the inevitable Nader '04 campaign, I found this sound bite from Mr. Nader a bit odd.

"It's a marvelous demonstration by liberals, if you will, of censorship," he recently told National Public Radio. "Running for political office is every American's right. Running for political office means free speech exercise, it means exercising the right of petition, the right of assembly. And so when they say, 'Do not run,' they're not just challenging and rebutting -- they're crossing that line into censorship."

Screw Ralph. When I say 'Do not run' I am not censoring Mr. Nader. I'm expressing an opinion, my own, which he has so clearly just defended. I have taken no steps other than sending an e-mail to his "exploratory committee" urging you not to run. I didn't break into any government office and destroy his application to run. I didn't block people from signing a petition asking him to run. I didn't do anything, other than express an opinion. If that truly is censorship, we've come a long way baby.

From the looks of the pre-announcement reaction, his committee did a fine job of ignoring public sentiment.