Relax

Like many of my readers, I was a bit concerned when a poll (pdf) came out showing that Nader has 6% support in a three-way Bush/Kerry/Nader race. But I pretty quickly decided that that was either an anomaly or that it would fade over time. I didn’t post on the subject because I didn’t have anything other than my gut telling me that Nader would crash and burn.

Ruy Teixeira, however, does know polls:

To which I say: relax everybody. Nader’s not going to get that kind of support and he’s unlikely to even match the support he received in 2000. In fact, I think his fate is more likely to be like that of Pat Buchanan in 2000, who also drew some early support in polls, but would up with very few votes (.43 percent) because his candidacy had no real constituency or plausible rationale.

Ruy also reports something of more interest from the same poll: “Right now, just 35 percent of Americans say the country is going in the right direction, while 60 percent say it is off on the wrong track.”

We now return to our regularly scheduled ignoring of Ralph. On the other hand, if the 6% does hold up, Ezra K. has a plan: make Ralph the Sister Soujah of 2004 (“Make it Kerry against the two zealots and you’ve got quite an interesting race shaping up.”)

AB