Like Ralph Nader in 2000, Gary Johnson could throw the election.

Nader's 97,000 votes in Florida represented the difference between winning and losing Florida for Al Gore, and Gary Johnson could tip Arizona/Colorado/New Hampshire/New Mexico, where he's polling 9%/7%/7%/13% (if the pollsters are including him).

Unlike Nader, Johnson could hurt either of the 2 major-party candidates. It's more likely that he'll hurt Romney, but possibly not in Colorado and New Mexico. He could draw off erstwhile Obama supporters. If you're in a swing state, you have to want to make the point of giving no help to either of the 2 individuals who have an actual shot at winning. It's not enough to simply prefer Gary Johnson. (Take the I Side With test and see if you do align with him.)

Who are these people who not only want to say I prefer Johnson but also I decline to have any effect on the outcome? In 2000, the people who voted for Nader — did you know Meade was one? — perceived no significant difference between Al Gore and George Bush. Many of them went on to view that perception as quite inaccurate.

It's hard to believe the potential Johnson voters will think like that about Obama and Romney, which is why I think swing staters won't go third party this year. But I think the presence of Johnson in the race might affect how Obama and Romney fight in the swing states. Johnson is there as a refuge if the candidate we feel we're supposed to vote for offends us.

"[I]f Bush should have been impeached, Obama should be impeached."

Says Ralph Nader.

On the other hand, if you thought George Bush acted appropriately, then you should see that one benefit of the Obama presidency is that it has denied the Democrats the ability to stand at a distance and criticize, as if they were above that sort of thing. This was one of the reasons I voted for Obama: "When [the Democrats] can't whine and finger-point, what will they actually step up and do?"

"Ralph gets to luxuriate in the purity of his irrelevance."

Brilliant slam of Ralph Nader, by Barney Frank. Meanwhile, the internet is abuzz with that other quotable word-string: "We are trying on every front to increase the role of government."

Madison, Wisconsin. 6 p.m.

Class was over, it was getting dark, and I was hurrying to my car, but I had to stop at take a picture of this:



It was so Madison.

Later, I was in a second-floor restaurant, where they had chicken and dumplings on the menu. I've never seen chicken and dumplings on a restaurant menu. Chicken and dumplings! The one ancestral folk-food my mother cooked, the food of my father's lineage, the Pennsylvania Dutch. So, German. Let's have a brew. I chose Dogfish Head Raison D'Etre. This ale is made in Milton, Delaware, and it was in Delaware -- albeit not Milton -- that I ate the vast majority of the chicken and dumplings that I have eaten in my life.



And now I've had chicken and dumplings in Madison, not much like the way my mother made it. The dumplings weren't gummy enough. The truth is, my mother wasn't much good at making it... or any other sort of long-cooked food. She preferred to broil steaks and chops, so I never found out about how good braised and stewed things were until I left home. But tonight, I chose some semblance of home. The waiter said they'd put it on the menu as "comfort food."

That label says: "A deep mahogany ale brewed with Belgian beer sugars, green raisins & a sense of purpose."

"To my friends who supported Nader in 2000: have you discerned the subtle differences between Bush and Gore yet?"

From a post by (my son) Jac that's mainly about the band Polydream -- with some nice free downloads.

The drummer, Brit, along with Jac, wrote and performed the original theme for my old podcast, which you can still listen to here. I closed down the old "Audible Althouse" podcast and stopped paying for the website, but I see the RSS feed is still around, and you can still listen. I just discovered that. Strange...

Brit was also part of one of the bands that used to play in that space I photographed in "Mysteries of the Althouse house."

Also in that band was Jacob, whose band Jac blogged about last week (as part of his "musicians I know" series).

Did you know there's another debate tonight?

It's the third party debate, but only Ralph Nader and Chuck Baldwin are showing up. No Bob Barr or Cynthia McKinney. Quick, can you name all their parties? Anyway, it's on C-Span2 at 9 ET.

Ralph Nader just wants a little attention, a little love.

Is that so wrong?

"Democrats always know how to implode, how to be ambiguous, how to waver, how not to be authentic."

Says Ralph Nader, who's toying with the idea of running for President. And he's got this to say about Hillary Clinton:

She is a political coward. She goes around pandering to powerful interest groups on the one hand and flattering general audiences on the other. She doesn't even have the minimal political fortitude of her husband.

Well, now, give the woman some credit. She did really push the envelope with that short film she released the other day -- you know that psychodrama in which she reduced the former President to the role of First Gentleman by taking away his onion rings (≈ sex life) and forcing him to accept carrot sticks (≈ pared down phallus).

Relax, Rejoice. Inspired by Nina's meditations on Ralph Nader's "Relax, rejoice" advice--"I urge the liberal establishment to relax and rejoice"--I Googled "relax rejoice" just to see how far down the list of results I would need to go before I got to something that wasn't about Ralph Nader. The man has securely claimed that word combination, because it took me to the third page of results. Fascinatingly, the first nonNader result was to Imagine Nation®:

The "Relax! Rejoice! Rejuvenate!" Women's Retreat is held in Sedona, Arizona. This exhilarating and refreshing weekend getaway is a wonderful opportunity to break from the hectic pace of your everyday life and just breathe!

What the hell is Imagine Nation®? you may ask. Or you may say, Imagine Nation® sounds like a good name for the country Nader pictures himself presiding over. But according to the website: "Nancy Nordstrom’s Imagine Nation® Method of Dream Realization utilizes a fundamental foundation of three basic components. This is a solid, realistic approach that enables you to achieve the outcome you most desire." How intriguingly Nader-esque!

The next nonNader return takes you to Relax and Rejoice/Marriage Manual--Vol. 1. ("Venus Kriyas (yoga exercises for couples) and meditations for women and men for the renewal of love, trust, open communication, sexual sharing and much more.") I'm really not picturing Ralph Nader now. Or maybe, yes, a bit, metaphorically ... Enjoy the relationship, liberal establishment!

"Don't burlesque me." That's a quote from Ralph Nader, speaking to Chris Matthews on Hardball Monday night. When is the last time anyone used that word as a verb in normal speech (as opposed to an English literature lecture)? It was a dictionary-perfect way for Nader to defend himself against Matthew's caricaturing attack:

bur·lesque... transitive verb: To imitate mockingly or humorously: “always bringing junk . . . home, as if he were burlesquing his role as provider” (John Updike).

What possesses political candidates to use words that either can't be understood or that make people think of them as weird or out-of-touch? Howard Dean opened himself up to ridicule when he said:

In the South, people do integrate religion openly, easily into their lives, both black Southerners and white Southerners. I understand that if I'm going to campaign for the presidency of the United States, I have to be comfortable in the milieu that other Americans are comfortable.

Ah, well. Actually, I find the candidates a bit adorably nerdy when they lapse into this kind of bookish vocabulary. One likes to think they've studied a bit over the years.

Nader, on Hardball, exemplified the nerd's hostility to the popular kid when he couldn't stop remarking on George W. Bush's scholarly inadequacy. He's not well-read! I'm sure the people will rise up in outrage when that message gets out.

An interesting sidelight: Matthews said he voted for Bush in 2000! Racking my brain to think of why, I could only imagine it has something to do with Matthews oft-expressed theory that the people want the candidate they picture with the sun on his face. Of course that theory spells doom for Ralph Nader. But that doesn't matter. Nader's only in for the japery.

Very creative, Ralph. I'm at home this afternoon, nursing my cold, trying to stave off laryngitis, and I'm reading things on the internet, thinking I should add a little something to the blog today, and as I wait for my slow home connection to load another website, I watch the TiVo'd Meet the Press from yesterday. Each time a webpage loads up, I pause the TiVo and go back to reading. Every single time, I catch Ralph with his right eye shut and his left eye open.

"Iraqis will be ruled by Iraqis," says Nader. "They will be ruled, under fair elections, by Iraqis. They're very creative people. ..."

John mimics a kindergarten teacher: "You're very creative!"

Nader and the gay marriage issue. I had thought that both Kerry and Bush had plenty of motivation to try to keep the gay marriage issue from having much effect on the campaign. I thought they were both going to try to get away with saying blandly "marriage is between and man and a woman... blah blah ... leave it to the states." But Ralph Nader's entry into the Presidential race is going to undercut Kerry's ability to engage in a friendly little dance with Bush. Here's what Nader had to say in the 2000 campaign:

Saying that he is "way ahead of Al Gore" on liberal issues, Green Party presidential nominee Ralph Nader said ... that he supports civil unions and "equal rights, equal responsibilities" for homosexuals.

Nader ... said that he also supports gay adoptions. "The point is that we have to have a basic policy in this country of equal rights, equal responsibilities, regardless of race, gender, sexual preference," said Nader on NBC's "Meet The Press." "It's really interesting," added Nader.

Yes, it is "really interesting," especially for the Democrats. Kerry and Edwards had this response to Nader's announcement according to Reuters:

Both Democratic presidential contenders, front-runner John Kerry and rival John Edwards, told reporters they were not worried that a Nader candidacy would hurt them if they face Bush in November.

"I think my campaign is speaking to a lot of the issues Ralph Nader is concerned about," Kerry said. Edwards said "it will not impact my campaign" because he could attract many of the voters who might otherwise go to Nader.

Oh really? And how are the Republicans feeling today? Reuters "tried not to" editorialize in that news report:

Republicans tried not to celebrate the news. "Regardless of what Ralph Nader does, President Bush is going to be re-elected in November," Republican Party chief Ed Gillespie said.

What, no grinning Nader image on Drudge yet? I was expecting the revolving siren light. You can't sleep in just because it's Sunday, Matt.