BOSTON, July 25 (UPI) -- Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader hammered the Democratic Party as the tool of special interests in the Boston Globe Sunday.
"This convention is about power and avoidance: the power of big business and special interests and the avoidance of any issues that might draw a clear distinction between our two leading political parties," Nader wrote in an op-ed published in the newspaper of the city where the Democratic National Convention is scheduled to open Monday.
Nader claimed the Democrats would remain silent about such issues as "a national crackdown on corporate crime,"; "a withdrawal from the WTO and NAFTA"; "any suggestion that our income tax system be substantially revamped"; "a reduction in the military budget"; and "the United States to begin a military and corporate withdrawal from Iraq."
Nader is widely credited with tipping the 2000 presidential election to President George W. Bush over then-Democratic candidate Al Gore when he pulled 3 percent of the vote. Polls currently show him holding around 4 percent of the vote in a tight race between Bush and Democratic candidate Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts who is to be formally nominated at the convention this week.
