WASHINGTON, June 29 (UPI) -- You are forgiven for being unfamiliar with the name Peter Camejo, Ralph Nader's choice for running mate in the upcoming election. Like Nader, Camejo is a three-time electoral farce. Between the two ticket mates, each has failed to crack even 10 percent in every one of the six races they headlined -- the electoral equivalent of falling below baseball's Mendoza line of batting.
Camejo ran for president in 1976, garnering a measly 90,000 votes as the candidate of the Socialist Workers Party. The SWP distinguished itself as the United States' only unabashed militant Trotskyite party. Most recently, Camejo took the bronze medal in the 2002 California governor's race before dropping to fourth place in the recall election of the following year, both times running on the Green Party ticket.
Berkeley- and MIT-educated (though not graduated), and born into massive wealth, Camejo boasts that he never earned a paycheck until age 42, something that makes him a kindred spirit of President Bush. But after falling out with the Trotskyites, he took a job on Wall Street and eventually developed Progressive Asset Management, an investment fund made up of environmentally and worker friendly companies. Camejo became a millionaire on precisely the type of pragmatic, middle ground idea for which the far left vilified Al Gore.
Camejo, it seems, initially had his eye on the top spot of the ticket. An Internet draft Camejo movement has been afoot for more than six months urging the erstwhile candidate to toss his beret into the ring. Though his 583 signatures aren't enough to win a city council race in Turkey Foot, Pa., they apparently were enough grass-roots support to impress Nader.
For Democrats and the John Kerry campaign, Nader's choice of a running mate -- even if it were Mr. Ed -- ends any and all hope that the former consumer crusader would gracefully bow out of the race. But that was always a fantasy.
Nader simply does not have what it takes to leave the stage. He lacks the emotional maturity to recede from the spotlight, to be able to scan a newspaper without frantically searching for his own name, or to leave the thrall of college campuses.
And to quit the race now would be to admit the obvious but unthinkable -- that his folly in 2000 put George Bush in the White House, Halliburton in Iraq, and Paul Wolfowitz in the situation room. That is too much for any thinking liberal to bear, so the alternative is to commit statistical malpractice to show that Nader actually hurt Bush in 2000, then blame Gore for running a terrible campaign, and finally, by golly, run for the Oval Office again!
Nader's run would be as meaningless as Camejo's previous three runs except that the same delusional vote analysis that brings Nader back to the race is also shared by his mostly post-graduate degree supporters. Nader voters remain proud of the vote that handed the keys to the Hummer to George Bush. The same voters who are so sophisticated that they voted for Nader because "Gore ran a terrible campaign," were not savvy enough to see through Gore's campaign performance to judge what type of president he would be.
The most likely result of the Nader-Camejo dream team is another dismal showing in the 3-percent range and another slim defeat for the Democratic nominee. Why? Because even under the best of circumstances for the Democrats -- a failing presidency, a sluggish economy, massive federal deficits, and an unpopular war -- they are barely able to crack 50 percent of the vote.
In fact, the last national Democrat to hit the 50-percent mark was Lyndon Johnson in 1964. Democrats have very little margin for error.
In the California recall election, Camejo said he understood if his supporters voted for the Democrat Bustamante to keep the Republican Schwarzenegger from getting elected. If that is his attitude, why run at all? Why run again? And how will he feel on the evening of Nov. 2 watching George Bush bask in the delight of a victorious crowd chanting "four more years!"
Get ready for another train wreck.
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(Jim Kessler is president of the Washington-based consulting firm Definition Strategies and is not affiliated with any presidential candidate. He can be reached at [email protected].)
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(United Press International's "Outside View" commentaries are written by outside contributors who specialize in a variety of issues. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of United Press International. In the interests of creating an open forum, original submissions are invited.)
