Suddenly, Ralph Nader is no longer being ignored. The media ignored Nader’s super rallies that have drawn more than 10,000 people who paid admission all across the country. It was virtually uncovered when Nader was threatened with arrest when he tried to attend two of the debates. His campaign was not worth a soundbite to even make him recognizable as a presidential candidate to most Americans throughout most of his campaign.

But the Green Party candidate’s recent rise to 5% in national polls has put the major media outlets on alert. With Gore and Bush in a dead heat in the polls just two weeks shy of the election, headlines yesterday state that Ralph Nader may spoil Vice President Al Gore’s chances to win the presidency. The Democratic Party sees Nader as a major threat to Al Gore in at least a half-dozen normally Democratic states. That fear has prompted a vigorous campaign across the country by the Democratic Party and its allies, to dissuade liberal voters from supporting Nader.

Even some of Ralph Nader’s supporters are threatened by the close race between Bush and Gore. In California, where the race is very close, Nader supporters pulled ads promoting him in California out of concern that votes for him could cost Gore the state.

The months-long argument between liberals and liberals and radicals is now reaching a feverish pitch in the media, and is the question we’re asking today. Is a vote for Ralph Nader really a vote to help put Bush in the White House?

Guests:

• Toby Moffett, a former Congressional representative of Connecticut, and was recently Monsanto Corporation’s Vice President for International Government Affairs. Moffett co-founded the Connecticut Citizen Action Group with Nader in the 1970s and the two worked together on environmental and other causes. Today Mr. Moffet is working with the Democrats towards a different goal.
• Barbara Ehrenreich, a writer, activist and novelist who appears in publications ranging from Mother Jones to Z to Time. Ehrenreich is a noted public speaker, who appears frequently on radio and television.