@Setanta,
Yes, Harris and her crew did suppress the vote. Sure they did. Would we have ever heard of her if Al Gore had won Florida anyway. ??
No.
I think the Naderites pissed away a chance to hold onto the White House.
Nader himself was approached three times during the campaign, especially in the closing days, with guarantees that a Gore Administration would be a greener administration with specifics from Micheal Moore's book that I can't remember right now,
if he would throw his support to the Democrats. He refused, an act I find completely and hopelessly as arrogant as his completely hopeless campaign.
Look, (And this is sort of a reply to eBeth and Lustig at the same time) there is no viable third party on
the Presidential level in the United States of America. So, if I were so inclined to build a third party, I would do it at the city council, State Representative, State Senator level until such time as there was enough support to win a state-wide seat. (Winning Governorships was once thought to be the start of something big, but it turned out just to be Jesse Ventura.)
Would I want, for now, just two names on the Presidential Ballot? No, I'd like it to be The Republicans, the Libertarians, the Tea Party and the Constitution Party against the Democratic Party. So the GOP would get their support watered down and not the Democrats.
BUT, if there were a 50 State Organization of (let's call it The Middle Party) of Middlers, who had already run and won campaigns and seats, who had written legislation on the State and Federal level, who had shown themselves to be tough when it came to their principles but able to work to find flexible solutions to Taxes, Immigration, Civil Rights, growth of the Military, control of the Banking system and the rest of all the National Issues, yeah, then put them on the Ballot right between the GOP and Democrats.
Right now, there isn't a third party in America who can garner more attention than a fart in a cornfield and anybody who votes for one wants to cause a stink, but can't.
Joe(ptoot)Nation