Ralph Nader ended all speculation and officially tossed his hat into 2004 presidential race on Meet The Press yesterday. Nader had this to say to me and the rest of my liberal intelligentsia cronies:

So I think the liberal intelligentsia has got to ask itself a tough question, Tim. For 25 years they have let their party run away from them. For 25 years they’ve let their party become a captive of corporate interests. And now they want to block the American people from having more choices and voices, especially young people who are looking for idealism, who are looking for a clean campaign, who are looking for the real issues in this country instead of the sham and the rhetoric that masquerades for political campaigning.

It’s a shame Mr. Nader has lost it. It’s funny what four years can do to a guy’s credibility. Nader tried to deflect the criticism of getting G.W elected by telling Tim Russert that Al Gore would have invaded Iraq had he been elected president. In the end, Russert grilled him pretty well, but Nader side-stepped a lot of his questions and showed that he is definitely President material.

If only Mr. Nader had seen this a few weeks ago.