On CNN, Ralph Nader Again Promotes Moyers for President; Blitzer Gushes

Photo of Scott Whitlock.

On Sunday’s "Late Edition," CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer conducted a syrupy interview with consumer advocate and frequent presidential candidate Ralph Nader. Blitzer allowed the former Green Party standard-bearer to once again promote left-wing PBS host Bill Moyers for President in 2008. The CNN anchor also gushed over Nader’s new work of non-fiction, "The 17 Traditions," a liberal tome about rasing families. Blitzer described it as a "beautiful book with a lot of emotion." But first, he prompted Nader to plug the Moyers for President campaign:

Wolf Blitzer: "Here's what you wrote back in October on Bill Moyers, the PBS commentator: ‘Moyers brings impressive credentials beyond his knowledge of the White House, congressional complexes. As millions of viewers and readers over the decades know, Bill Moyers is unusually articulate and authentic in evaluating the unmet necessities and framing the ignored solutions in our country.’ You'd like him to run for president?"

Ralph Nader: "Very much. I got a great response to that column."

Blitzer: "What -- What response did you get from Bill Moyers?"

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Nader: "We haven't heard from Bill Moyers, but people ought to Google Bill Moyers and let him know that they would like him to run. I think he could raise clean money and substantial money. He's well- known, he's very articulate. He's been in the White House with Lyndon Johnson. He knows the media and his speeches are just wonderful renditions of American history, the progressive moment, and the way forward for our country."

Perhaps now that someone like Ralph Nader has claimed Moyers as a liberal, the PBS host will no longer assert conservative credentials.

In the segment, which aired on February 4 at 12:05pm, Blitzer hit the usual, whiney media talking points that Nader elected George W. Bush in 2000:

Blitzer: "Let me talk briefly -- and then I want to move on to your book -- about this new documentary that's come out called ‘An Unreasonable Man.’ It's about you. It deals with your life, but it also has some criticism of what happened back in 2000 when the suggestion is the votes, 20,000 or whatever you got, 90,000 -- how many votes did you get in Florida?"

Nader: "Ninety-six thousand."
Blitzer: "Ninety-six thousand."

Nader: "But a lot of them would have stayed home."

Blitzer: "That, that could you have tipped the ballots in favor of Al Gore who lost by less than 600 votes. Let me run a little clip from this film entitled ‘An Unreasonable Man.’"

[Blitzer plays a clip from ‘An Unreasonable Man’ that claims Nader reneged on pledges not to campaign in competitive states]]

Blitzer: "All right, those are two supporters, people who are sympathetic to you."

Nader: "Unfortunately, it's false. The film has a professor at Harvard who looked over our schedule. I spent 28 days in California, two and a half days in Florida, for example. So those statements are factually false. But if we all have equal right to run for public office, Wolf, then we're either all spoilers of one another, or none of us are spoilers. I mean, why should third-party candidates, which historically have given the new ideas, such as in the 19th century, anti-slavery, women's right to vote, labor, farmer, why should they be second-class citizens? By the way, I've spoken to Al Gore. You ask Al Gore what cost him the election. He thinks he won the election. I agree. I think he won it in Florida, but he lost it because it was taken from him from Tallahassee with all those shenanigans all the way to the 5-4 political decision in the Supreme Court."

Blitzer: " All right, we're not going to rehash what happened in 2000."

Nader: "Okay."

Finally, on safer ground, Mr. Blitzer fawned over the consumer advocate’s new book. At one point, he told Nader, "You had a wonderful childhood growing up." (How would Blitzer know?)The CNN host’s gushing reached a level reserved only for liberals. (Read the below quote and ask yourself: Is this an interview or a dust jacket blurb?)

Blitzer: "I want to talk a little bit about ‘The Seventeen Traditions’ by Ralph Nader. This is a lovely new book, a little one, but it's got some really deep significance for you and I assume a lot of people who read it. Tell us what you mean by these 17 traditions."

Nader: "Well, there are 17 ways my mother and father raised four children, two girls and two boys, in a little factory town in northwest Connecticut. And their traditions, I think they'll resonate with a lot of people, especially young parents who think everything's out of control for them, including their children. So the first tradition is learning how to listen. My mother would say, learn how to listen so you'll listen to learn, something I wish George W. Bush grew up learning. There's a tradition of history, a tradition of the family food table, where a lot of discussion was conducted. The tradition of history, it was very important for us. Tradition of work. Father had a restaurant where they said for a nickel, you got a cup of coffee and ten minutes of politics. So it was a lot of town meeting activity, with the factory workers and others."

Blitzer: "You had a wonderful childhood growing up. You had parents who were intimately, directly involved in raising you and your siblings. But you fear that a lot of these responsibilities, parental responsibilities that you had, that I had are now being outsourced in a new generation."

Nader: "Tremendous pressure on families. More commuting, more than one job, sometimes single moms. Not enough time for the children. So, more and more family functions. Day care, entertainment, food, fast food restaurants, all being outsourced. That's not very good for raising the next generation of Americans. I think this book will help a lot of other families establish their own family traditions. Their own grandparents and great grandparents' wisdom, insight, experience. Why have the children keep reinventing the wheel? We have a civic tradition in our family. And I think the greatest source of civic advocates in our country doesn't come from the schools. It will come from the parents and the family upbringing."

Blitzer: "Let me read to you from the book and get your response: ‘Today, more and more families are farming out their responsibilities. The family industry is swiftly becoming a real factor in our economy. And this comes with a price, as more parents lose confidence in their own judgments, in their ability to make decisions without the help of the, quote, 'experts.' ‘As corporations deliberately encroach on the parenting of our children, and children spend less personal time with their parents, those all-important traditions are falling by the wayside.’Now, that's a depressing thought."

Nader: "But it's realistic. And I wouldn't blame the parents. The economy is designed to separate more and more, during the day, the parents, from the children, number one. The companies are marketing direct now to two-, three-, five-, eight-year-olds in a massive advertising campaign, junk food, military toys, over-medication, cosmetics for girls age seven. I mean, it's just unbelievable what's going on that we're not thinking enough about because of these distractions that we're seeing in our country. And that's one of the prices of the Iraq War."

Blitzer: "Of the 17 traditions, and they're all one chapter each, which is your favorite?"

Nader: "The civic tradition. My parents, by example, were active in the community, helped expand the hospital, for example, helped to get from Senator Prescott Bush, the grandfather of the President, a dry dam so that the Mad River wouldn't overflow and destroy the main street, as it did three times in 50 years. We saw all that. And it sunk in."

Blitzer: "Anybody who reads this will know that the Ralph Nader that all of us have come to know over these past decades, the roots were strong here, and they are documented in this book, ‘The Seventeen Traditions.’ Thanks for writing it."

One thing’s for certain, Lynn Cheney interviews are nowhere near as pleasant.

—Scott Whitlock is a news analyst for the Media Research Center.


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Ralph Nader needs to shut up,

Ralph Nader needs to shut up, the Corvair was a grest little car.  I believe Porshe was behind his book and research, those cars were the poor mans Porshe. 

Nuke em til they glow then shoot em in the dark. -- save my gun, shoot a liberal.

NADER FOR PRESIDENT

I suggest and pray for this not because of its effect on the Republican Party, but because the far left Democrats deserve to have representation that represents them-not panders to them. Ralph's their guy. If only he'd run as a (D), he'd wipe out half the candidates in a day.

Moyers is educated, dull and

Moyers is educated, dull and not smart. And Moyers is not a leader.

The "progressive" (I call destructive) movement has caused all the ills Nader is advancing in this fluff piece.

Anyone see Cool Ann last night say women should not be allowed to vote? Intersting the reason she stated same.

It was interesting. Ferrerro

It was interesting. Ferrerro didn't like it at all.

Moyers

I think it was O'Reilly who exposed Moyers for what he is a few years ago. What I don't like about Moyers or Nader is their self-righteous, know-it-all demeanor. It makes their con that much more disgusting. (Blitzer has proved himself to be an ignorant sycophant).

NEVER,NEVER trust a liberal

Let me see if I've gotten thi

Let me see if I've gotten this straight . . .

Blitzer: "Let me read to you from the book and get your response: ‘Today, more and more families are farming out their responsibilities. The family industry is swiftly becoming a real factor in our economy. And this comes with a price, as more parents lose confidence in their own judgments, in their ability to make decisions without the help of the, quote, 'experts.' . . .

Well, since Nader is apparently talking about traditional family values, the 'loss in parental confidence' that Blitzer bespeaks, must be due to one or more social catalysts. 

Could it have anything to do with the Feminist Movement's dogma that women should put their careers ahead of family?

Could it have anything to do with Leftist educators and state legislators success in usurping for themselves the traditional responsibilities of parenting, from sex education and moral relativism, to pre-school day day care and breakfast to accommodate the dashing parent-commuter? 

Could it be that all the liberal demands for more government-sponsored day care will weaken the American family rather than strengthening it?

Could it be the continual overt and subliminal attacks on traditional family values, holding those traditionalists up to ridicule?

Could it be the expanding pool of "experts" promising to resolve the widening cracks in the traditional family structure, offering bogus solutions and false hope?

Blitzer (reading Nader): ‘As corporations deliberately encroach on the parenting of our children, and children spend less personal time with their parents, those all-important traditions are falling by the wayside.’Now, that's a depressing thought."

Whoa!  So it's the corporations, who've been badgered by special interest groups and mandated by Federal and state governments to provide services such as day care, health care, telecommuting, and family leave provisions, who are the roots of the problem.

Who-da thunk it?  Wow.  Ralph is such a great detective, ain't he?

Nader: "But it's realistic. And I wouldn't blame the parents. The economy is designed to separate more and more, during the day, the parents, from the children, number one.

Say what?  Unless I'm mistaken, the 40-Hour work week covers even more workers now than it did in the '60s when I was growing up.  What's ol' Ralph talking about?

But catch Nader's comment.  "And I wouldn't blame the parents," he states.  Why not?  Why shouldn't parents be responsible for their families?  So, he absolves parents for not stepping up to their responsibilities, and blames corporations.

(Again) Nader: The companies are marketing direct now to two-, three-, five-, eight-year-olds in a massive advertising campaign, junk food, military toys, over-medication, cosmetics for girls age seven.

It's no different than 40 years ago, Ralphie.  What is different is are the images of 'adult behavior' they see on TV and attempt to emulate. 

(Again) Nader: " I mean, it's just unbelievable what's going on that we're not thinking enough about because of these distractions that we're seeing in our country. And that's one of the prices of the Iraq War."

So, the Iraq War, which amounts to little more than 7 minutes of sound bites on the evening news for the vast majority of Americans, is distracting us from recognizing the problems?  Pardon me, but most of those whom Nader would label as "right-wing extremists" have seen the symptoms for years, and been quite vocal about it.  We've been warned for decades that the traditional family was being eroded by special interests and even our own government, while toads like Nader pushed for more government intrusion and more government regulation of our lives.  How about the proposed legislation in California to make it illegal for a parent ot spank a child?  And now some gay rights group is proposing a bill in Washington state to have marriages annulled if a couple has not borne children in the first 3 years of marriage. 

Come off it, Nader!  You've been part of the problem all along!.  It's too late to pretend that you've suddenly got the solutions!

And Blitzer is just as disingenous.

Nadar is nuts.

Nadar is nuts.

Been that way for a long time.

ACA

...

Hillary Clinton says:  "I want to take those profits."

Nader's influence at a nadir

Nader's so influential, not even Bill Moyers gets excited about Nader's "draft Moyers" campaign. (yawn)

Nader says Moyers is "un

Nader says Moyers is "unusually articulate"? I thought that kind of "compliment" is actually a sly insult to the man's race. Oh... wait... it's a sly insult to a man's race only if he's (half) black. Never mind........

Somebody ought to tell Nader

Ralph;

Have you met Cool Ann?

There's an unusually articulate writer AND speaker. -- If only we could invite Ann Coulter and Bill Moyers to the same party. In mere minutes the crowd would gasp as Bill sagged to the floor.