Nader on YouTube, predicts best race ever

By Maria Recio - McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — Independent Ralph Nader, 74, the oldest candidate in the 2008 presidential race, says he has found a new generation of supporters.

On the ballot in 45 states, Nader thinks he'll have his best showing in his three tries for president this Election Day. He's now polling at 3 percent nationally and higher in some states — 4 percent in Colorado and Missouri.

Nader, whose electronic skills are deeply ingrained in the 1950s, has embraced New Media. He has become a fave on YouTube with two bits with the shapely Obama Girl, with whom he's shown sharing an office.

"We thought it would be a little spice, a little change of pace," Nader said in an interview. "It was an attempt to get more people to get on the (campaign) Web site."

In the video, a long piece of tape divides the room, the desk and the phone, as Nader is bent over his typewriter and Obama Girl sits at a computer. The deadpan Nader asks where he can see her videos and starts typing the Web address as she tells him, "It's not going to work on that thing."

Nader says he knows that because, after all, "who do you think I am, John McCain?" The video has been viewed more than 200,000 times.

While Nader never touches a computer in real life, his campaign has become sophisticated in online organizing, fund-raising and agitating, and he even did an Oct. 25 campaign stunt — making 21 campaign speeches in one day in order to get into the Guinness Book of World Records.

Nader said he has to do these things to get attention because he faces a "media blackout," with scant attention from television and newspapers.

Still, Nader thinks that Wall Street's near-collapse and the $700 billion federal bailout have given him some oomph.

"This is wild casino capitalism that brought down millions of people's livelihoods," he said. "My predictions have come true — about Fannie Mae, about Freddie Mac, about Wall Street. We have more credibility than ever."