Tuesday, September 12, 2000

Green Party's Cobb touts Nader

Campaign manager points to differences from Democrats, GOP

By Michael Knock
Iowa City Press-Citizen

"Something profound is happening across the country," said Cobb, Nader's Texas campaign manager. "The Green Party is on the ballot in 34 states. We're a real campaign with real people and real energy, and we're stepping up to the plate."

For that reason, Cobb criticized the Federal Commission on Presidential Debates for excluding third-party candidates such as Nader and the Reform Party's Pat Buchanan from participating in the upcoming debates.

The Green Party claims that the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates are afraid to debate third-party candidates. To illustrate the claim, Monday's event opened with an appearance by the "debate chickens," two Nader supporters wearing bright yellow-feathered masks with pointy silver beaks.

"We want to see Ralph Nader in the debates," said Ericka Dana, an Iowa County organic farmer and one of Monday's debate chickens. "And we'd like to see a change in the attitudes of our elected officials regarding genetic engineering in agriculture."

Nader first ran for president in 1996, getting onto the ballot in 21 states (including Iowa) and winning just less than one percent of the vote. Cobb vowed that with a more broadly based organization, Nader and his running mate, Winona LaDuke, will improve in the November 2000 race.

"The people who run this country are running scared right now," Cobb said. "It's because of meetings like this one tonight."

Cobb also touched on a number of the issues that he said set the Green Party apart from both the Republicans and the Democrats, including a living wage, consumer protection, environmental protection and opposition to genetically altered food.

Cobb tied his party into the worldwide Green Party movement that is active in more than 20 nations around the world.

"The Green Party is poised uniquely to be a countervailing force, not just in Iowa, not just in the United States, but around the world," Cobb said.

A key point in Cobb's discussion was his assertion that voters deserved a real choice in the election, rather than a false choice between the two major parties, which he described as being too closely tied to corporate interests.

Cobb said that a vote for Nader would not be a wasted vote.

"It's true that Al Gore is the lesser evil," Cobb said. "But who says I should have to vote for any type of evil?"

Peter Reed, a junior at the University of Iowa, said a third option in the presidential race drove him to support Nader.

"I just couldn't vote for either of the other two candidates," Reed said. "They are both so close and so conservative."

UI graduate student Christopher Bird described his support for Nader as "a no brainer."

"He sounds amazing," Bird said. "I agree with every word he's saying."

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