your organization the global trade watch and he said public citizen was founded by ralph nader in one nine hundred seventy one and now has six divisions routh left us in the eighty's and has as a president robert weiss men i direct the division called global trade watch which was created twenty years ago basically when we realized today's. trade agreements are actually invading domestic policy space creating new corporate power and just to maintain the organisation's forty year history of fighting for safe food reasonable consumer rights access to courts affordable energy safe medicines we were going to go have to take the fight to this new venue where the corporations have gone so that's what we're doing a global trade watch that's great going back to the to the beginning to the elf nature beginnings in seventy one was a seventy two that unsafe at any speed was published so anyone sitting right around there somewhere who is paul wrote his infamous memo in seventy three to his best friend next door neighbor the chairman of the u.s. chamber of commerce saying we're under attack and he

tavis: please welcome ralph nader to this program. the consumer advocate is also a longtime presidential candidates. timeforaraise.org, but the have you back on this program. as you all know, the presidential debate commission announced these upcoming debates. the three presidential and one vice-presidential. i was just thinking earlier today about the question that you may remember when a particular candidate was asked the price of a carton of milk and he did not know. he was roundly dismissed around the country for not knowing the price of a carton of milk and how out of touch he was in the lives of everyday people. i ask whether or not you think all four of the top guys on the ticket, if they were asked the minimum wage, do you think they know what it is? >> i think now they would because there have been some press focused on that. romney was asked about it because for 10 years, they were for an inflation-adjusted minimum-wage. he was asked very specifically and he started to waffle, but santorum held firm. $7.25, the lowest in the

your organization global trade watch so public citizen was founded by ralph nader in one nine hundred seventy one it now has six divisions routh left us in the eighty's and has as a president robert weiss men i direct the division called global trade watch which was created twenty years ago basically when we realized today's trade agreements were actually invading domestic policy space creating new corporate power and just to maintain the organisation's forty year history of fighting for safe food reasonable consumer rights access to courts affordable energy safe medicines we were going to go have to take. the fight to this new venue where the corporations have gone so that's what we're doing a global trade watch that's great going back to the to the beginning to the elf meter beginnings in seventy one was a seventy two that on safe at any speed was published so anyone serving right around there somewhere who is paul wrote his infamous memo in seventy three to his best friend next door neighbor the chairman of the u.s. chamber of commerce saying we're under attack and he cited ralph n

they got an $81,000 personal judgement against ralph nader and executed against his bank account. his running mate, before he died, wrote a check for $20,000, to the democratic party, for court costs. this is the cost of seeking to get on the ballot, to give people a real choice? now the republican party had done the same thing to the constitution party. virgil goode pulled out because he did them want to face the possib of thousands of dollars in attorney fees. >> can you tell us how the two party system became so entrenched? >> the incumbent put in place these laws. we do not have a uniform federal system at all. every state is different. getting on the ballot is a nightmare. this illusion that we have democracy -- >> how many states are you on the ballot? >> likely 16 to 18. our main message is to to return democracy to this country, get the money out of government. it will take a people's movement to do that. those in office, republicans and democrats, both in the white house and congress, have every interest in maintaining the status quo. and every major public policy disaste

>> ralph nader is thought to have affected the election. the reason is that that was so close. the other person who comes to find 2000 is pat buchanan because of the way he was on the ballot. that was in some ways more election administration problem than third party candidate appealing to major party voters. but in any case, he got more votes in florida, by far, than expected. and part of that was the butterfly ballot and so on. >> what are some of the qualities that allow a third party or third party candidate to gain traction in an election? >> before we get to that, i think you have to talk about the obstacles. and the calls are what help them overcome the obstacles. the obstacles i think of in two forms, a mechanical or constitutional barrier, we have election laws that allow the plurality winner, the canada that gets the most votes, that win the plurality to take all the electoral votes in the presidential case. this has this winner-take-all effect for -- a plurality rule takes -- has the evket of leading voters to think about the fact that they might be wasting their vot

ralph nader, ross perot. if the candidate is popular enough and has a lot of charisma, a populist appeal of some like jesse ventura, sometimes those candidates can motivate people to turn out and vote the would not otherwise get involved. they are uninterested or disillusioned with politics. >> mentioned some of the notable cases. >> i think there is some evidence that ralph nader affected the outcome. that election was so close. the early person who comes to mind is buchanan. because the way he was on the ballot. he got more votes than florida dead. part of that was the butterfly ballot. >> what are some of the qualities that allow a third party candidate to regain traction in an election. >> you have to talk about the obstacles. the qualities are what help to overcome any obstacles. one is a mechanical defect we have election laws that allow the plurality winner. to take all of the electrical -- it has this electoral hollywood -- it has the effect of leading voters to give up the fact that they might be was

nader who really were challenging that establishment in the two party kind of dominance and so i think that in the future we will be seeing more of a rise but it's going to be a while and i don't think the this is really the time to see a new new party come right many thanks so much for coming out coming into the studio in a way again that was our t.v. producer many rappel of. last week we brought you a troubling story from n.p.r. the radio station's economic news show planet money was pummeled with negative headlines for alleged conflict of interest for a while the show had only one sponsor alley financial a major bank that received money and the bailout but the show wasn't the only part of planet money taking in big bank dollars planet money's co-creator and co-host adam davidson made money as a speaker at goldman sachs and goldman sachs and bank of america events here is mark ams from the project the shame project explained the problem with planet money's ethics in an interview with r t it last week. the real problem is when you're taking money from these people covertly and then yo

nader was the keynote speaker at the insistence of the right the american conservative and others this is something new and it is something which tells tells us that a certain segment of the intelligentsia with very different ideological roots is fed up with war and empire and one more thing if we were interested in human rights the worst violation of human rights in a way is apartheid and we right now not only don't bomb the state of israel which is jimmy carter said is an apartheid state just like south africa except it's directed at the air i mean that's the next i mean if we were in balmy we would be bombing we would be bombing israel instead israel has a disproportionate effect on our foreign policy to encourage the support of all right so i want to use the library their point heard about i'm going to have now what is what we just heard there and a lot of people say it outside of the united states and more and more people in the end i really have tended by the idea that it's hypocrisy that's what we just heard it's hypocrisy american empire as well i heard apocryphally but you als

nader was the keynote speaker at the insistence of the right the american conservative and others this is something new and it is something which tells tells us that a certain segment of the intelligentsia with very different ideological roots is fed up with war and empire and one more thing if we were interested in human rights the worst violation of human rights in a way is apartheid and we right now not only don't bomb the state of israel which is jimmy carter said is an apartheid state just like south africa except it's directed in aramaic and that's an excess i mean if we were in balmy it would be bombing we would be bombing israel instead israel has a disproportionate effect on our foreign policy to encourage the support of all right so i want to get the library their point heard about i mean what are now what is what we just heard there and a lot of people say it outside of the united states so more and more people i mean i really have tended by the idea that it's hypocrisy that's what we just heard it's hypocrisy american empire is all i heard apocryphally but you also heard a

nader was the keynote speaker at the insistence of the right the american conservative and others this is something new and it is something which. tells us that a certain segment of the intelligentsia with very different ideological roots is fed up with war and empire and one more thing if we were interested in human rights the worst violation of human rights in a way is apartheid and we right now not only don't bomb the state of israel which is jimmy carter said is an apartheid state just like south africa except it's directed in aramaic and that's the next i mean if we were in balmy it we would be bombing we would be israel instead israel has a disproportionate effect on our foreign policy to encourage the support of all right so i want to get the library there only heard about it and i got her down what is what we just heard there and a lot of people say it outside of the united states and more and more people in the end i really offended by the idea that it's hypocrisy that's what we just heard it's hypocrisy american empire as well i heard apocryphally but you also heard a complet

nader was the keynote speaker at the insistence of the right the american conservative and others this is something new and it is something which tells tells us that a certain segment of the intelligentsia with very different ideological roots is fed up with war and empire and one more thing if we were interested in human rights the worst violation of human rights in a way is apartheid and we right now not only don't bomb the state of israel which is jimmy carter said is an apartheid state just like south africa except it's directed in aramaic and that's the next i mean if we were in balmy we would be bombing we would be israel instead israel has a disproportionate effect on our foreign policy to encourage the support of all right so i want to live right here they're going to heard about i mean what are now what is what we just heard there and a lot of people say it outside of the united states that more and more people i mean i really offended by the idea that it's hypocrisy that's what we just heard it's hypocrisy american empire as well i heard apocryphally but you also heard a comp

nader was the keynote speaker at the insistence of the right the american conservative and others this is something new and it is something which tows tells us that a certain segment of the intelligentsia with very different ideological roots is fed up with war and empire and one more thing if we were interested in human rights the worst violation of human rights in a way is apartheid and we right now not only don't bomb the state of israel which is jimmy carter said is an apartheid state just like south africa except it's directed at the arrow and that's the next i mean is it we would be bombing we would be israel instead israel has a disproportionate effect on our foreign policy to encourage the support of all right so i want to live right here they're going to heard about i mean what are now what is what we just heard there and a lot of people say it outside of the united states that more and more people in the end i really offended by the idea that it's hypocrisy that's what we just heard it's hypocrisy american empire as well i heard apocryphally but you also heard a complete misu

nader was the keynote speaker at the insistence of the right the american conservative and others this is something new and it is something which. tells us that a certain segment of the intelligentsia with very different ideological roots is fed up with war and empire and one more thing if we were interested in human rights the worst violation of human rights in a way is apartheid and we right now not only don't bomb the state of israel which is jimmy carter said is an apartheid state just like south africa except it's directed in aramaic and that's the next i mean if we were in balmy we would be bombing we would be israel instead israel has a disproportionate effect on our foreign policy to encourage the support of all right so i want to get a library there only heard about it and let her down what is what we just heard there and a lot of people say it outside of the united states and more and more people i mean i really offended by the idea that it's hypocrisy that's what we just heard it's hypocrisy american empire as well i heard apocryphally but you also heard a complete misunders

nader was the keynote speaker at the insistence of the right the american conservative and others this is something new and it is something which. tells us that a certain segment of the intelligentsia with very different ideological roots is fed up with war and empire and one more thing if we were interested in human rights the worst violation of human rights in a way is apartheid and we right now not only don't bomb the state of israel which is jimmy carter said is an apartheid state just like south africa except it's directed in aramaic and i just want to access i mean if we were in balmy it we would be bombing we would be bombing israel instead israel has a disproportionate effect on our foreign policy to encourage the support of a all right so i want to use the library they're going to heard about i mean whatever and now what is what we just heard there and a lot of people say it outside of the united states that more and more people i mean i really have tended by the idea that it's hypocrisy that's what we just heard it's hypocrisy american empire is all i heard of but you also he

nader was the keynote speaker at the insistence of the right the american conservative and others this is something new and it is something which. tells us that a certain segment of the intelligentsia with very different ideological roots is fed up with war and empire and one more thing if we were interested in human rights the worst violation of human rights in a way is apartheid and we right now not only don't bomb the state of israel which is jimmy carter said is an apartheid state just like south africa except it's directed in arabic and that's the next i mean if we were in balmy we would be bombing we would be israel instead israel has a disproportionate effect on our foreign policy to encourage the support of all right so i want to use the library their point heard about and whatever and now what is what we just heard there and a lot of people say it outside of the united states that more and more people i mean i really have tended by the idea that it's hypocrisy that's what we just heard it's hypocrisy american empire is all i heard apocryphally but you also heard a complete mis

ralph nader had more than 100,000 votes in ohio that year. that was a razor thin margin. then 2004 president bush won in ohio. by a slimmer margin. by only 118,000 votes. it had been uncomfortably close for republicans in ohio in 2000. even more in 2004. part of what makes ohio such a swing state is in terms of the way people vote, it's a microcosm of what you find in the rest of the country. people in the less populated areas vote republican. more concentrated parts of ohio tend to vote democratic. and for people who lived in the more populated parts of ohio in 2004, it was profoundly difficult to vote. voters across urban ohio found in their polling places did not have enough machines and waited so long to vote. long enough that people with kids at home or go to work just gave up. people who could wait waited in line in the rain, in the early morning, all through the day, at night, in the dark. they waited for hours. for two hours, three hours, four hours. a lot of people in ohio that year waited even longer than that. >> i waited, i voted. that's all that matters. >> a

ralph nader had more than 100,000 votes in ohio that year. that was a razor thin margin. then the next election, 2004, president bush won re-election, and he gone won in ohio. this time by an even slimmer margin. by only 118,000 votes. it had been uncomfortably close in ohio for republicans in the year 2000. it was even more uncomfortable for them in 2004. part of what makes ohio such a swing state, such a bellwether, is in terms of the way people vote, it's sort of a microcosm of what you find in the rest of the country. people in the less populated parts of ohio tend to vote republican. people who live in the more populated, more concentrated density parts of ohio tend to vote democratic. and for people who lived in the more populated parts of ohio in 2004, it was profoundly difficult to vote. voters across urban ohio in 2004 found their polling places did not have enough machines and they ended up waiting in very long lines to vote. so long that a lot of people who had kids at home or who had to go to work as well as vote on election day just gave up. people who could

ralph nader had more than 100,000 votes in ohio that year. that was a razor thin margin. then 2004 president bush won in ohio. by a slimmer margin. by only 118,000 votes. it had been uncomfortably close for republicans in ohio in 2000. even more in 2004. part of what makes ohio such a swing state is in terms of the way people vote, it's a microcosm of what you find in the rest of the countr people in the less populated areas vote republican. more concentrated parts of ohio tend to vote democratic. and for people who lived in the more populated parts of ohio in 2004, it was profoundly difficult to vote. voters across urban ohio found in their polling places did not have enough machines and waited so long to vote. long enough that people with kids at home or go to work just gave up. people who could wait waited in line in the rain, in the early morning, all through the day, at night, in the dark. they waited for hours. for two hours, three hours, four hours. a lot of people in ohio that year waited even longer than that. >> i waited, i voted. that's all that matters. >> at

ralph nader had more than 100,000 votes in ohio that year. that was a razor thin margin. then the next election, 2004, president bush won re-election, and he gone won in ohio. this time by an even slimmer margin. by only 118,000 votes. it had been uncomfortay close for republicans in ohio in the year 2000. it was even more uncomfortable for them in 2004. part of what makes ohio such a swing state is in terms of the way people vote, it's a microcosm of what you find in the rest of the country. people in the less populated parts of ohio tend to vote republican. people who live in the more populated, more concentrated density parts of ohio tend to vote democratic. and for people who lived in the more populated parts of ohio in 2004, it was profoundly difficult to vote. voters across urban ohio in 2004 found their polling places did not have enough machines and they ended up waiting in very long lines to vote. so long that a lot of people who had kids at home or who had to go to work as well as vote on election day just gave up. people who could wait waited in line in the rai

ralph nader had more than 100,000 votes in ohio that year. that was a razor thin margin. then the next election, 2004, president bush won re-election, and he gone won in ohio. this time by an even slimmer margin. by only 118,000 votes. it had been uncomfortably close for republicans in ohio in the year 2000. it was even more uncomfortable for them in 2004. part of what makes ohio such a swing state is in terms of the way people vote, it's a microcosm of what you find in the rest of the country. people in the less populated parts of ohio tend to vote republican. people who live in the more populated, more concentrated density parts of ohio tend to vote democratic. and for people who lived in the more populated parts of ohio in 2004, it was profoundly difficult to vote. voters across urban ohio in 2004 found their polling places did not have enough machines and they ended up waiting in very long lines to vote. so long that a lot of people who had kids at home or who had to go to work as well as vote on election day just gave up. people who could wait waited in line in the r

you do not want to have a similar effect as 2001 ralph nader was so fed up with the democrats that he set up a third-party candidacy. he siphoned off enough votes that he made the election in nightmare for al gore. the republicans want to avoid that kind of scenario this time. host: throughout the conventions, we will be interviewing delegates. you will be able to watch these on line. they will also be on air. we talked to delegates yesterday. one was a ron paul supporters at the convention. he is a delegate from north carolina. you can watch that online at c- span.org. you can see all of the different twitter accounts we are following if you want to read tweets. this tweet asks if we're going to cover the ron paul convention. if there is one, we will cover it. we will be live on sunday from tampa at the ron paul rally being held in the tampa area. that will be live on c-span tomorrow. you will be able to watch that. guest: you go back to 1912 where you have a situation in the republican party or the progressive wing was very upset with the conservative wing. president taft was the no

. >> you've heard the comparisons, i'm sure, to ralph nader back in 2000. everyone focused on florida. but in new hampshire he took over 20,000 votes which, had they gone to al gore, he would have received the four electoral votes he needed to win. this is how close these things can be. them. iran. want turnaround, you're not going to win the election. so are your campaign goals address issues. that perhaps addressing the more experience than these two guys combined and i'm saying no to government and government spending. having arguably vetoed more legislation than the other 49 governors in the country combined. >> let me ask this another way. you are a former republican. would you prefer to see a reelection obama? issues paul-fest. same liberties. growing police state in this country. elect a democrat, elect a republican? i'm going to argue the police grow. argue that closer if not ruin. "abortion." gop platform on that came into question when they spoke out against congressman todd akin's comment on legitimate rape and abortion. do you think that is goin

the last time we saw one was ross perot, and he made a difference in 1992, and arguably ralph nader made a difference in 2010 we seem to be stuck at the moment in a two- party system -- 2010. we seem to be -- 2006. host: are their present -- lessons from ross perot? guest: we saw that he self- destructive a little bit in the heat of the campaign, and his streak of paranoia came to the forefront. i think he is probably in-in that what you would not want to have a -- a negative in what you would not want to have a business person did. host: republican line. caller: i'm sorry. i was getting groggy as i heard what you're talking about. this guy, look, i am a republican. i was really excited, and can you hear me? guest: we hear you? host: let's move on. edison, new jersey. independent line. caller: good morning. i agree with the guest there. i do believe that it does take a bit more to be a president. you can not be a business man mitt romney is counting his business experience, but the presidency involves a cross- section of business, religion, science, diplomacy, charity. in a corporation,

you do not want to have a similar effect as 2001 ralph nader was so fed up with the democrats that he set up a third-party candidacy. he siphoned off enough votes that he made the election in nightmare for al gore. the republicans want to avoid that kind of scenario this time. host: throughout the conventions, we will be interviewing delegates. you will be able to watch these on line. they will also be on air. we talked to delegates yesterday. one was a ron paul supporters at the convention. he is a delegate from north carolina. you can watch that online at c- span.org. you can see all of the different twitter accounts we are following if you want to read tweets. this tweet asks if we're going to cover the ron paul convention. if there is one, we will cover it. we will be live on sunday from tampa at the ron paul rally being held in the tampa area. that will be live on c-span tomorrow. you will be able to watch that. guest: you go back to 1912 where you have a situation in the republican party or the progressive wing was very upset with the conservative wing. president taft was the no

the last time we saw one was ross perot, and he made a difference in 1992, and arguably ralph nader made a difference in 2010 we seem to be stuck at the moment in a two-party system -- 2010. we seem to be -- 2006. host: are their present -- lessons from ross perot? guest: we saw that he self- destructive a little bit in the heat of the campaign, and his streak of paranoia came to the forefront. i think he is probably in-in that what you would not want to have a -- a negative in what you would not want to have a business person did. host: republican line. caller: i'm sorry. i was getting groggy as i heard what you're talking about. this guy, look, i am a republican. i was really excited, and can you hear me? guest: we hear you? host: let's move on. edison, new jersey. independent line. caller: good morning. i agree with the guest there. i do believe that it does take a bit more to be a president. you can not be a business man mitt romney is counting his business experience, but the presidency involves a cross- section of business, religion, science, diplomacy, charity. in a corporation, y