By Steven A. Holmes
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 4, 2008

As the two major-party presidential candidates traveled the country with huge media entourages on the final day of the campaign, Ralph Nader was giving interviews by telephone and complaining about being ignored.

"I believe in a competitive democracy," he said after his staff quickly put him on the phone, "and a competitive democracy cannot occur without the Fourth Estate giving it a chance to have a chance."

Nader, 74, is making his third consecutive run for the presidency and, according to his campaign, is hopeful that he will receive his largest number of votes ever. One campaign aide said that Nader is hoping to receive at least 1 million and that he would not be surprised if he garnered 2 million.

Both totals would outpace Nader's tally of slightly less than 500,000 four years ago but would be less than the nearly 3 million votes he received in 2000, when some Democrats believed he cost then-Vice President Al Gore the election.

Toby Heaps, Nader's spokesman, said the campaign has been encouraged by several developments.

Nader has increased the number of states where he is on the ballot to 45 this election, from 34 in 2004, giving more voters the chance to support him. Unlike Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.), Nader opposed Washington's $700 billion rescue of Wall Street banks and insurance companies, and he could be the beneficiary of popular anger about the bailout.

In addition, the Nader campaign thinks this year's race, unlike the past two elections, is shaping up to be a decisive win for the Democratic candidate, which could lead more liberal and moderate voters to feel comfortable voting for Nader.

"That's the argument that can be made," Heaps said. "It's true that people like to vote for a winner. But also, people can vote their beliefs and still not have McCain win."

Whether Heaps's prediction represents reasoned analysis or wishful thinking is an open question. Nader has received a smattering of support in national polls, and in those states where his name is mentioned in surveys. In two polls in Massachusetts, he got 3 percent.

Nader, who is running without a party affiliation, is among a number of minor presidential candidates who, despite having relatively well-known names, are not expected to factor much in final vote totals. They include former congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, the Green Party's standard-bearer, and former congressman Robert L. Barr Jr., who heads the Libertarian Party ticket.

As he has in previous campaigns, Nader says the reason he is running is not so much to win but to build a movement that will pull both the Republican and Democratic parties to the left. "It's all about developing a third political force that can be a hammer and a watchdog for both political parties," he said.

While he criticizes both major parties as too "corporate," Nader is particularly scathing about what he calls the "liberal intelligentsia," represented by publications such as the Nation. This group, he says, agrees with him on virtually every issue but so fears a Republican victory that it lines up behind the Democratic nominee regardless of whether the candidate pushes its agenda.