(NaturalNews) To consumer and political activist Ralph Nader, President George W. Bush - whom he ran against for president on third-party and Independent tickets in 2000 and 2004 - was a serial offender. But President Barack Obama is, in many instances,
worse, he says, even going so far as to label the current White House occupant a "war criminal."
In a recent interview with
Politico, Nader - the guy responsible for a number of automobile safety standards throughout the 1960s and 1970s - said on issues of military and foreign policy, especially, Obama's policies were far worse than his predecessor, "in the sense that he's more aggressive, more illegal worldwide."
"He's gone beyond [Bush] in drones, for example," Nader said. "He thinks the world is his plate, that national sovereignties mean nothing, drones can go anywhere. They can kill anybody that he suspects and every Tuesday he makes the call on who lives and who dies, supposed suspects in places like Yemen and Pakistan and Afghanistan, and that is a war crime and he ought to be held to account."
Nader said Obama was "below average because he raised expectation levels. What expectation level did George W. Bush raise?... He's below average because he's above average in his intellect and his knowledge of legality, which is violating with abandon."
"I don't know whether George W. Bush ever read the Constitution," said Nader. "This man
taught the Constitution, and this is what we got."
Obama has his good points too?Still, Nader budged a little when it came to comparing Obama to GOP president nominee Mitt Romney - Obama, the lifelong consumer advocate says, is the lesser of two evils, though the president is "the more effective evil because he brings credibility, he brings the democratic heritage to it, he has legitimized the lawless war-mongering and militarism abroad of George W.
Bush."
Politico asked Nader if there were any positives stemming from Obama's presidency.
"I like the way he's emphasized renewable energy, even though he still supports nuclear and fossil fuels, as if they're all the same, all of the above," he said. "But he does speak more about renewables than any president perhaps since Jimmy Carter."
Also, Nader continued, Obama "wanted to have a public works program, he really did want to have a jobs program and the Republicans crushed it and that would have created a lot of jobs that couldn't be exported to China."
He had harsh words for Republicans overall, calling the current iteration of the party the "worst...in history."
"We're dealing with a real sick, decaying Democratic Party that can't defend the country against the cruelest, most ignorant, most anti-worker, most war-mongering, most Wall Street-indentured Republican Party in its history, since the 1850s," blasted Nader.
No longer a 'political spoiler,' if he ever wasRegarding Romney, Nader says "he's not the old Romney" who was governor of Massachusetts.
"He's had a character and personality makeover. He's just bought into the extreme right wing of the Republican Party, represented by Paul Ryan, and I don't think he's going to be able to shake that. He's basically a corporation running for president masquerading as a human being."
As for his own White House aspirations, Nader - for the first time in recent history - is not putting his name on any ticket this election. And, in fact, judging by his own words, he may never run again,
Politico noted.
"I've run several times and we've documented the two-party tyranny, which means they're very adept at excluding, with a whole variety of ways, third parties," he said, though that doesn't mean anyone is looking at Nader as a political spoiler anyway.
Those are "politically bigoted words, as if we're second-class citizens," said Nader. "Since we're all trying to get votes from one another, either we're all spoilers of one another or none of us are spoilers."
Sources:http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0912/81649.htmlhttp://www.politico.com/news/stories/0912/81166.htmlhttp://nader.org/
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