Ralph Nader launches presidential attention campaign

US consumer activist Ralph Nader has announced he will run for President again, sparking fears among Democrats that his campaign could split their vote in November. Running under the slogan “Shut up, America, and listen to Ralph Nader” Nader says that the current election does not address the real issues facing the country, principally that there is not enough attention being paid to Ralph Nader. “For too long have the main establishment political parties framed the debate in narrow, non-Ralph Nader terms,” Nader told a press conference. “My campaign will speak for attention-seekers called Ralph Nader everywhere”. Critics blame Nader for siphoning off Democratic votes from Al Gore in the 2000 presidential campaign, allowing George Bush to win by a slender margin, and for accepting help from right-wing activists in his last campaign in 2004. But Nader dismissed the charges as irrelevant, because they mentioned people other than Ralph Nader.