Obama was Once a Nader Man

Not yet noticed in the press is that Obama wrote the following in Dreams from My Father: "I spent three months working for a Ralph Nader offshot up in Harlem, trying to convince the minority students at City College about the importance of recycling." This was during the year before he started his community organizing work in Chicago. Presumably this was one of Nader's Public Interest Research Groups.

I wonder if Mark Penn will twist this into a new attack line: Obama worked for the guy who lost Al Gore the presidency!

I don't have any problem with an independent candidate joining the race to push the political conversation to the left--I just wish it was someone who's speaking style didn't resemble that of the crazy dude on the street corner near my apartment. If the entire point of your campaign is to get your message out, you should be someone who can communicate the message. How about someone like Katrina vanden Heuvel, Amy Goodman, or Noam Chomsky (if he weren't 80)? I'm watching Nader on CNN, and I can barely understand what's he trying to say.