Yeah, just like you see Ralph Nader supporters whipping themselves on the street for giving the -last- election to the republicans.
Um, I assume you mean 2000. Nader didn't get shit in '04.
I hate retreading this crap, but a quick review of why I think the "it's all Nader's fault" bullshit is bullshit:
1. Any reasonable recount shows Gore won Florida.
2. The "if Nader hadn't run Gore would have gotten enough votes that they wouldn't have needed a recount" argument is pure conjecture. I find it very easy to believe Jeb, Harris, et al would have found another way to rig Florida if not for Nader.
3. If Gore had run a competent campaign, he never would have been close. Blaming Nader gives Gore a free pass for picking Lieberman as a running-mate, ignoring his core issue, spending the debates agreeing with everything Bush said, and all the other incredible mistakes he made over the course of 2000. If Gore had carried his home state, Florida wouldn't have mattered.
The draw of third-party candidates is simple: lots of people are fed up with the two major parties. And they have a point -- bitch about Bush all you want, but feel free to tell me what fucking good the Democrats have done to stand up to him since taking Congress a year ago.
There are a number of problems which stop third-party candidates from being viable. The all-or-nothing electoral college is one. (Perot got zero electoral votes.) The rules of the Presidential Debates are another. (Perot was not allowed back in '96.) And when you get someone like Nader, Bloomberg, or Buchanan, it's pretty obvious support is going to come from one side of the political spectrum over the other, votes people see as "rightfully" belonging to the Democratic or Republican nominee. (I see that argument as horseshit; a candidate has to EARN my vote, and is not simply entitled to it.) Paul's a little trickier to pin down.
I personally think we need to start seeing some viable third-party candidates, on both sides, and that that's the only way out of our current stagnation. But damned if I can think of a formula to MAKE a third-party candidate viable.