This site is dedicated to studying if Ralph Nader's 2004 candidacy will help George W. Bush win re-election. Early indicators suggest that his campaign takes support away from Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, but Nader claims that most who will vote for him would not vote if he was not on the ballot. Will Nader cost Kerry battleground states like Florida, Oregon, and Wisconsin or will his anti-Bush rhetoric hurt the President's re-election campaign? Only November 2, 2004 will tell.

But who is Ralph Nader? Nader made a name for himself as an attorney, with his 1965 book, Unsafe at Any Speed, a harsh critique of the auto industry. This led to a series of automobile safety laws passed by 1966. In the 1960s and 1970s, Nader was responsible for at least eight major federal consumer protection regulatory laws, such as motor vehicle safety laws, Safe Drinking Water Act, the launching of Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), EPA, and the Consumer Product Safety Administration.

The New York Times said, "What sets Nader apart is that he has moved beyond social criticism to effective political action." Nader is the founder of such watchdog organizations like Public Citizen, Center for Study of Responsive Law, and the Clean Air Action Project, to name a few. In the 1980s, he started to focus on the corportate scandals uncovered after Ronald Reagan left office, like the Housing and Urban Development and the Pentagon scandals. In 1996 and 2000 he ran as a consumer advocate under the Green Party. This year he is running as an independent.