Ralph Nader tells The New York Times why his candidacy is so obviously necessary:

He can recite, word for importuning word, the letters from old friends urging him not to run for president -- "all individually written, all stunningly similar" -- and he does so with the theatrical relish of a man whose public life has been one long, unyielding argument with the world.

"Here's how it started," he said, his soft voice taking on mock oratorical tones over dinner with a group of aides in Charlotte, N.C., last week: "For years, I've thought of you as one of our heroes." He rolled his eyes. "The achievements you've attained are monumental, in consumer, environmental, etc., etc." He paused for effect. "But this time, I must express my profound disappointment at indications that you are going to run."

"And the more I got of these," Mr. Nader said, "the more I realized that we are confronting a virus, a liberal virus. And the characteristic of a virus is when it takes hold of the individual, it's the same virus, individual letters all written in uncannily the same sequence...."

Yeah, that makes sense. It's sort of like when Sandy Berger told the Bush administration that al-Qaeda terrorism would be a big problem, and George Tenet told the Bush administration that chatter about al-Qaeda terrorism was looking like a big problem, and Richard Clarke told the Bush administration that chatter about al-Qaeda terrorism was looking like a big problem....

It was a virus! They were all saying the same thing!

No wonder Bush and Cheney and Condi and Rummy ignored them. Clearly, following Nader's logic, they were absolutely right to do so.