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NADER: I AM READY TO SCREW THIS UP ON DAY 1

 
Published Feb. 3, 2008|Updated Feb. 11, 2008

Consumer activist Ralph Nader warned New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg today not to enter the presidential race.

"If some egomaniac is going to jump in and screw up this election," Nader said, "it's going to be me."

At a news conference in Washington, Nader said that voters who are looking for someone to spoil the 2008 election should be suspicious of Bloomberg's motives: "Michael Bloomberg has a track record of winning elections, not screwing them up."

If both Nader and Bloomberg were to enter the race, they would be competing head to head for the vote of egomaniacs, who make up 3 percent of the electorate nationwide but closer to 50 percent in California and New York.

Speaking to that egomaniac constituency, Nader called Bloomberg a "novice spoiler," adding, "When it comes to screwing up elections, experience matters."

"Michael Bloomberg can't point to a single election he's messed up - I can," he said. "I am ready to screw this one up on Day One."

In other news:

- Attorney General Michael Mukasey clarified his position on waterboarding, saying, "Having to answer questions about whether waterboarding is torture or not is torture."

- Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton has sent her husband, former President Bill Clinton, on a "special campaign trip" to Antarctica that could last "six or seven months," Clinton aides confirmed today.

- The White House is still not certain if simulcasting President Bush's State of the Union address in English was successful.