Don't count on Ralph Nader to perform the valuable service he did to Al Gore in 2000, to John Kerry in 2004. Despite addressing the delegates of the California Peace and Freedom Party, Nader failed to win the party's endorsement. Instead, the nod went to someone who didn't even bother to show up at the convention. Leonard Peltier, whose life sentence for murder prevented him from accepting the nomination in person, defeated Nader. The convicted murderer winning this nomination makes it harder for Nader to get on the ballot in certain West Coast states, and harder for any serious person to believe that the Peace and Freedom Party supports peace or freedom.

It's interesting to see Peltier and Nader in this same story. It was just a few years ago when Nader was campaigning to free Peltier due to a suspicious trial and circumstances. Around the time that "The Hurricane" came out Nader felt that when everyone is talking about Carter's freedom and justice that now is the time to re-investigate the Peltier case. What does everyone think? Does the re-opening have merit or should we forget it and look the other way?