A Republican Nader?

A Republican Nader? - The third-party candidate Democrats want and need. By Timothy Noah:

"Political scientists argue about whether Ross Perot's 19 percent of 1992's popular vote put Bill Clinton in the White House�?it hinges on whether you think Perot voters would have otherwise voted Democratic, Republican, or not at all�?but Chatterbox, who covered that race for the Wall Street Journal, always felt at the gut level that Perot's appeal was more powerful to potential supporters of George H.W. Bush. Exit polls contradict Chatterbox's gut; they showed Perot voters splitting their preferences fairly equally between Clinton and Bush. But a survey by Clinton pollster Stanley Greenberg found that Perot voters had a 'largely Republican voting history.' The 2000 election, of course, was so absurdly close that just about anything--including Ralph Nader's 3 percent of the popular vote, which otherwise would probably have gone to Al Gore--can be called a determining factor."

As a two time Perot voter I've always wondered how he stacked up against Nader in 2000. Interestingly, Slate quotes the same "pollster" as Nader.

Infoplease.com sez: "He garnered 19% of the popular vote in '92, and 8% in '96, testimony to voters' disillusionment with the traditional two-party system."