Nader Launches Presidential Campaign

Consumer advocate Ralph Nader announced Sunday he is running for president as an independent, saying the Democratic and Republican parties are captive to special interests and are failing to address the issues that matter to Americans.

Appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press," Nader cited poll data showing most Americans are dissatisfied with the state of the nation and that a majority believe the two major political parties are coming up short.

"You take that framework of people feeling locked out, shut out, marginalized, disrespected," he said. "And you go from Iraq, to Palestine-Israel, from Enron to Wall Street, from Katrina to the bungling of the Bush administration, to the complicity of the Democrats in not stopping him on the war, stopping him on the tax cuts, getting a decent energy bill through, and you have to ask yourself, as a citizen, should we elaborate the issues that the two [parties] are not talking about."

Nader said the three leading candidates -- John McCain, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama -- are against single-payer health insurance. "Full Medicare for all," he said. "I'm for it."

He also said they wouldn't combat Pentagon waste. "A wasteful defense is a weak defense," he said. "It takes away taxpayer money that can go to the necessities of the American people. That's off the table to Obama and Clinton and McCain."

Nader, 73, has had a long career as a consumer advocate and critic of corporations' influence on government. However, his third-party campaign for president in 2000 (he also ran in 2004) angered many Democrats, who felt that he may have siphoned off enough Democratic votes to cost Al Gore the election.