Posted 7:57 PM by Scoobie Davis

Instant Analysis of Tonight's Nader Event in Pasadena
Ralph Nader gave a talk and signing for his latest Murdoch-subsidized book, The Good Fight : Declare Your Independence and Close the Democracy Gap.

1) The pasty-meter was having a hard time keeping count of all the white people at the event. About 170 came to the talk--of which about 160 were white.  Not as high of a percentage of white people as the Bill O'Reilly talk in Brentwood a few months ago, but it hardly was demographically representative of the greater Los Angeles area.  Considering the overall lack of fashion sense of the crowd, I suspect there were many fans of Ralph there who have tenure and don't have to worry about job security. I just love to be in a room surroinded by self-satisfied white folk who, to paraphrase that great sage Nelson Muntz,  strut around like their farts don't stink!

2) There was a short Q & A after Nader's talk. I tried to get my question in but couldn't (Nader cut me off and started signing books).  Here was the  question I wanted to ask: "How do you expect to be elected president this year when the last time you ran, you got as many electoral votes as me and I wasn't even running?"  I'm bummed.

3) On a personal level, Nader really creeped me out. He is a joyless, dour man who sucked the fun out of the room when he walked in (not that a room full of Naderites is a slammin' house party (though there was a blonde in a minishirt I wanted to talk to). Nader reminds me of what Abraham Maslow called the anhedonic personality.

More later.