Feb. 25 Commentary: What George W. Bush and Ralph Nader have in common

Once upon a time, there was a man named Ralph Nader who became a consumer advocate. He was an excellent consumer advocate - so good that corporations shuddered when his name was mentioned. He succeeded in getting laws passed or changed, and was immortalized by none other than Steve McGarrett of the classic CBS television series "Hawaii Five-O," who told a complaining criminal to "call Ralph Nader."

Then, something bad happened. Nader started to believe his own legend.

In 2000, he decided, apparently, to try to fight corruption in campaign financing by entering the system - in the biggest way. He ran for president of the United States.

Whatever Nader hoped to bring about went completely out the window Nov. 7, 2000, when the election was thrown into turmoil. All he accomplished was angering a majority of voters. He has since proven that his own glory seems to be above his desire for consumer reform by running again in 2004, and this year.

Meanwhile, his old beat, consumer advocacy, is suffering from a dearth of people with the charisma, persuasion techniques and fame of - oh, someone like Ralph Nader - to fix things.

Here's what's been in need of repair since Nov. 7, 2000 (or maybe Jan. 20, 2001):

*The job market: Hundreds of thousands of workers have been laid off in the years George W. Bush has been in the White House. Many of those who have found jobs usually work for less pay and fewer benefits than they had in the jobs they lost. Some industries have gone into freefall. Instead of excellence and customer service, corporations have concentrated on cutbacks and cutting corners. Americans have bought rotten goods from China and rotten beef, vegetables, peanut butter and other products from its own backyard.

*Prices: While consumers have less, merchandise costs more. Gas prices and food prices have skyrocketed. There has been a serious crisis in housing and subprime mortgages.

*Disasters: Not just the natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina, but man-made disasters like the bridge collapse last year in Minneapolis. What's been fixed in the infrastructure? Practically nothing.

*Troops and veterans: Armed forces have been heading overseas with substandard equipment going in and substandard medical care in some spots going out. Remember the scandal at Walter Reed?
In addition, resources for families of the troops have also been in question, including government benefits for spouses and children.

Where was Ralph Nader, once this country's foremost consumer advocate, during all of this? Polishing his campaign speeches, evidently.

Since 2001, we've had a president who obviously doesn't care about all of his fellow Americans. With each presidential campaign he enters, it becomes more obvious that Ralph Nader no longer cares about them, either.