Nader officially rejoined the presidential fray this morning on Meet the Press. If you missed the show, I commend you to read the transcript. His interview was rife with his usual pablum and conspiracy theory. You know the routine: Bush should be impeached because he lied. And Iraq was all about the oil. I never get tired of that line.

I doubt that Nader will have a significant impact in this race. The Democratic base is motivated by a combination of anger and hate directed toward Bush--the Jonathan Chait phenomena--and will vote more pragmatically, even if their preferences lie closer to Nader’s positions. The big question is the impact on the Dean voters. I presume that a number of disenfranchised Deaniacs will cross the line to vote for Nader. But my sense is that only a fraction of these individuals would ordinarily vote, so it won’t actually split away as many votes from the Democratic party as some might think.