Go home, Ralph Nader. This might sound blunt, it might be mean, but it's exactly what most Democrats were thinking Sunday morning when environmental activist and consumer advocate Nader announced he was running for president as an independent.

As any political connoisseur surly will remember, Nader was the wrench in the Democratic party's quest for office in 2000 and essentially handed Bush the presidency and sent Gore back to Tennessee.

The beauty of the political party system in America is, of course, the ability to have three candidates and multiple parties. Most Americans like the idea that political lone wolves can come out of nowhere and try their hands at the presidency by separating themselves from the professional political insiders.

That being said, Nader is going to attract the far-liberal left that thinks Bush truly is evil and Kerry is too much of a moderate. They will be attracted to Nader, because in these peoples' minds, like in 2000, Bush and Kerry essentially are the same men with different party names.

Maybe it's good to have three candidates in order to give American voters more choices. But this is only good if a candidate is running to support his or her views, and it's pretty easy to assume Nader isn't.

Kerry probably is more guilty than Nader of running for president for the sole purpose of ousting Bush, but Nader simply is being more blazoned about it. His views and ideas are well-known. After all, he spent 2000 making sure we knew them all. So there isn't anything really new Nader wants to say.

Except, of course, that Bush is bad and needs to be thrown out of office and that Republicans and Democrats have monopolized the party system.

Nader's not running on his own views; he's running to get Bush out of office - which he has no chance of doing. Nader won't defeat Bush, and he knows it. If Nader truly wants Bush out of office, he needs to step aside and let the Democratic candidate step in the ring with Bush.

He's going to try his best to ruin things for both candidates. But what he truly doesn't understand is that his candidacy and successful race only will hurt the Democrats and give more power to the people he wants out of office.

Go home, Ralph, please. You're only going to hurt Kerry and give more power to Bush - jog your memory here, Ralph, and try to remember 2000.