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Opinion: In today’s pages: Nader’s run, Obama’s radical ties

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The editorial board reacts to the Ralph Nader candidacy:

Hey, America, want to hear some secrets the mainstream media and political parties have been keeping from you? There’s a war going on in Iraq; President Bush passed some tax cuts a while back that, combined with undisciplined spending, have contributed to a ballooning national debt; and apparently the price of oil has really started to degrade the nation’s energy situation. These are some of the obscure issues that Ralph Nader, announcing his presidential candidacy on Sunday, promised to drag out of the shadows. It’s an interesting demonstration of why he’ll have a tough time mounting even a message-sending campaign this year, but also of why he’s a welcome addition to the race.

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The board asks downtown loft-dwellers to be a bit more generous toward a new tenant -- mental health services for the homeless. And the board wonders why it hasn’t occurred to Congress, the president, or any of the candidates that turning corn into ethanol during while global starvation increases isn’t a good idea.

Yale University’s Jacob S. Hacker says ‘mandates’ aren’t the most important universal healthcare issue, contrary to what the Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama camps would have us believe. Columnist Jonah Goldberg explores Obama’s ties to 1960s-era radicals, and what it says about the left. New Yorker staff writer Elizabeth Kolbert explains the power of lost objects, and contributing editor Bill Stall reminds that Ronald Reagan raised taxes and Gov. Schwarzenegger should too.

Readers react to skeptic Michael Shermer’s take on Scientology. L.A.’s Kendra Wiseman says, ‘Why is it that journalists repeatedly and insistently focus on the sensationalist aspect of the Xenu story when reporting about Scientology, ignoring child labor, physical assault, psychological abuse and other travesties that go on every day behind those walls?’

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