Nader: Clinton needs challenger from the left

Ralph Nader tore into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s liberal bona fides on Monday and said a candidate should challenge her from the left if she runs for the 2016 Democratic nomination.

{mosads}“Somebody must challenge from the left, because, I mean, Hillary Clinton, who started out as a progressive out of Yale Law School and Wellesley, she’s become almost the poster child for the military-industrial complex,” Nader said in an online interview with MSNBC’s Chuck Todd. 

“She hugs Kissinger; she hobnobs with Bob Rubin and the Wall Street crowd — I mean it’s almost a caricature,” Nader added. “But you know on social issues, like pro-choice, children’s issues, you know she keeps that liberal sheen.”

The former Democratic presidential candidate, who has also run for president as an independent and for the Green Party, said Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), both of whom have been vocal proponents of Wall Street reform, would be solid challengers.

“In the primary, I see Elizabeth Warren; I could see Sherrod Brown; I could see a few members of Congress, of the House, but they are very, very skittish about challenging the dominant players in their party,” Nader said.

Clinton is far and away the favorite to be her party’s presidential nominee in 2016, with 63 percent of Democrats favoring her candidacy, according to a McClatchy/Marist poll released last week. Vice President Biden is a distant second in the poll.

Clinton hasn’t publicly committed to running in 2016, but Ready for Hillary, a super-PAC pushing the former New York senator to run, is already up and running and loaded with former Obama campaign activists.