Vital addendum to the preceding

Consider it Fact Seven:

According to the Green Party's webpage, "Al From, chair of the Democratic Leadership Council, wrote in Blueprint Magazine (1-24-01) that according to their own exit polls, Bush would have beat Gore by one percentage point if Nader hadn’t run in 2000."

That is, the Democratic Party knows the "spoiler" charge is a lie.

Update December 10: I found the link for From's article. The key graph is this one:

The assertion that Nader's marginal vote hurt Gore is not borne out by polling data. When exit pollers asked voters how they would have voted in a two-way race, Bush actually won by a point. That was better than he did with Nader in the race.

Of course, From has his own take on 2000, arguing Gore lost because he ran as a "populist" rather than a "New Democrat" (don't ask - you'll only get agita) but that doesn't take away from the import of what he wrote.