Ralph Nader is having his Norma Desmond moment. Desmond, you’ll remember, is the faded Hollywood star of "Sunset Boulevard." Unable to accept that her fans have moved on, she descends into madness and murder. In the last, great scene, with lights and cameras trained on her, she dramatically moves down the staircase into the hands of the police. "All right, Mr. DeMille," Desmond says, thinking she’s making a movie, "I’m ready for my closeup."

Nader did his last closeup on "Meet the Press," where he announced he would run for president. Nader had made a name for himself in the golden age of consumer activism, but that was 30 years ago. His significance now is as a potential spoiler able to siphon enough liberal votes away from Democrats to help elect the Republican candidate. That happened in the 2000 election, when George W. Bush defeated Democrat Al Gore by a hair.

With this history in mind, frightened Democrats have begged Nader not to run as an independent in 2004. The lefty magazine, The Nation, has published "An Open Letter to Ralph Nader" in which it pleaded with him to stay out of the race. Several writers associated with the magazine had backed Nader’s candidacy in 2000, and the ninnies have never lived down this act of supreme stupidity. In a face-saving gesture, the letter said, "Ralph, this is the wrong year for you to run: 2004 is not 2000" — as though it really didn’t matter four years ago who won.

This deference toward Nader is unnecessary. He’s not going to make any difference. The 2004 election may be close, but the last one was freakishly close. Many of the people who did vote for Nader in 2000 lived to regret it — and since Nader isn’t running as a Green Party candidate this time, his voter base will be smaller still.

In any event, the voters the Democrats must go after aren’t the ones who supported Nader, but the swing voters who went for Bush. The president now has a record, and can no longer pretend moderation on budget matters, the environment and a variety of social issues. Several battleground states — Pennsylvania, Michigan and Ohio — are suffering the hemorrhage of manufacturing jobs, and their voters are in a bad mood.

Like Norma Desmond, Nader is yesterday’s news, and his run for president against the wishes of so many former supporters has taken on an air of desperation. Never married, humorless, workaholic — Nader the human being has always seemed rather two-dimensional. He’s expended much of his energy cultivating the image of a tireless crusader for consumer rights. When a wire service photographer caught him tobogganing with some kids in his hometown of Winsted, Conn., and having fun, Nader angrily complained that his privacy was invaded.

When Nader still mattered in public policy, a lazy media just went along with the myth-making. The story of an ascetic Nader living in a spare $80-a-month room in Washington was repeated endlessly — even after it was demonstrated that he spent most of his time in an upscale family-owned house on Bancroft Place.

Celebrities with no personal life cling to TV appearances and press notices as the confirmation of their existence. Nowhere was that more obvious than on "Meet the Press." Nader was brittle and defensive in the manner of someone who had nothing real to sell the electorate. He needed the public more than the public needed him.

"Meet the Press" host Tim Russert surely did not intend to pull off the kind of character contrast that Hollywood directors work so hard for. But he did, in putting California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on the same program as Nader. Here was Schwarzenegger, a Hollywood creation, developing into an impressive political leader. And he was followed by Nader, a Washington has-been, gasping for publicity.

How interesting that the guy we all called Arnold — or humorously, Ahnold — is now referred to by his last name, Schwarzenegger. But the once super-businesslike Nader is now called simply Ralph.

"I am big," Norma Desmond says. "It’s the pictures that got small."

Had Nader uttered the same words on "Meet the Press" substituting "politics" for "pictures," no one would have been surprised. Some people just can’t make a dignified exit.

Froma Harrop is a Providence Journal columnist. Contact her by writing to

fharrop@projo.com.