ASHINGTON - Ralph Nader defended his presidential candidacy yesterday and said its potential cost to Democrat Al Gore won't stop him from urging people to support him.
Polls show Nader, the Green Party nominee, drawing support in some states from people who say they otherwise would vote for Gore over Republican George W. Bush.
But Nader, both defiant and unapologetic, rejected criticism from Democrats who fear his campaign will help Bush win the election tomorrow.
He also maintained there are no major differences between Bush and Gore. ''I would be disappointed if either Al Gore or George Bush are elected,'' he said on NBC's ''Meet the Press,'' a few hours before his final campaign rally at the MCI Center here.
Nader's goal is to get at least 5 percent of the vote to qualify the Green Party for federal campaign funds in the 2004 election.
Nader averages about 4 percent in national polls, but support for him is much higher in states where the race between Bush and Gore is very close, including California, Minnesota, Michigan, Oregon, Washington, and Wisconsin.
Reform Party candidate Patrick J. Buchanan campaigned in Philadelphia yesterday, where he said prosperity has made Americans complacent and more likely to vote for centrists like Bush and Gore.
He was appearing on several radio and television programs to drum up last-minute support before heading to Pittsburgh. Polls have shown Buchanan in fourth place in tomorrow's election, behind Green Party candidate Ralph Nader.
Speaking later yesterday at a Broadview Heights, Ohio, rally, Buchanan told more than 300 supporters, ''We will give 'em yet a big surprise in the state of Ohio.'' He later acknowledged, ''Things are looking a little rough for us on Election Day.''
Buchanan, who ran unsuccessfully for the GOP presidential nomination in 1992 and 1996, declined to predict how he would do in tomorrow's election. Polls indicate that he will not fare as well as Ross Perot, the party's nominee in 1996 who received 8 percent of the vote nationally and 10 percent in Pennsylvania.
Buchanan attributed his single-digit standing in the polls to a lack of media coverage of his campaign and his exclusion from three presidential debates.
