>> hinojosa: many know him as the man who spoiled the 2000 presidential elections, but in the last five decades, he brought us the seatbelt, the airbag, the clean air act, and much more-- four-time presidential candidate, consumer advocate, and author ralph nader. i'm maria hinojosa, this is one on one. ralph nader, it's great to have you on the show. >> thank you. >> hinojosa: so here's the first question i want to throw out to you, because, you know, you're a consumer advocate. as a kid who was growing up in the 1960s and 1970s, you know, ralph nader... everybody knew what you were doing. but paint a picture of what our country would look like if you hadn't existed; if you hadn't, you know, brought in the regulations, what would our country look like? >> well, me and a lot of other people. >> hinojosa: okay, but... >> but well, for example, we wouldn't have mandatory motor vehicle safety standards, we wouldn't have recall requirements for companies who sell you a defective car. we got through meat and poultry inspection laws; there were virtually no inspection standards of diseased me

818,000 floridians, citizens of the state of florida, were not allowed to vote in the presidential election of 2000 because they had a prior felony conviction. in states like mississippi, across the south especially in the far west, many of these states -- you lose the right to vote for the rest of your natural life. and so what i call the new racial domain, the colorblind racism of the 21st century doesn't have the simplicity of the old white and colored signs that segregated us when i was a child, when i was a boy, growing up visiting my grandmother and my relatives in tuskegee, alabama, in the 1960s. the new colorblind racism is mass unemployment, mass incarceration and mass disenfranchisement. all three of these things -- this unholy trinity, it represents a new kind of institutional racism that in my view is even more pernicious than the old jim crow system because it's colorblind. it doesn't operate with the word -- with the epithets of the "n" word. it carries out the disen-fran disenfranchiseme disenfranchisement. i read the "new york times" the other day pointing out the african-americans

don't forget in 2000, in the presidential election, the great debate was, what should we do about the $5.6 trillion? bush got elected and enact d the bush cuts and said they would stimulate the economy and what happens? we had the slowest economic recovery of any economic recovery or any recession. the only eight-year period in which we did not gain one net new job even before the 2008 recession from which we are now recovering albeit too slowly, the american people did not vote to kill remedial programs last year. they voted for jobs. they were told, vote for the republicans, we'll get you jobs. you don't see any jobs. let's forget this revisionist history. i rise in strong opposition to the republican effort to cut funding for the special supplemental nutritional program known as w.i.c. this program provides food to mothers, infants and children under five. this will help their babies grow. w.i.c. provides the breast feeding support to make sure the babies continue to develop and to grow. and for young children, w.i.c. provides milk, eggs, fruit, breads and vegetables. babies rely o

>> having been there for the first half in the presidential election in 2000 for which i think i could argue was the best of the two we had so far. [laughter] a couple thoughts. number one, the constitution in afghanistan right now prevents the president from running a third term. president karzai was the interim president and afghanistan and serve a full five-year term and is now in the second five-year term. there's indications he's clear to serve a third five-year term. so, one of the things we are going to have to look at in that is investor crocker is going to have to be involved in his ensuring that there is the prospect of the constitutional succession in afghanistan that starts in 2014. how they come to the floor in the political where there's no political parties mix that problematic. i don't think that the nato transition which right now is scheduled to essentially concluded the end of 2014 there will be no military presence after that, even nato is to the fact that they are going to have long-term commitments beyond that. so i don't think we should view that as a an end of g

>> having been there for the first half in the presidential election in 2000 for which i think i could argue was the best of the two we had so far. [laughter] a couple thoughts. number one, the constitution in afghanistan right now prevents the president from running a third term. president karzai was the interim president and afghanistan and serve a full five-year term and is now in the second five-year term. there's indications he's clear to serve a third five-year term. so, one of the things we are going to have to look at in that is investor crocker is going to have to be involved in his ensuring that there is the prospect of the constitutional succession in afghanistan that starts in 2014. how they come to the floor in the political where there's no political parties mix that problematic. i don't think that the nato transition which right now is scheduled to essentially concluded the end of 2014 there will be no military presence after that, even nato is to the fact that they are going to have long-term commitments beyond that. so i don't think we should view that as a an end of g

presidential election? >> i think good. i know some moderate democrats say we need to be like the democrats. you saw it in '94 and 2000, thanks so much. eric ericsson is a cnn contributor and jennifer palmieri, good to talk to you as well. she is a democratic strategy i- >> it is just getting interesting. >> one thing michele bachmann achieved and we are talking about her. >> she is getting attention and questioned about things that -- i'm sure as she said she didn't mean to mis-speak. people aren't perfect and make mis take. that is the conversation instead of what do you want to see happen? >> people want to see somebody who has the wherewithal to fix the economy. that is what this will come down to in this election for all of those candidates in the field. >> who can harness some hope? i've only heard the president hasn't done a good job and america is not as good as it was a generation ago. >> jon huntsman said all you see in china is this rah, rah, we're going to be the best and all you see in america these days is how terrible things are. china is overstated and america is understated at the moment. >> who will