Nader, the patriarch of PIRG, suffers from no illusions about winning - his bid is for influence, not the Oval Office.

2008 will be Ralph Nader's fifth run for President - 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2008.

Ralph Nader, a perennial also-ran and lifelong consumer activist, announced his candidacy for President of the United States. With the Democratic convention shaping up to be a bar room brawl, Nader hopes to use his celebrity among Democrats to push Obama and Clinton further to the left on specific issues like Payday Lending and Rent to Own that he views as "economic crimes".

Many Democrats blame Nader for Al Gore's narrow loss in the 2000 election by taking 3 million traditionally Democratic votes away from the Vice President.

Nader, the patriarch of PIRG, suffers from no illusions about winning - his bid is for influence, not the Oval Office.

Nader challenged Obama on CNN's American Morning Monday to explain why he doesn't "come down hard on the economic crimes against minorities in city ghettos like payday loans, predatory lending, rent to own rackets, landlord abuses, lead contamination and asbestos."

Obama announced his plan to cap interest on Payday Loans at 36% earlier this month (see story). Former class-action lawyer John Edwards was the only candidate to specifically campaign against the rent-to-own transaction. Edwards dropped out of the race but has yet to endorse either Clinton or Obama.

Combined House and Senate Republican supporters of pro rent-to-own industry federal legislation - Consumer Rental Purchase Agreement Act of 2007 - outnumber Democrats 57 to 34 based on the latest cosponsor count.