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DENVER (AP) -- Ralph Nader has a simple solution to the stalemate in Florida: Toss a coin.
"It sounds kind of arbitrary, but I'm not joking," the Green Party candidate told The Denver Post. "There's really no other way to end this. At this point, no one's ever going to know who really won Florida."
Ideally, a team of nonpartisan volunteers should recount votes cast in all Florida counties, Nader said from his office in Washington, D.C. He admitted that would be impossible before the Dec. 12 deadline to certify a winner.
"It's razor close, and the margin of error is bigger than the margin between them," he said. "Whoever wins is going to have half the nation against them. It's going to leave a bad taste in the American people's mouths."
Ergo, bring in Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore and flip the coin.
The ceremony, Nader said, could be broadcast across the globe, and the two parties could sell time for commercials to raise enough money to finance their presidential campaigns in 2004.
"It'll give both parties a four-year breather to show America what it's like to have presidential candidates not indentured to corporate contributors," he said.
Getting corporate America out of politics was a major idea of Nader's presidential campaign, which brought him less than 3 percent of the vote.
