Seventy-four-year-old Ralph Nader, once the scourge of corporate America, is becoming the laughing stock of democratic America.

Nader, who distinguished himself in the early stages of his career as a highly effective consumer safety advocate, has chosen to go into the sunset as a dyspeptic and delusional narcissist who just can't let go.

It's sad, but it's also an abuse of the voters. His presence on a ticket makes a mockery of the electoral process.

Anyone who votes for Nader isn't making a vote that really counts.

Nader is running -- yet again -- for president as a third-party candidate. He claims that his current and past runs at the presidency are the answer to widespread voter disenchantment with the choices offered by the two major parties, the Democrats and Republicans.

While that line may have been credible a few elections back, it's hardly credible now, when record numbers of voters turned out for caucuses and primaries. And it's hardly credible in the face of Nader's dwindling support, which one Web site estimated at in the "half-dozens."

Nader's demanding a spot in the presidential debates.

We'd like a spot in the presidential debates, too, as would some of the guys with liquor on their breath hawking prophecies of doom through megaphones in Times Square.

That doesn't mean we should be on the stage with either John McCain or Barack Obama, because there's a big difference between declaring yourself a candidate and running a legitimate campaign that demonstrates you are one. This is theater, not politics. If fame and ego were all that were required to be a presidential candidate, then Donald Trump would be the next one on the ballot. Or Paris Hilton.

Last week, Nader's campaign announced they were filing more than 7,000 signatures to get his name on the Maine ballot in November. That means there are at least 7,000 people in the state who believe in the right of even hopeless candidates to a spot on the ballot.

While we admire their commitment to democracy and ballot access, a more effective way to support the process is to refrain from muddying it up with an effort like Nader's that is not about anything but ego.