Some campaign workers are less optimistic about that goal.

"I don't think it's necessarily going to happen," said Nader volunteer Steven H. Milder '04, citing Nader's extremely low poll numbers in the South and Midwest.

Mileur said he too is doubtful that Nader and the Green Party will hit the five percent mark, mainly because economic times are good and because differences between the two major parties do, in fact, exist.

And, Mileur said, there is a fundamental hole in Nader's populist strategy.

"The constituency at which [Nader's appeal] is aimed--largely college students--is narrow and, as a notoriously low turnout constituency, not the most promising base for party building," he wrote.

Keaney would argue that ticket sales tell a different story.

"It's not just one group," he said, arguing that all sorts of progressives--from labor groups to Bikes Not Bombs--have lined up behind Nader.

"If you're not a corporate CEO," Keaney said, "he's for you."