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If the election results that came in Tuesday night had been closer, you might have been hearing the names of Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr and perennial presidential hopeful Ralph Nader quite a bit this week.

Barack Obama's clear victory has rendered both men minor footnotes in the 2008 race. (Obama presently holds 364 electoral votes, far more than the 270 he needed to take the White House.) But had the electoral map looked like 2004 or 2000, when one state effectively decided the election, either man's run could have decided who became president.

Consider three of the closest state races: North Carolina, Missouri and Indiana. CBS News this morning called North Carolina for Obama, who leads John McCain by just under 14,000 votes there. Barr won more than 25,000 votes in the state. We don't know to what degree Barr's presence cut into McCain's vote total – some of Barr's votes likely came from voters who would have supported Obama or sat out the election – but it is safe to assume that Barr's appeal rested in large part with Republicans. Which means it's possible that without Barr in the race, North Carolina's 15 electoral votes would have ended up in McCain's column.

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As we noted over the weekend, the Green Party named former Democratic Rep. Cynthia McKinney as its candidate in the 2008 presidential race on Saturday. McKinney is the third relatively high-profile, long-shot candidate to formally enter the race, along with Ralph Nader, who is running as an independent, and Bob Barr, who is on the Libertarian ticket.

The Green Party had little impact on the 2004 election, with nominee David Cobb garnering 119,859 votes – just 0.1 percent overall. In 2000, however, Nader took 2.8 million votes as the Green Party candidate, and his presence on the ticket is believed to have helped President Bush take the White House.

If history is any indication, McKinney could bring fireworks to the campaign: Political junkies will recall her scuffle with a Capitol Police Officer, her suggestion that Mr. Bush might have been involved in the Sept. 11 attacks, and her quixotic efforts to impeach the president.

McKinney favors pulling troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan, creating a Department of Peace, and reparations for slavery, among other measures. Her running mate is Rosa Clemente, who is described as a "hip-hop artist, journalist and activist."

As the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports, McKinney seems to be targeting far-left voters disenchanted with Barack Obama.

"Don't expect me to keep a count of the major flip flops of the other candidates between now and November, I'm sure there will be plenty," she told Green Party delegates, many of whom, the AJC reports, "inveighed against the 'crimes' of the Bush administration and the distortions of the news by 'corporate media.'"

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Ralph Nader’s suggestion yesterday that Barack Obama is trying to "talk white" and “appeal to white guilt” will likely end up as nothing more than a minor footnote in the story of the 2008 presidential campaign. But race, for better or worse, remains a major component of the battle for the presidency – in ways that go far beyond questions of whether Americans will vote for a black candidate.

As CBS News chief political consultant Marc Ambinder reported yesterday, “John McCain's election strategists plan to tone down the Republicans' traditionally aggressive and public campaign against potential voter fraud.” There is not one simple reason for the decision, but one of the rationales mentioned is the fact that Republicans are particularly wary of being cast as engaging in voter suppression, a charge often raised in reference to African-Americans, with Obama on the ticket.

“The Democrats will unfortunately try to bring race into play when this discussion happens, as they do every cycle,” one top Republican told Ambinder. “It's unfortunate because illegally cast votes disenfranchise real voters by potentially canceling out their votes, and it's in everyone's best interest to have elections conducted fairly with no suspicion of foul play hanging over the winners.”

Whether or not you buy that argument, it does seem that Obama’s background gives Democrats an advantage in this debate they did not have in 2004 – one that translates to an easier road for the Obama campaign in its efforts to register new (and presumably Democratic-leaning) voters. Another potential advantage at least somewhat tied to race is floated today by Robert Novak, who suggests that former Bush administration secretary of state Colin Powell is among the “Obamacons” (that’s conservative Obama supporters) and will endorse the presumptive Democratic nominee. Powell has always been a reluctant conservative, and Obama’s background may help spur him to the sort of high-profile defection that might not have happened with another candidate, particularly if he believes Republicans are playing the race card. “As an African American, friends say, Powell is sensitive to racial attacks on Obama and especially on Obama's wife, Michelle,” Novak writes.

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Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader had some scathing, racially-tinged words for Barack Obama in an interview with the Rocky Mountain News.

Nader said that Obama is trying to "talk white" and appeal to "white guilt," while downplaying poverty issues.

"There's only one thing different about Barack Obama when it comes to being a Democratic presidential candidate. He's half African-American," Nader told the newspaper. "Whether that will make any difference, I don't know. I haven't heard him have a strong crackdown on economic exploitation in the ghettos. Payday loans, predatory lending, asbestos, lead. What's keeping him from doing that? Is it because he wants to talk white? He doesn't want to appear like Jesse Jackson? We'll see all that play out in the next few months and if he gets elected afterwards."

Asked by the reporter whether he thought Obama does try to "talk white," Nader responded, "Of course."

"I mean, first of all, the number one thing that a black American politician aspiring to the presidency should be is to candidly describe the plight of the poor, especially in the inner cities and the rural areas, and have a very detailed platform about how the poor is going to be defended by the law, is going to be protected by the law, and is going to be liberated by the law," Nader said. "Haven't heard a thing."

Update: Sen. Obama responded to Nader's comments at a press conference in Chicago:

"You know, look, uh first of all, what’s clear is that Ralph Nader hasn’t been paying attention to my speeches because all the issues that he talked about, whether it’s predatory lending or the housing foreclosure crisis or what have you are issues that the traveling press can tell you I’ve devoted multiple speeches, town hall meetings to throughout this campaign," Obama said. "Ralph Nader’s trying to get attention. He’s become a perennial political candidate. I think it’s a shame, because if you look at his legacy in terms of consumer protections, it’s an extraordinary one, but at this point he’s somebody who’s trying to get attention and whose campaign hasn’t gotten any traction and so what better way to get some traction than to make an inflammatory statement like the one that he made. It is what it is."

A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll released Friday shows Barack Obama leading John McCain 49 percent to 46 percent among registered voters in a head-to-head match up – with the three point difference within the poll's margin of error.

But consider the results when two other candidates are added to the mix: When pollsters asked not just about Obama and McCain but also Libertarian party candidate Bob Barr and independent Ralph Nader, Obama led 47 percent to 43 percent, with Barr taking two percent and Nader taking six percent. Nader only took 1 percent of the vote in his last run for president in 2004.

Both Barr and Nader are potential spoilers for the major party candidates. Last week, as the Boston Globe reports, Nader, who is to the left of Barack Obama, sent out a fundraising appeal approvingly quoting novelist Russell Banks' comments about the presumptive Democratic nominee.

"Obama is feeding a dream -- a dream of change and renewal," Banks said. "He's feeding a dream that the conditions that surround us -- Iraq, the economy, the racial divide, the class divide in this country -- that they are magically going to go away by voting for this centrist Democrat."

"The Obama moment is a feel good moment," Banks added. "It makes us feel good. But the programs Obama is proposing -- up and down and all around -- are the same centrist Democratic positions. The same people are going to be running the show. All of the corporations are rapidly switching their contributions to the Democrats."

The fundraising appeal, after citing this comments, noted that "what wasn't mentioned was Nader/Gonzalez."

"So, let us say it loud and clear," continued the appeal. "Nader/Gonzalez. Shift the power from the few to the many. Free our government of corporate domination. Restore the sovereignty of an engaged people. Don't fall for the trick."

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, whose aides and advisers have openly discussed plans for a possible independent candidacy for the billionaire, dismissed suggestions that third-party candidates could play a spoiler role in November.

Asked about fears among some Democrats that a candidacy by Ralph Nader could harm their party's nominee in the fall, Bloomberg told reporters, "this business of Ralph Nader being a spoiler -- you know, in any three-way race, two of the three are going to be spoilers. … Everybody's got a right to do it -- you're not spoiling anything. … If people want to vote for you, let them vote for you, and why shouldn't they?" he added, according to the AP.

Bloomberg publicly says he is not a candidate but he – and his ability to pour the kind of money such a campaign would require – have spurred constant buzz over the past months about his plans. Asked if it was too late to launch such a candidacy, Bloomberg displayed some deep knowledge of the ballot access process, saying, "it's getting close to being too late. It would take a lot of money, which Ralph Nader doesn't have, to get on all the ballots ... some states make it difficult, some states make it easier."

Consumer advocate Ralph Nader, whose very name can rile up Democrats still stinging from Al Gore's narrow loss in the 2000 election, is flirting with what would be his third major run for the presidency. News reports indicate he's filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission and he's also launched a new Web site, NaderExplore08.org.

The site's launch comes on the same day as Democrat John Edwards' exit from the presidential race. Nader had kind words for Edwards previously, praising his progressive stance on a number of issues and his willingness to challenge corporate interests.

Nader's committee is asking for initial contributions of $300, for which the donor will receive DVDs of Michael Moore's documentary "Sicko," a documentary about Nader, "An Unreasonable Man," along with three books. A posting on the site says the exploratory committee hopes to enlist the support of 1,000 people in each congressional district.

"Maybe we’re wrong," the site's main page says. "Maybe the Democrats and Republicans will nominate Presidential candidates this year who will stand up against the war profiteers, the nuclear industry, the credit card industry, the corporate criminals, big oil, and the drug and health insurance industries. We doubt it."

Nader's latest flirtation with a run is likely to be greeting with eye rolls from the many Democrats who believe that his presence on the Florida ballot in 2000 prevented Al Gore from overtaking George W. Bush in the state and, therefore, the electoral vote. They can take solace, however, in the fact that Nader's 2004 bid had nowhere near the following of his previous try, and he was largely a nonfactor in that race.