Eddie Vedder, front man for Seattle "grunge rock" supergroup Pearl Jam, rallied the faithful Saturday night in support of Green Party Presidential candidate Ralph Nader, who repeated his call to be included in upcoming presidential debates.

"I've never been to one of these. I think the reason why is I've never had anyone I could believe in before," Vedder told the crowd of several thousand who paid $10 each to attend the rally at Key Arena.

Vedder, accompanying himself on acoustic guitar, warmed up the crowd with two songs whose lyrics took jabs at the kind of corporate leaders Nader has made a career of skewering.

Vedder dedicated his first song to "my neighbors Paul and Bill. Are they here somewhere? Maybe in a skybox? If they're not here, they should be."

The reference was to Microsoft Corp. co-founders Paul Allen and Bill Gates.

Nader slammed what he called the unacceptable inequality of wealth in the United States, asserting that recently Gates' wealth equaled the worth of the 120 million poorest Americans.

"This is not a so-called banana republic. This is the United States," Nader said, asserting that many people are making less in real wages than they were decades ago.

"Workers should not be making less than what they made in 1968. They should be making double what they made in 1968," he said.

The crowd fell into a chant of "Let Ralph debate" as Nader called for his inclusion in upcoming debates between Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore.

Touting his Green Party candidacy, Nader said Americans should not have to choose between "the lesser of two evils and the evil of two lessers. Sometimes the safest thing to do is take a chance."

He chided Americans for expecting too little from government.

"Raising our expectations is the first step toward empowering ourselves," Nader said.

He also praised the "spirit of Seattle." Nader was a firsthand observer last fall when the city streets were taken over by some 50,000 protesters during the meeting of the World Trade Organization.

Nader said he's pleased with recent momentum his campaign has built. The Seattle stop was the third of four major Green Party rallies. The second, in Minneapolis on Friday, drew 12,000 people.