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Gary Johnson to seek Liberterian nomination

G

Gonad the Barbarian

Lifer
I'm glad to see this. Hopefully this will get him the exposure he deserves. I think the national debate would benefit from his input.

Gary Johnson will quit the Republican primaries and seek the Libertarian Party nomination instead, POLITICO has learned.

The former two-term New Mexico governor, whose campaign for the GOP nomination never caught fire, will make the announcement at a news conference in Santa Fe on Dec. 28. Johnson state directors will be informed of his plans on a campaign conference call Tuesday night, a Johnson campaign source told POLITICO.

The move has been expected for weeks — Johnson had run a New Hampshire-centric effort that never got him past a blip in the polls. He appeared at only two nationally televised debates, and only one in which other major candidates took part.

Johnson expressed deep disillusionment with the process as his libertarian message failed to catch fire and he received almost no attention for his bid. He soon began flirting with the Libertarians when it became clear that he was gaining no traction in GOP primaries.

“I’m still in the race,” Johnson told POLITICO last month. “I’m registered in New Hampshire and the intention would be, hope against hope that I would be able to be heard. But there is not much hope.”
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More at link:
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1211/70727.html
 
Gary Johnson isn't very libertarian from what I've heard. He thinks the Fed should exist to "stabilize prices". Any Austrian knows that's impossible. He was also talking about waging "humanitarian wars".

Chuck Baldwin is more libertarian than Gary Johnson is.
 
Anarchist420 said:
Gary Johnson isn't very libertarian from what I've heard. He thinks the Fed should exist to "stabilize prices". Any Austrian knows that's impossible. He was also talking about waging "humanitarian wars".

Chuck Baldwin is more libertarian than Gary Johnson is.
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Gary Johnson is basically a nice cocktail of everything.

The good thing is, he's reasonable. So the more access he gets to experts, the better decisions he will make. He's a businessman, and he looks at the bottomline, not special interests. He had amazing success as Governor of New Mexico, arguably about as successful as any governor has ever been, so I think he'd do well as president.

Do I agree with him 100% on everything? No, but at least he leans towards personal freedoms, and he's much better than any other option out there. I've yet to size Gary Johnson up against anybody else and see a better candidate.
 
It will not fragment the GOP vote. Most people have no idea who Gary Johnson is. The effect will be about the same as that of the Green Party and the Communist Party fracturing the DNC vote.
 
cybrsage said:
It will not fragment the GOP vote. Most people have no idea who Gary Johnson is. The effect will be about the same as that of the Green Party and the Communist Party fracturing the DNC vote.
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Most people had no idea who Bill Clinton was at this time in the race either...
 
He will take more GOP votes than you think and it could be just enough to keep Obama in office. The last few elections have shown that it won't take that much. It's also likely that he'll keep a Democratic senator in office as he'd probably win that office if he ran.
 
I don't think Dr. Paul is going to endorse him though. They're of different factions in libertarianism. Dr. Paul is a theologically conservative (pro-life, hardcore Christian) anarcho-capitalist (he's pretty much admitted that he is) and Johnson is a social liberal (emphasizes that he doesn't go to church and is pro-choice) and more of a Friedmanite (his support of private enterprise rather than free enterprise and Johnson's monetarist views, for two examples).

I just can't support a 100% pro-business candidate like Johnson.
 
Gary Johnson is awesome, he's like the good parts of Ron Paul without all of the attached crazy. He's also said he has no interest in appealing to social conservatives.
 
Anarchist420 said:
I don't think Dr. Paul is going to endorse him though. They're of different factions in libertarianism. Dr. Paul is a theologically conservative (pro-life, hardcore Christian) anarcho-capitalist (he's pretty much admitted that he is) and Johnson is a social liberal (emphasizes that he doesn't go to church and is pro-choice) and more of a Friedmanite (his support of private enterprise rather than free enterprise and Johnson's monetarist views, for two examples).

I just can't support a 100% pro-business candidate like Johnson.
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He's more '100% support people who want to get off their ass and start a business"

He's pro-business in the aspect that it's business that makes the economy turn
 
TechBoyJK said:
He's more '100% support people who want to get off their ass and start a business"

He's pro-business in the aspect that it's business that makes the economy turn
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Not really. He's a fan of making the economy run through quasi-private prisons. He seems to think that the state can be efficient or something like that.

Johnson simply isn't pro-market enough.
 
TechBoyJK said:
Gary Johnson is basically a nice cocktail of everything.

The good thing is, he's reasonable. So the more access he gets to experts, the better decisions he will make. He's a businessman, and he looks at the bottomline, not special interests. He had amazing success as Governor of New Mexico, arguably about as successful as any governor has ever been, so I think he'd do well as president.

Do I agree with him 100% on everything? No, but at least he leans towards personal freedoms, and he's much better than any other option out there. I've yet to size Gary Johnson up against anybody else and see a better candidate.
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I agree completely, but his brand of limited government fiscal conservatism and social libertarianism will get him no traction in the Republican primary. If he's still in the Republican primary when Tennessee votes then he'll definitely get my vote, but I suspect he'll be long gone, which leaves me with Huntsman or Romney (both of whom I like.) I'll still vote for him in the general if he gets the Libertarian nod, unless Obama or the Pubby nominee is scaring me at the moment.
 
Anarchist420 said:
Not really. He's a fan of making the economy run through quasi-private prisons. He seems to think that the state can be efficient or something like that.

Johnson simply isn't pro-market enough.
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Some of us who are small 'l' libertarians have big problems with privatized for-profit prisons. I'm not saying personally that I'd completely rule out private corporations, but the people who are armed should definitely be government employees in my opinion. Just because the private sector can be more efficient doesn't make it the right choice for every situation, especially for entities in the business of denying freedom and rights - which by definition prisons are. At the very least, private prisons should have onsite government supervision.
 
Anarchist420 said:
Not really. He's a fan of making the economy run through quasi-private prisons. He seems to think that the state can be efficient or something like that.

Johnson simply isn't pro-market enough.
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He runs government like a business. If it's cheaper to do it via private enterprise, he does it. He's all about saving money, and nobody can argue that he wasn't incredibly successful doing so when he was Gov of New Mexico.
 
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