Skip to main content

Confident going into Libertarian convention, Gary Johnson provides glimpse of campaign strategy

Appearing certain of his nomination as the Libertarian Party's 2012 Presidential Candidate in Las Vegas this weekend, former New Mexico Gary Johnson looked ahead to the General Election campaign in an interview with Michael Shear in The New York Times "Caucus" blog.

Asked about distinguishing his own candidacy from those of President Obama and Governor Romney, Johnson said,
Gary Johnson is confident
he will become the LP
nominee on May 5.

By embracing the best from the Democrats, which, arguably, has historically been about civil liberties. And then embracing the best of what historically has been the best of the Republican Party, which is dollars and cents. Speaking with a broad brushstroke, the notion that the majority of Americans are fiscally conservative and socially tolerant — I’m in that group. That said, O.K., what are the problems facing the country? What are the solutions? I guess you could be homeless and still talk about the problems facing the country and the solutions. I’m going argue, though, that to run for president, you have to have a résumé to actually suggest that you could be successful in bringing about resolutions to the problems that we have.
His assessment of President Obama's performance during the past four years was succinct, but damning:



To me, Obama’s been a real disappointment on civil liberties: marriage equality, getting out of the wars, getting out of Afghanistan — he doubled down on Afghanistan — drug reform, signing the National Defense Authorization Act with the caveat that now you and I as U.S. citizens can now be detained without being charged.
Nor did he have kind words for Governor Romney:

The only issue I have with Mitt Romney is I have no idea where he stands on any issues. Other than he’s going to cut the budget but he’s going to increase military spending. He’s going to cut the budget, but he’s going to saveMedicare? Two sides of the mouth that really don’t end up talking about real solutions.
As an early glimpse of his campaign's strategy, these answers are revealing in that they suggest that Gary Johnson will try to position himself as the mainstream candidate--socially tolerant and fiscally conservative, with a record of doing what he promises he'll do.

This is potentially a strong approach . . . if he can get sufficient media attention for enough people to ever hear it.

Comments

tom said…
The Republican nomination is far from decided despite the Mainstream Media's and both major parties' Coronation of Mitt Romney last weekend.

Would you care to comment on the effect of Gary Johnson in a hypothetical Barrack Obama vs Ron Paul race and the likely impact on both the outcome and LP vote totals compared to Obama vs Romney.

Most pundits who have not chosen to just ignore Johnson and the LP seem to think he would take more votes from Obama than from Romney.

But that is probably not true of Ron Paul with whom he agrees on nearly everything, except the relatively minor but very emotionally charged issues of Abortion Rights & Gay Marriage. (Ron Paul is philosophically extremely opposed to both, but does not think the Federal government has Constitutional jurisdiction over either; Gary Johnson believes both should be legal)

And on a more pragmatic level they also differ on Johnson's two terms as Governor vs Paul's lack of Executive branch experience.

Popular posts from this blog

A Libertarian Martin Luther King Jr. Day post

In which we travel into interesting waters . . . (for a fairly long trip, so be prepared) Dr. King's 1968 book, Where do we go from here:  chaos or community? , is profound in that it criticizes anti-poverty programs for their piecemeal approach, as John Schlosberg of the Center for a Stateless Society  [C4SS] observes: King noted that the antipoverty programs of the time “proceeded from a premise that poverty is a consequence of multiple evils,” with separate programs each dedicated to individual issues such as education and housing. Though in his view “none of these remedies in itself is unsound,” they “all have a fatal disadvantage” of being “piecemeal,” with their implementation having “fluctuated at the whims of legislative bodies” or been “entangled in bureaucratic stalling.”   The result is that “fragmentary and spasmodic reforms have failed to reach down to the profoundest needs of the poor.” Such single-issue approaches also have “another common failing — ...

More of This, Please

Or perhaps I should say, "Less of this one, please." Or how about just, "None of them. Ever again. Please....For the Love of God." Sunshine State Poll: Grayson In Trouble The latest Sunshine State/VSS poll shows controversial Democratic incumbent Alan Grayson trailing former state Senator Dan Webster by seven points, 43 percent to 36 percent. A majority of respondents -- 51 percent -- disapprove of the job that Grayson is doing. Independents have an unfavorable view of him as well, by a 36/47 margin. Grayson has ignored the conventional wisdom that a freshman should be a quiet member who carefully tends to the home fires. The latest controversy involves his " Taliban Dan " advertisement, where he explicitly compares his opponent to the Taliban, and shows a clip of Webster paraphrasing Ephesians 5:22 -- "wives, submit to your husbands." An unedited version of the clip shows that Webster was actually suggesting that husba...

A reply to Salon's R. J. Eskrow, and his 11 stupid questions about Libertarians

Posts here have been in short supply as I have been living life and trying to get a campaign off the ground. But "11 questions to see if Libertarians are hypocrites" by R. J. Eskrow, picked up at Salon , was just so freaking lame that I spent half an hour answering them. In the end (but I'll leave it to your judgment), it is not that Libertarians or Libertarian theory looks hypocritical, but that the best that can be said for Mr. Eskrow is that he doesn't have the faintest clue what he's talking about. That's ok, because even ill-informed attacks by people like this make an important point:  Libertarian ideas (as opposed to Conservative ideas, which are completely different) are making a comeback as the dynamic counterpoint to "politics as usual," and so every hack you can imagine must be dragged out to refute them. Ergo:  Mr. Eskrow's 11 questions, with answers: 1.       Are unions, political parties, elections, and ...