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.

Comment Rescue (?) and child-related gun violence in Delaware

In my post about the idiotic over-reaction to a New Jersey 10-year-old posing with his new squirrel rifle , Dana Garrett left me this response: One waits, apparently in vain, for you to post the annual rates of children who either shoot themselves or someone else with a gun. But then you Libertarians are notoriously ambivalent to and silent about data and facts and would rather talk abstract principles and fear monger (like the government will confiscate your guns). It doesn't require any degree of subtlety to see why you are data and fact adverse. The facts indicate we have a crisis with gun violence and accidents in the USA, and Libertarians offer nothing credible to address it. Lives, even the lives of children, get sacrificed to the fetishism of liberty. That's intellectual cowardice. OK, Dana, let's talk facts. According to the Children's Defense Fund , which is itself only querying the CDCP data base, fewer than 10 children/teens were killed per year in Delaw

The Obligatory Libertarian Tax Day Post

The most disturbing factoid that I learned on Tax Day was that the average American must now spend a full twenty-four hours filling out tax forms. That's three work days. Or, think of it this way: if you had to put in two hours per night after dinner to finish your taxes, that's two weeks (with Sundays off). I saw a talking head economics professor on some Philly TV channel pontificating about how Americans procrastinate. He was laughing. The IRS guy they interviewed actually said, "Tick, tick, tick." You have to wonder if Governor Ruth Ann Minner and her cohorts put in twenty-four hours pondering whether or not to give Kraft Foods $708,000 of our State taxes while demanding that school districts return $8-10 million each?

New Warfare: I started my posts with a discussion.....

.....on Unrestricted warfare . The US Air force Institute for National Security Studies have developed a reasonable systems approach to deter non-state violent actors who they label as NSVA's. It is an exceptionally important report if we want to deter violent extremism and other potential violent actors that could threaten this nation and its security. It is THE report our political officials should be listening to to shape policy so that we do not become excessive in using force against those who do not agree with policy and dispute it with reason and normal non-violent civil disobedience. This report, should be carefully read by everyone really concerned with protecting civil liberties while deterring violent terrorism and I recommend if you are a professional you send your recommendations via e-mail at the link above so that either 1.) additional safeguards to civil liberties are included, or 2.) additional viable strategies can be used. Finally, one can only hope that politici

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