Gary Johnson Wins 2012 Libertarian Nomination

[Grassy Knoll]

Source: huffingtonpost

LAS VEGAS -- Former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson is campaigning to win the White House as a Libertarian after receiving scant attention in the Republican presidential race.

Johnson easily became the party's presidential nominee at the Libertarian national convention in Las Vegas on Saturday. He hopes to appeal to voters fed up with the traditional two-party system this November.

Johnson was a longshot candidate for the Republican presidential nomination when he announced in December that he would instead pursue the Libertarian ticket.


Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/05/gary-johnson-2012-libertarian-nomination_n_1485044.html

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I think Obama's odds got a little better.

[Joe Bacon]

1. Gosh, who will his running mate be?

As long as Johnson sucks votes away from R-Money, that's OK with me!

[Comrade Grumpy]

14. His veep pick is Orange County (CA) Superior Court Judge Jim Gray.

Who has made a name for himself as a drug reformer and legalizer.

Johnson is very good on drug reform, too. I can see this ticket possibly hurting Obama in Colorado, where pot legalization will also be on the ballot.

[joshcryer]

17. Obama never could count on the white male vote anyway.

[Lawlbringer]

2. So Gonzo Ronzo has nowhere to go after he finally drops out, right?

Or is "St Paul" going to go for another party?

[freshstart]

24. Ron Paul has

bigger ties to the loonies at the Constitution Party (the Howard Phillips group.) I think that is where he threw his support last time.

[Rozlee]

4. Johnson's kind of hard to peg down.

I'd never even heard much about Johnson except blurbs during the early primaries. From what I've been researching in the last couple of hours, he's said to be more of a fiscal conservative than a social one. He opposes late term abortions, but not early ones. That certainly won't get him the religious nutcase vote. And the Paul followers, frankly, are more of a personality cult. There's no telling if they'll switch to Johnson. My guess is that many might. It's going to be an interesting election.

[cyberswede]

5. The libertarians always have a candidate.

Is this one any higher-profile than any others over the years? Does he have any more chance than any other Libertarian candidate to get votes that would otherwise go to Obama?

I think the Libertarian candidate conceivably takes a few votes from the left, as well as a few votes from the right, but not enough to matter either way (unlike someone like Nader, Anderson, or Perot).

There's always a Libertarian on the ballot, isn't there? When I was in high school, the Libertarian candidate spoke to my government class. I got my picture in the paper talking with him afterward (naturally, I was asking about the legalization of drugs - LOL). I can't even remember his name...aren't they typically unmemorable?

[Joe Bacon]

25. Ron Paul was their 1988 Presidential nominee!

I don't think Johnson had the profile that Paul did.

[onehandle]

6. Libertarians are just Republicans that think Republicans aren't cruel enough. nt

[LTR]

7. Libertarians are Republicans who smoke dope

Or are afraid to call themselves conservatives.

I will say this, Johnson's bashing Romney more than Obama so far, so that's cool for me.

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. Given there are plenty of FORMER democrats in the Libertarian party...

Not that easy to peg down. Incidentally this is why the Libertarians cannot become a true national party. Tent is so damn wide it is not even funny... and spans the full spectrum.

[AtheistCrusader]

15. Huge anti-war contingent. Also enormous civil liberties contingent.

Hard to quantify. There are even left-leaning libertarians.

Honestly, as long as they cut the GOP in half, they have my blessings.

[nadinbrzezinski]

23. And some of those left leaning libertarians are here

it is the third largest party... but the tent is THAT wide.

As to RP supporters, they are to a point delusional. They still believe RP wil be on the ballot in November.

[AtheistCrusader]

26. I think he will LIKELY be on the ballot at the convention

but no, not going to happen in november. Romney is going to get enough delegates to lock the initial vote, so the 'flipped' unbound delegates thing isn't going to happen.

[JackRiddler]

9. Not really.

Johnson is both antiwar and for ending the war on drugs. Those are just about the greatest cruelties of all, don't you think? If they weren't so economically atavistic (and naive) and, um, had no chance to do anything but take a small piece of the vote...

[joshcryer]

18. No Libertarian is anti-war.

[AtheistCrusader]

27. I work with several, actually.

Even right-leaning libertarians. You should see them get into it with the neocons over foreign policy. They seriously want the wars over, and an enormous number of foreign military bases recalled.

[joshcryer]

28. Ask them what they think about paid security forces.

Should the United States forbid companies from hiring armed security (ie, mercenaries)?

That's what the FCPA does: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Corrupt_Practices_Act

[AtheistCrusader]

30. I know they wanted Blackwater de-funded in Iraq, before it became Xe

but overall, you hit a good point. They wanted Congress to issue letters of marque for private entities to reel in Osama Bin Laden.

I'll ask what they think of that act tomorrow. Curious which side they fall on.

[joshcryer]

32. Note the FCPA does not *explicitly* forbid paid security forces.

But if you got rid of the FCPA you'd have an opportunity to have mercenaries, ala the Regan-esque paramilitary junta's in the Latin America's through the 80s.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_policy_of_the_Ronald_Reagan_administration#Latin_America

[coalition_unwilling]

33. Letters of Marque - wow, talk about your 18th-century anachronisms. Had to

go to Wiki just to refresh my memory.

Maybe I should have said 15th-century anachonrisms

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_of_marque

[JackRiddler]

35. Simply untrue.

[expatriate2mex]

39. Have you read the libertarian platform?

3.1 National Defense

We support the maintenance of a sufficient military to defend the United States against aggression.
The United States should both avoid entangling alliances and abandon its attempts to act as
policeman for the world. We oppose any form of compulsory national service.

[joshcryer]

44. That has no bearing on Libertarian ideology that supports Banana Republics...

...and crony capitalism.

[expatriate2mex]

45. I think you are confused on libertarians here.nt

[joshcryer]

46. Nope, Libertarians believe in the almighty contract.

The end result of their policies are paramilitary groups, mercenary groups, and wholesale raping of a countries resources.

[expatriate2mex]

47. That's just plain ridiculous. Just like progressives are communists, right?

You are very confused on true libertarians. Someone can say they are anti choice and gay rights and say they are progressives but that does not make them so. I have no idea where you are getting this from.

Libertarians believe our military should not be involved in other nations business, period.

[onehandle]

22. An aberration. Every Libertarian I've ever know has been a Republican on steroids.

Armed to the teeth with 'Nuke their ass, take their gas' bumper stickers and zero tolerance for the existence of minorities.

[expatriate2mex]

40. Then you do not know any libertarians. Read their platform.

http://www.lp.org/platform

[onehandle]

41. I'm not talking about the party. I'm talking about the members.

Selfish assholes, for the most part.

[expatriate2mex]

43. I stand by what I said, they are not libertarians then.nt

[expatriate2mex]

38. They support choice, gay rights, pot legalization. Sounds really republican to me.

Actually it's a mixture of both parties, abortion and gay rights alone keeps most republican's away though. Do you people think republicans will defect to support these?

http://www.lp.org/platform

1.3 Personal Relationships

Sexual orientation, preference, gender, or gender identity should have no impact on the
government's treatment of individuals, such as in current marriage, child custody, adoption,
immigration or military service laws. Government does not have the authority to define, license or
restrict personal relationships. Consenting adults should be free to choose their own sexual practices
and personal relationships.

1.4 Abortion

Recognizing that abortion is a sensitive issue and that people can hold good-faith views on all sides, we believe that government should be kept out of the matter, leaving the question to each person for their conscientious consideration.

[George Cauldron]

10. I really wish it had been Paul

He could have taken a few points away from Romney. Johnson will be lucky if he breaks 1%.

[struggle4progress]

11. When ya rilly wanna vote fuh sumbuddy ya nevah hoyd uv!

[RainDog]

12. Johnson entry into the race presents some problems for Obama

And that problem stems from Johnson's endorsement of the legal marijuana and a call to end the war on drugs.

Most people are not one-issue voters - but some are - or some prioritize differently, based upon what they perceive as their self interest.

Younger voters are the largest part of the population that supports legal cannabis. They're also the group most likely to use cannabis, so, the issue is one of self interest for them. They are the group behind the massive numbers of voters who have petitioned Obama to address rescheduling, and they are the ones who have made the question of cannabis' status in American the number one issue, in terms of popularity, in his online Q&A's, etc.

I would assume that most of Johnson's support would come from conservatives who are disaffected by the choice of Romney. However, it's also likely Johnson will cost Obama some of the youth vote.

[AtheistCrusader]

16. Obama is at least shoring up support by closing out some of these fucking wars.

That will take some teeth out of Johnson's mouth. Not too late to de-fang him on the drug war either.

[Robb]

20. He's polling at 7%. What "problems for Obama" (46%) do you see, really?

[sofa king]

21. I'm not worried about it.

The Democratic Party is obviously taking a small risk by focusing heavily on informed voters.

Most informed voters will not consider a third-party candidate because they know that a vote for a weak third-party candidate, like not voting at all, is an automatic vote for the winner.

Ralph Nader voters from 2000 are sipping their mercury, breathing their hydrocarbons, and enjoying America's wetlands by sneaking onto golf courses at night exactly because voting for a third-party candidate took away votes from the real environmental candidate and handed the election to the worst possible candidate instead.

Therefore, I expect the vast majority of this 7% diversion of votes to instead be siphoned away from the pool of low-information voters who cannot be relied upon to make an informed choice no matter what.

So to hell with 'em. This time, they'll be making the better choice by turning in an effective non-vote for a third party rather than actively voting against their own best interests by backing Romney. I wish the dope-smokers could see that the path to legalization is through the party that will at least consider it and has a chance of controlling Congress... but they're high.

[coalition_unwilling]

34. The Supreme Court handed the election to the worst possible candidate and

all post-election manual recounts by media organizations showed that Gore won, no matter what method of counting disputed ballots was used.

Please don't ask me for citations as I don't keep them handy and really don't want to dig them up

[sofa king]

36. And if Gore had won just 10% of Nader's votes....

...He would have won by 9000 votes, and it would not have been close enough to steal.

[coalition_unwilling]

37. Um, Gore actually did win, as every recount after the USSC

decision made clear.

[alittlelark]

13. I really like Johnson.... I wish it had been Paul.

Johnson could siphon off many votes due to his charisma.

[burrowowl]

29. His Big J Construction Company

Short changed workers and was not very ethical

[alittlelark]

31. He is a hideous parasite.

However after meeting him a number of years ago I must say that he is self-deprecating and charming.

Most successful sociopaths are.

[rurallib]

19. Saw some of that yesterday. If possible the Libertarians were even whiter

than the Republicans.

[underpants]

42. That is Ike winning Vegetarian Butcher of the year. Nt