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Gary Johnson for Senate

By: Leon H. Wolf (Diary)  |  December 20th, 2011 at 03:00 PM  | 

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Apparently, Gary Johnson is continuing to mull a completely fruitless third-party run for the Presidency. His specific beef is that he performed so poorly because he was unjustifiably excluded from most of the television debates, which he apparently blames on the GOP. I really don’t know how much merit this complaint has – I am under the impression that the media/sponsoring organizations for the debate decide who is included and who is not. Certainly you could have made the case that for much of the race, if you were going to include Santorum and Huntsman, you should have also included Johnson. I just don’t know if he’s taking out his frustration on the right folks here.

I don’t know very much about Gary Johnson. I gather that he is more of a hard-boiled libertarian in the style of Ron Paul, only with much less crazy. Although I don’t necessarily agree with where those sorts of people stand, I’m glad to have them around in the party, especially in the Senate where they can really muck up the works to some good effect. I do know that Johnson remains popular in New Mexico and according to at least one poll, does substantially better than the rest of the GOP field in polling of the upcoming New Mexico Senate race.

I hope that Johnson reconsiders this third party run nonsense. If attention is what he wants, I think he will find that running as the Libertarian party’s candidate for President doesn’t really provide a whole lot of that. On the other hand, I could really get behind more crazy honey badger libertarians in the Senate making Mitch McConnell’s life unbearable. The solution here is clear: Gary Johnson for Senate. Sour grapes never do anything but set your teeth on edge.

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  • http://www.thehayride.com MacAoidh

    …and one I have been screaming at Johnson’s people ever since they started bombing me with e-mails whining about getting frozen out of the debates.

    Johnson would give us a fiscal hawk in the Senate. We are sorely lacking in those.

    All the social liberal stuff isn’t great, but that’s not what’s important right now.

  • snowsoul

    n/t

  • heraklios

    If the race is Willard Mittens against Barry O, I could easily see Johnson getting 8-10% of the vote, some of those from Ron Paul’s crowd but a sizeable number from disgruntled conservatives who would rather send a message to the GOP Establishment than support the crap our party would offer up.

    On a side note, Fox News tonight makes me sick. They are running an infomercial for Mittens

    • Tbone

      struck me as an inept, inarticulate clod. Turns out he is an idiot as well.

      • aesthete

        Perry doesn’t come off too well in them, either. Both Perry and Huntsman have the best records as far as practical government experience goes, interestingly enough — yet both are polling in single digits.

        • Tbone

          Just look at the crowd here who thought Cain was God’s gift rather than the buffoon that he so obviously is. Now, a lot of them have turned to Dr. Newt.

          • lineholder

            Saying it’s the fault of “stupid, shallow voters” is a convenient excuse and nothing more. Both Huntsman and Perry have made their tactical errors. They each dug themselves into something of a hole with voters, and they’re finding it difficult to get out their respective holes.

            You can’t blame voters on that one. Sorry.

          • Common_Cents

            LOL. That’ll go over real well! Those dumb customers!

            Candidates are competitors chasing same voters. Everyone is in the same situation.

      • keepourrepublic

        Who grew a one man handy man business to a thousand employees making it the largest construction compnay in New Mexico.

        Who went right from the private sector to win the governorship 50% – 40%

        Who inherited a deficit and left his state with a billion dollar surplus, who cut taxes 14 times, and made his tenure as governor the longest period of time New Mexico had gone without a tax increase.

        Who actually reduced the size of the new mexico state government by 1,200 employees – a full 10% of the total number of state employees.

        Whose adherence to rock solid limited government principles brought his state 11.7% job growth over the course of this two terms.

        • Tbone

          head injury from which he awoke to find himself running on the Libertarian ticket.

          Or, I’ll just assume he is an idiot.

          • keepourrepublic

            Gary Johnson has been a loyal trooper for the GOP during his time in office and after. He went into this thinking that he would get a fair shake. He was upfront about where he stands on the issues. He is what most people say they want in a politican and that’s being honest.

            He didn’t expect to be given any favors but he didn’t expect a media blackout on him. He certainly didn’t expect the GOP to assist in the media blackout of him. Seeing the strongest limited government candidate getting the shaft the GOP could have chosen to host debates that would be fair and not cater to the meida. Aside from the Florida GOP which made sure he was included in that one debate he didn’t get anything. The GOP went along with the media selecting our candidates.

            That’s bullshit. And that’s on the GOP.

            I’ve been with a few candidates campaiging, and universally the thing that tears them apart the most is when those who should be their allies attack or desert them. Once that feeling of betrayal sets into a candidate he’s not likley to be able to think clearly until he has had at least two weeks to recover from the election.

            Gary Johnson has through dint of will and effort overcome every other obstical in his life. For example, he climbed Mount Everest with a broken leg among other feats. Whatever he decides to do this year and however that goes for him I believe that we will have not seen the last of Gary Johnson.

          • http://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com nathanalbright

            …is hardly something unique to Mr. Johnson. I don’t see Rick Perry flirting with a third party bid, though. I imagine we haven’t seen the last of him, but he’s taking it out on the wrong people. Few of us (myself included) are hostile to him personally, and I think he’d be a way saner alternative for the more libertarian-inclined than Ron “Moon Cadet” Paul.

          • keepourrepublic

            If Gary Johnson as a two term successful GOP governor had been afforded the same seat at the table we wouldn’t be talking about this.

          • http://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com nathanalbright

            But I think acting like an adult rather than like a kid who sulks in the corner and runs away and takes all of his toys would be preferable in the long term if Gary Johnson has any long-term goals as a Republican in high office.

          • Tbone

            scrambled his brain. Got it. So what is your excuse for being stupid?

  • aesthete

    I hope he doesn’t continue to muse about moves that will relegate him to irrelevance in perpetuity, and destroy the goodwill that he’s built for being a consistent GOPer thus far.

    • http://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com nathanalbright

      …and sometimes people just try to grab too far too fast without getting the good name recognition needed to pursue higher office. I think a Senator Johnson would be a way to put the crazy in our nation’s Senate in a good way. :)

  • keepourrepublic

    Leon,

    Here’s a brief run down on Gary Johnson I wrote during the summer.

    http://www.redstate.com/keepourrepublic/2011/09/23/governor-gary-johnson/

  • http://www.doctor-bob.biz rsklaroff

    …and argues for nominating a TEA [taxed enough already] favorite….such as Perry…rather than Mitt or The Newt.

    • http://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com nathanalbright

      ….it would argue for a move to the right to cut off a third party bid from that direction rather than running away from conservatives and trying to win with a squishy.

  • williamjameson

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjSfTOVZ-Xk

    Not sure how he came to think he could be president but as govenor his fiscal record is better than Romney’s……..afterall, what exactly did Romney accomplish that’s consider fiscally big.

    I don’t know anything about the voters in his state but I can’t say we could do worse. Think Charlie Sheen or Lidnsey Lohan next time someone says legalize pot….it is a stairway drug. CDC stats confirm over 15% move to stronger drugs. 15% a year adds up, think California. Yikes!

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  • federalfarmer1

    I heard the libertarian party wants to run Jesse the body instead Johnson anyway, which has to be a bigger slap in the face than beingleft out of the debates.

  • http://www.baseballcrank.com Dan McLaughlin

    Johnson is pro-choice and a huge fan of drug legalization, among other things:

    See Here, here & here.

  • willbone87

    Last winter, my wife and I attended a house party in Maryland to introduce Gary Johnson to 100 or so folks.

    He was clearly in the early rounds of starting his presidential campaign. I asked him in front of the audience whether he would consider running for the Senate in light of Bingaman’s retirement.

    He was unequivocal in stating No. I remember him describing why he was not wired to work in a legislative setting. One line I distinctly remember as he dismissed my question (with more than a bit of arrogance I might add) was

    “I DO NOT WANT TO BE JUST ANOTHER PIG AT THE TROUGH.”

    He was kind of a dick about the whole exchange, but I respected his bluntness as to having ZERO interest in running for the Senate.

    That said, I knew he was delusional about becoming the next President of the United States, so I went and got a cold beer and simply enjoyed the rest of the Q and A.

  • federalfarmer1

    What really matters. My main concern would be whether he’d vote with dems on foreign policy.

  • acat

    Go figure.

    Mew

  • keepourrepublic

    Something that get left unsaid about Gary Johnson on abortion is that while he identifies as pro-life as governor he had a strong pro-life rating.

    “As Governor, Gary Johnson supported legislation that banned late term abortions and allowed parental notification for minors seeking an abortion. He was not only endorsed by the Right to Life Committee, but he also signed on as a supporter to every bill supported by New Mexico Right to Life.”

  • Repair_Man_Jack

    Mostly, he’d be way better on the economy and probably on life (based on his record as gov). And then about the same as a Dem on everything else.

  • jakeofalltrades

    n/t

  • acat

    belong in their respective Senate races. Not in Iowa.

    Mew

  • heraklios

    That only merits 25%? Somehow I thought that given our circumstances, the economy might carry a little more weight.

  • http://www.doctor-bob.biz rsklaroff

    …which is fortuitous.