I think he’ll possibly hurt the libertarian movement, because he doesn’t seem to have Dr. Paul’s populist rhetoric. He doesn’t seem hate the Fed enough and he follows the views of Ayn Rand, which implies that he thinks big business is the victim of big government. I was also under the impression that he supports NAFTA, but correct me if I’m mistaken.
If he runs and Dr. Paul doesn’t, then I’ll vote for him, but very reluctantly so. I think Obama’s going to win anyway, unless Willard gets the nomination. The GOP is shooting itself in the foot by not supporting Ron Paul, as he really stands the greatest chance of defeating the incumbent.
No doubt Paul would make the best president, but the GOP would be comitting politcal suicide by nominating him. Johnson is far more electable. H is more moderate that Paul, while still being relatively radical. Considering the high discontent with obama’s policies he might not scare off the independents, while still being radical enough to bring out the tea party vote. the tea party would be there to stay, but he could pick off lefties by saying he wants to legalise pot and being anti wars (which he does).
Did you hear about this poll? As Gary North wrote, "On April 13, the Rasmussen polling organization released the latest poll on political opinion. Voters were asked who they would vote for President. Result: President Obama, 42%; Ron Paul, 41%. No other Republican was in double-digits.
This was a bombshell. The Republican Establishment had previously dismissed his win at C-PAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) as manipulated. This was not a scientific poll, they said. But the Rasmussen poll was scientific. Ron Paul is neck-and-neck with Obama.
Gary Johnson just isn’t very articulate and he doesn’t seem passionate about his ideas. He’s also very much a “beltway” libertarian, not someone who actually stands on principle. As a whole, I just don’t like Gary Johnson and I wouldn’t vote for him, though he does seem better than 99.9% of politicians. I guess that just shows you how many scumbags there are in politics.
Krazy Kaju: Gary Johnson just isn’t very articulate and he doesn’t seem passionate about his ideas. He’s also very much a “beltway” libertarian, not someone who actually stands on principle. As a whole, I just don’t like Gary Johnson and I wouldn’t vote for him, though he does seem better than 99.9% of politicians. I guess that just shows you how many scumbags there are in politics .
Yeah, that’s the biggest problem I have with him is that he’s a beltway libertarian, instead of a paleolibertarian. The Beltway libertarians could kill the movement. The paleolibertarians are much better at spreading the message than the beltway libertarians.
That link requires an account to view. I am hesitant to put much stock in these numbers without knowing details of the polls methodology/demographic. Was the pole done entirely online? If so then it doesn’t have much meaning since Ron Paul is big with the online demographic but not big with the rest of the country.
Paul probably isn’t that popular. He just has the most support online and a very supportive fan base. A regular Republican who watches Fox News once every three nights and doesn’t care about politics beyond that will passively throw out a vote for Mitt Romney and that is just as valuable of a vote as one Paul devotee (hint: there are more of the former who vote for any ol’ Republican than the latter). That said, Johnson would do best to speak his piece and then drop out once the major primaries start going. Paul is more electable only because he has a history. The only way Paul comes close to winning is if the major Republican candidates pick each other off in the primaries and somehow Paul comes away with enough delegates in a finish-line ending.
Johnson I don’t think appeals to anybody as a top-tier candidate. Just about 90% of the libertarians voting in this election (which are few and farther between to begin with) would have a preference of Paul number one and then Johnson second. So I’m not sure what slice of the electorate Johnson is aiming for here. Of course, if Paul does not decide to run (which doesn’t look to be the case), then I would have no reservations about Johnson running. I wish he would have resisted and run in either 2016 or 2020.
It wasn’t done online. The bottom of the link, in small writing, states:
This national telephone survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted by Rasmussen Reports on April 12-13, 2010. The margin of sampling error for the survey is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence (see methodology).
I don’t think he is a “sell out” because he supports certain military alliances, have you considered that he genuinely thinks that military alliances could keep america safe? don’t get me wrong, I disagree with him but I don’t think it makes him a “sell out” anymore than he already is by being moderate in his libertarianism. also, right now I would be shocked if he Ron Paul didn’t run. In any event it will certaintly lend more crediblity to Ron to have someone backing him up, even if he doesn’t go as far as he should.