Last Friday night, proving what a party animal I really am, I watched the Libertarian debate during the John Stossel Show. It was a one hour part one of a two part debate. The second part will be tonight. The three candidates are Gary Johnson, the 2012 Libertarian candidate & former Governor of New Mexico; John McAfee, billionaire security software creator; and Austin Petersen, a young unknown quantity.
Stossel is a hard core libertarian, and his show is one of the few Fox shows I can stomach. It was an entertaining hour. All three hold views I generally agree with. Johnson is the odds on favorite to win the nomination again, as he has the best name recognition and track record. I found the debate interesting and completely the opposite of the Republican and Democrat circus debates. There was no yelling, screaming, accusations, or gotcha questions from faux journalists. Stossel asked good questions and the candidates answered them honestly.
Truthfully, none of the three could ever inspire a movement. Ron Paul is more of a Libertarian than any of them. Petersen was the most passionate, quoting the founding fathers at every opportunity. But he is in his thirties, hasn’t done anything of substance, and comes across as naive and child like. McAfee has certainly accomplished stuff in his life. He created a security software company and made a billion dollars. He was also on the run from the law in South America on murder charges, that were never proved. He comes across as a little weird. His statement that we are already at war with China was odd for a Libertarian. He made a few odd statements and joked with Petersen about meeting in a gay bar.
Johnson is the overwhelming favorite to win the nomination again. Denninger hates him. He comes across as if he is smoking some of that weed he has been selling. He has no charisma, no passion, and no guiding principles. He seems alright with forcing businesses to sell to people they choose not to sell to. He is Libertarian-lite. He got the most votes of a Libertarian candidate in history at 1.3 million in 2012. That amounted to 1% of the vote. I voted for him as my protest vote.
The story below was a shock to me. Johnson is currently polling in double digits. The biggest detriment to the Libertarian candidate is not getting to participate in the debates. They need to be polling at 15% or higher to get invited to the debates. The only way to explain his double digit support at this point is the absolute hatred that many Americans have for Clinton and Trump. There is no middle ground. You either love them or hate them. This does open up a door for an alternative candidate. If Ron Paul ran as a Libertarian he would get more than 15%. Those debates would be for the ages.
But, it’s not to be. Watch part two of the Libertarian debate tonight at 9:00 on Fox Business Network and see what you think of these guys. I hope Johnson doesn’t kiss McAfee again, like he did in part one.
Gary Johnson Polling in Double-Digits Against Trump and Hillary
Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson, the former Republican governor of New Mexico, is polling in double digits against Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton in a new Monmouth University poll. In the potential three-way race, Johnson garnered 11 percent of the vote, and, perhaps surprisingly, had a (slightly) more detrimental effect on Clinton than on Trump.
Monmouth also tested a potential three-way race involving Clinton, Trump, and former GOP governor, now Libertarian, Gary Johnson. In this hypothetical contest, Clinton earns 42% of the vote – down 6 points from the two-person race – and Trump gets 34% – down 4 points from the two-person race. Johnson takes 11%. In this contest, Clinton maintains her swing state lead – 44% to 37% for Trump and 9% for Johnson – while her leaning state lead narrows – 43% to 34% for Trump and 9% for Johnson. Johnson gets his highest vote share – 15% – in the red states. Johnson is largely an unknown commodity. Just 9% have a favorable opinion of him and 15% an unfavorable opinion, while 3-in-4 (76%) don’t know enough about him to form an opinion.
Interesting. Obviously, while this is a single poll, it’s still really interesting to see a Libertarian Party candidate poll so well. Johnson was well-received by the mostly conservative attendees at CPAC, yet only chipped away from Trump’s numbers by four percent. Johnson had previously set a record for the number of votes received by a Libertarian Party candidate in 2012, and it’s increasingly likely that he could duplicate that success in 2016.
Johnson is on the Global Warming bandwagon – that to me means he is either stupid/completely gullible or he is Establishment. Most people that I met who believe in the religion of AGW know very little on the subject, thus are gullible or Registered Dem’s (political zombies).
In either case, he sucks.
Hmmmm, will the LP matter this year? What could possibly happen to make them matter? The LP hasn’t mattered yet, since I wasted a little time with them in the late 80s- early 90s.
I’m more and more convinced that the LP is just the establishment’s holding pen and pressure relief valve for the disgruntled few remaining consistent believers in the constitution. The LP isn’t serious in the least about winning a national election, or sure as hell doesn’t appear to be.
I think it’s about damn time we draft Jim Quinn for president. It’d be the first time in presidential debate history the phrase “shut the fuck up you son of a bitch you’re full of shit” would be uttered and it’d be akin to the shit thrown round the world. That’d make a hell of a campaign slogan by the way. Admin would be like Donald Trump, yet more intellectual, like Ron Paul, yet more appealing to the ladies, and like Teddy Roosevelt, yet acceptable to us folk below the Mason Dixon. Instead of throwing up twin Vs as enters Air Force One, he’d exit the jet with a middle finger raised on his right and the shocker raised on his left. Join me in supporting The Burning POTUS in 2020.
I’ll vote Libertarian anyway as my F-You vote, unless by some cosmic miracle Trump is there at the end.
Still trying to wrap my head around hilary as president.
I also like stossel but havent watched his show in years buy occasionally will read his editorials. Used to watch faux news business for stossel and freedom watch before the judgehl spoke out of turn and the show was canceled.
Fuck fox, i dont watch the simspons, family guy or the niggah futball league either, its a waste of time.
If RP was running as the libertarian candidate and was polling at the necessary 15% he still wouldnt be included because there would be a new requirement of 16% “just in time.”
Not unless the L candidates learn how to suck oligarch dick in the next four years.
Admin,
Funny, I voted for Gary Johnson in ’12 also.
Another less than 1% of the vote IMO. The Libertarian party can’t get out of its own way. Thom Hartmann calls them “the party that wants to smoke dope and get laid”. They won’t take the Federal matching funds due to their credo and that’s a big disadvantage. And did I mention most of them are lawyers?
Greetings,
If you have the time and are interested you can find some of my opinions by searching “westernrifle” and Brendan Guy McMahan.
or here:
http://www.mycroft1.proboards.com
today on wrsa:
I can imagine….so, this:
Attitude
Continually threatening Citizens with Jail, over minor issues.
Obey Obey Obey Obey ….. It should be, that the state treats
“its” Citizens as something other than Cattle and Chickens.
Examples
http://mycroft1.proboards.com/thread/1381/political-goals
and this:
Health Care Costs (Alt-Denninger)
mycroft1.proboards.com/thread/1467/idealistic-young-lawyer
As you can see, I have a slightly different take on how to do politics.
Stay tuned.
The libertarian party are nut jobs.
I Hate these idiots. All they do or ever do is take votes away from republicans.
John McAfee, billionaire security software creator
Unless I missed some recent news update and if I am not mistaken John McAfee is now worth a few tens of millions since the crash of 2009. He spent HUGE amounts on several very expensive houses which he had to sell for pennies on the dollar in 2008 / 2009. Also, at the very height of his net worth he was only worth around 200 Million, he never was a BILLIONAIRE.
Besides, McAfee security sucks the big one – SYMANTEC / Norton has McAfee beat hands down. (McAfee takes up too much storage space and bogs down your machine).
Read McAfee’s own account of his time in South America……….what an ignorant dumbfuck. I wouldn’t let that dude walk my dog.
IndenturedServant
I FEEL YOUR PAIN my brother !
I wrote in Ron Paul in 2012. Was planning to vote Gary Johnson this year, till I did a little research-among other things, the douchebag holds EPA up as “an example of good government”-good lord! I thought I had a protest vote candidate I wouldn’t have to hold my nose to vote for, but not to be. Maybe I’ll just write in RP again. Or Judge Napolitano.
Ya, admin, I voted for gary johnson as a protest vote, too. I was an RP supporter, but because of the rules with write in candidates in FL, writing in RP wouldn’t have even been counted. I agree with yall, Johnson is libertarian lite, the EPA and global warming thing has always bothered me. I don’t know if he actually means it, or is just trying to appeal to some on the left, but either way, it looks bad. RP never wavered, and thats why some many loved him. I’m done supporting squishy-principled people, too. Same reason I could never get enthusiastic about rand paul. He just counldn’t stay on message. I always thought he was probably getting bad advice from consultants telling him to ‘compromise; on his libertarian leanings in order to appeal to a broader base of republican voters, which clearly didn’t work.
If Ron Paul ran as a libertairian this year, that probably would be a game changer. Its easy to see him getting to 15%, especially if its cruz vs clinton. Plenty of sanders supporters would either support him in protest or just not vote. Trump as gotten more than a few former RP supporters into his camp just based on their outright anger at the republican party. Once they sneak someone in over trump at the convention, and once bernie bows out, RP could really make an impact. I’m not saying he would actually win, but he would get enough support that they couldn’t exclude him from the debates. That would be fun to watch.
I do not love Trump…he is MY protest vote.
Hilary? I can only imagine the carnage.
Libertarian? Gay bars? Global Warming?
Bye Bye Birdie.
BTW, I am listening to C2M and John Perkins is talking
about his remake of his book, “Confessions about an Economic Hitman,”
an autobiographical book (2004) about the overthrow of leaders
in a multitude of countries. He adds 14 chapters, (based on his travels)
to update us. He calls what we have now as a “death culture.”
He explains how big banks lent big money to these countries which they
could not repay. Corporations were able to buy natural resources for a
song, and destroyed the countries. Pollution and garbage mounted for
these people as there were no “regulations.” And they went broke.
He tells us so much changed after Milton Friedman told the corporations
their only obligation was to create profit for the shareholders.
Anywho…I wanted to make people aware of this book.
BTW #2…I would vote for Jim Quinn. Hear that Mr. Quinn? How can we
get a few hundred billion to launch you into the game?
I, too, voted for Gary Johnson in 2012.
McAfee is “a little weird”. That’s an understatement!
gosh, what a rotten editor I am…poor phrasing and left
out facts. I give myself a C-…charitably speaking.
Thanks for tolerating me. Sorry.
Johnson isn’t much of a talker, but he’s definitely a doer. He did a great job as New Mexico’s governor, and his background in business is impressive. I voted for him in ’12 and will likely vote for him again this year. He wants to repeal the 17th amendment, abolish the Patriot Act, and agrees with Ron Paul on ending the Fed. There is no perfect human being, or perfect candidate, but I think Johnson is the best option we have.
When did the Libertarian Party EVER matter? America is a (supposedly) two party system …. no other party ever ever ever has a chance of you know …. actually wining.
But, there is a democracy in the world right now which has ELEVEN different parties represented in its version of Congress. There are an addition TWENTY or more parties which occasionally do win enough votes to get a set.
I am not going to tell you the name of that country. I will not even give you a hint. Why? Because I don’t want to be called a Joo Lover.