Talk Elections

Gary Johnson, and R. Lee Wrights are debating now. Its on CSPAN :)

http://www.c-span.org/Live-Video/C-SPAN/
http://www.examiner.com/article/gary-johnson-favorite-for-libertarian-nomination

Lee Wrights sounds so much like my Uncle its creepy :P

Kinda rooting for R. Lee Wrights to win the nomination.

Hoping someone wins who could actually draw in some Republican, Paul voters :-D

Gary Johnson is a very maladroit speaker, completely incapable of articulation. I wouldn't be excited about him if I were a Libertarian (or a libertarian).

>:(

I think Johnson is going to have a fairly easy victory, 55% to Wrights 45% on the first ballot. Johnson and Wrights got along well in the debate last night, and a Johnson/Wrights ticket could come out of this convention.

Someone tried to nominate Ron Paul, though the measure narrowly failed. Johnson, Wrights, and two other guys whom I have never heard of.

Bill Still and RJ Harris?

Still is an economist from Virginia and Harris is a military vet from Oklahoma who ran for Congress last year and failed miserably. He was endorsed by Ron Paul.

Nah Harris dropped out, its Carl Pereson and some other guy. Its on CSPAN right now.

Did he really?!

I'm watching it now. This Pereson guy sounds so boring...

Yeah, this is actually on C-SPAN if anyone is so inclined.

Pereson's got the right idea, but he is as charismatic as a blade of grass.

He sounds like he was speaking at his wifes funeral.

The candidate who has just taken the stage is wearing a powdered wig.

This Burns fellow is nuts.

Which is why he's nuts.

He's reading a speech by Patrick Henry... at length.

This guy sounds like he should be narrating a School House Rock history video.

"My name is James "Libatarian" Burns"

Oh my god he actually changed his middle name to Libertarian. Legitimately.

He needs a few more thiga-mcgiggers to become the VP nominee. LOL. That guy was funny.

The great persuader!

Heresssss Gary!

I love how these people think Gary Johnson somehow stands a chance of getting more than 3% of the vote.

Believe me, I wish he could win, but he can't.

"the uh... the less unfair tax!"

I think he can take up to 10%. He is not charismatic, agreed, but this is the year of the third party. Not only will Johnson take about 5% of the vote, but Roemer will likely come very close (but not surpass) 1.0%, and Anderson, Stein, and Goode will be well under 1%.

Gary Johnson is trying to make himself sound like a fwucking Bill Weld-style Republican.  Yuck.  I really hope that Wrights guy beats him.

That was the phoniest speech I've ever heard in my entire life.

Holden Caulfield is rolling in his grave.

Why are you guys hating on Johnson? I were a registered Libertarian, I would be thinking that these are the most exciting times since Christ was born in Bethleham! I am rooting for Johnson, though Wrights and Burns are good guys too.

Welp. Here we go.

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He's trying to excite a base that's been as stagnant as a statue since the 1970's. He thinks he can win, but he can't.

Ron Paul begs to disagree ;)

His speech was full of meaningless platitudes and he didn't take a single "unconventional" position at all.

Was that a transvestite? In the white dress & wig?

Jim Libertarian Burns, who legally changed his middle name to Libertarian. I kid you not.

No wonder I ditched this party.

I lean towards the Constitution Party, but what I really want is a Paulite Party or something of that nature. That was a tranny.

A Paulite Party wouldn't get more than a few thousand members, max. Was he really a tranny?

Here comes the official results :)

They appear to be having difficulty lining up alphabetically.

Chair of NH is hot, I admit. :)

Johnson is winning in a landslide, greater than 75% so far.

"The Pennsylvania Libertarian Party, the state that kicked Rick Santorums ass out of the Senate, cast its votes for Gary Johnson"....

How do they determine how many votes each state gets?  South Dakota has 4 and Rhode Island has 1?

I think it's based upon whomever shows up to the convention.

If third parties ever want any credibility becoming the platform for candidates who failed to win a "real" party's nomination might not be the right way to go.

Texas is a big win for Wrights.  And who is this creep from Utah?

The Utah Chair is the creepiest man I've ever seen.

I thought they said Johnson won Texas 24-3

Noooo Wrights won.

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Ron Paul with a delegate vote lol

I can't understand a word this woman is saying.

Well, nice to know Libertarians have some minority representation.

BOOS FOR WAYNE ALLYN ROOT HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

WAR booed....

Wayne Allyn Root gets a write-in vote and gets loudly booed. :D

Who voted for Root? I'd love to know if that was meant as a joke or a protest.

My reaction as well :D

Snitker was quick to remind everyone it was not him.

Rupert from Survivor is here hahahaha

Hey, the Survivor guy. How's he doing in the polls? Hope he gets in the double digits.

Yep. It'd be hilarious if he got double digits.

At least MA didn't give a majority to Johnson.

Here comes Toni Nathan to announce the winner :)

I have it at roughly Johnson 398, Wrights 140, Others 21

Aaaaaaaand Gary Johnson wins.

I'm a bit surprised both of Governor Johnson's parents are still alive. Good for them, and him.

I'll probably end up voting for him, unless Americans Elect somehow gets a good ticket together.

:(

Sorry! I'm glad you feel you can support Romney, but I can't in good conscience. Maybe the GOP will nominate someone I like better in 2016.

But if Romney wins Pa, we know who to thank. :) 

Johnson/Gray 2012!

I still think Michael Jingozian should be VP. I really like him.

Obviously third parties should only exist to prop up opportunistic failed politicians who couldn't win the nomination of another, "real" party.

lol the LNC Chair just implied that Obama's rallies today were planned to coincide with the Libertarian convention.

I laughed at that too.

Gary Johnson's charisma can be compared to one of a wet wiper.

A very reliable wet wiper that gets the job done :P

New Mexico will probably be his best state. Will he crack 5%?

If he's lucky.

Jim Gray is the VP nominee.

The ticket will be Johnson/Gray 2012.

Despite the fact that I was an avid R. Lee Wrights supporter and even donated to his cause I realize that Governor Johnson is the best choice of all the candidates in the field. If he was somehow elected president (you know if God has an off-day) he would be the least likely of all the other candidates in the field to destroy freedom. In my opinion that is about as good as it gets in terms of presidents of the United States.

He criticizes Romney for flip flopping on the issues, yet he openly stated he would consider military interventionism for "humanitarian" reasons, but now he says that he doesn't support military interventionism. He's one of the phoniest people i've ever heard in my life. Don't get me wrong, I probably line up with him more than Romney, but he has no shot of winning. The fact that he thinks he can win (or even crack 15% to be able to participate in the debates) is astounding. He is not John Hospers. He will not do what John Hospers did. He may crack 5% nationally if he's lucky. As I stated before, Holden Caulfield is rolling in his grave at this guy.

()

For the record, John Hospers endorsed Bush in '04 and Holden Caulfield was a spoiled brat who whined for about three hundred pages, so I'm not really seeing the problem here.

In all seriousness Jake, what is your problem here? You're supporting Mitt Romney for god's sake. Why the hell are you outraged at any perceived lack of purity from the LP? Would you be supporting Wrights if he got the nomination? Bullsh*t man.

Cut out the pious baloney.

I never said Mitt Romney wasn't a phony, but he actually has a shot of winning. He's not blowing his chances out of proportion. I understand the minor parties run candidates for President to get their names out there, but when they actually believe they're going to win? Nuh uh.

The point I was making about Hospers was that he won an electoral vote in '72. Johnson won't win an electoral vote.

Sorry Jake, you know I you 'ya but this post is kinda right. I would prefer Wrights over Johnson, but Wrights is not a former Governor who has a chance of getting 10%.

I would've much preferred Wrights, yes, but Johnson claims he's a lifelong Libertarian, yet he was a Republican when he served as Governor of New Mexico. Wrights never betrayed the party to serve as Governor, Senator, Representative, etc. as a Republican. Just like Bob Barr, Johnson figured his easiest path to a party's nomination was through the Libertarian Party. He dropped his GOP bid that he had no chance of winning to run for the nomination of a party that he had all but every chance of winning. Wrights may not have had a chance of winning, but he's stuck with the party his entire life and didn't sacrifice the 'L' for an 'R' just to serve in politics.

That was through a damned faithless elector. That doesn't really require skill to win. As I recall, the John Edwards '04, Ronald Reagan '76, and Harry Byrd '60 general election campaigns never really got off the ground.

I think Johnson claimed he had been a lifelong libertarian.

When Johnson says he's a non-interventionist, he's talking about a general orientation.  He believes America should be much less interventionist than we are now, but it's not an absolute statement.  I can recognize that doesn't sit well with more rigorously consistent libertarians, but it doesn't mean he's a fake.

I wish the debate had been really more of a debate, so that these issues could be clarified.

The first LP nominee ever *not* to support cutting taxes - at all!  I guess he needs to pay for invading Uganda.  It'll all be worth it; he'll "challenge Congress on marriage equality," as he said in his passionless platitude-filled focus-grouped speech in which he didn't take a single position that would be out of place in The New Republic.

If you're going to sell out, be my guest. But don't act indignant and self-righteous just because Johnson wants to boost some (well-needed) morale for the LP.

You really think that Johnson thinks that he'll win?

citation (http://reason.com/blog/2012/05/05/gary-johnson-wins-libertarian-party-nomi)

Nobody runs a campaign saying they're going to lose (especially not with fleeting bedfellows such as yourself.)

Besides, John Hospers got like, 3000 votes and his one electoral vote was astroturf. If anything, Johnson would actually be in okay shape to get an electoral vote since Paulites are taking over State Conventions (which, in some states, choose electors.)

For the sake of argument, I'll cede that Johnson's candidacy (and support) is predicated on the fact that he can "get votes." Romney's entire existence has been about getting votes, principles and results be damned. What's your beef?

But hey, if you're content to stay on the GOPlantation and vote for nominees that have literally nothing in common with you, then go ahead.


Well, I must admit that campaigning in a Republican primary on a platform to legalize gay marriage and marijuana is generally the mark of a shrewd politician.

I don't think Johnson or Gray honestly believe they're going to win. I recall the Badnarik campaign in 04 used similar rhetoric. "We were never expected to win the nomination, so if we can do this, we can win the general!" They really had  a lot of us believing that we were going to win for a few weeks, because they said they were going to hire  a media firm that would get them on all the major news shows,and that would lead to a surging of support. naive as I was, I believed it, but so did many others. The point is, that kind of talk is sort of a rally cry. People like to back candidates that say they can do more then get .5 of the vote.

Johnson and Gray's main goal seems to be getting into the debates, which I think is far fetched at best. But it's a powerful motivator. If it did happen, that would be a game changer, and activists know that. It's really do or die time. If Libertarians can't poll more then .05 with this ticket, they probably never will. Wrights goal of getting a million votes is more attainable, but that seems less exciting, and it's harder to measure the progress towards.

My apologies for coming off strongly recently. I've been sleep deprived and angry and for some reason I took it out on the Libertarian Party. I don't dislike the Libertarian Party and I've been extremely arrogant in my past few posts. My deepest apologies.

He was at 15% in a PPP poll, but I don't see that happening.

Thank you for once again reinforcing my decision to cut ties with libertarianism completely. Your hyperbolic dogma never ceases to dumbfound me.

Have fun voting for Virgil Goode.

Dude, that's a cruel thing to wish on anyone.

Just saying.

Is it not just about all he'll have left, at this rate, what with the tendency of libertarians to crucify anyone who doesn't agree with them to the last punctuation?

     I like Gary Johnson. He might not be the most orthodox libertarian ever, but he'll bring attention to the party while being a much better representative of the cause than Barr or WAR could have ever hoped to be.

Why is it that even in third parties the establishment candidates always win? :(