Every week, whether I want to or not, I’m reminded by some zealous libertarians that Gary Johnson is running for President. Here’s the front of the card they gave me (click to embiggen). Near the bottom, it says “Be Libertarian With Me”. That made me feel a little funny in a private place.
Speaking of little thrills, I see that PPP decided to put Gary on the list of candidates in the Colorado poll it published on Thursday. They were showing the state as 50/47 for Obama in a head-to-head with Romney. When Gary’s name is in the mix, it’s 49/44 Obama. Unsurprisingly, 3/4 of Gary’s support comes from Republicans. If those libertarians can pick up the phone to answer a robo-poll, maybe they can get their asses to a polling station and vote for Gary.
WereBear
I encourage all the Republicans I know to vote Libertarian. Send a message, you Ron Paul Fanbois!
Hal
Yeesh.
Yutsano
@WereBear: Gary just doesn’t give them that tingle that Uncle Ron does, not to mention Paul hasn’t endorsed Johnson. I never expect libertarians to be consistent. Then again I’ve never met one who wasn’t just a closet Republican.
Baud
@Hal: @Hal:
I like The People’s President.
How Socialist…
SFAW
Pantload clone/wannabe Jeff Jacoby in today’s column is doing the “Obama has disappointed all you liberals, so you shouldn’t vote for him” schtick.
I guess he and J-Rubes can only come up with so many lies about Romney – now they’re onto the suppress-Obama’s-support stage.
As a general note: Jacoby has an accuracy record (in terms of facts, not predictions) to rival Little Billy Kristol. I guess he’s the semi-token conservatard for the Boston Globe, but still …
(“Semi-token”, because the always-clueless Joan Vennochi sometimes writes like a conservatard, when she’s not doing the token-women’s-centrist-writer thing.)
baldheadeddork
On a related note, has anyone seen polling from Virginia with Virgil Goode in the mix?
Goode’s story had some run in early September when the Virginia GOP challenged his place on the ballot, but I haven’t seen any polling since the AG ruled he qualified to be listed.
Violet
“Good government is easy.” WTF? I thought government was bad and The Problem for Libertarians. How can it be good at all?
lacp
@Baud: Naw, more like Bob Backlund, “the people’s champion.”
aimai
@SFAW:
Oh my god! You must be local! Only people who have to read Joan Vennochi can really understand how incredibly stupid she is. Its like she was dropped on her head when she was a baby and literally can’t understand this politics thing they asked her to write about.
aimai
lacp
@SFAW: Jacoby’s been around for quite a while. I always thought, judging from his photo, that his conservatism was of a pre-homo-sapiens variety.
SFAW
I listened to Gary Johnson a few weeks ago, I think Ashbrook had him on On Point. I had to turn it off – he was a glib, half-witted twit, barely in command of the most basic facts, but good at spewing some semi-libertarian phrases.
On the other hand, if he can turn an otherwise-red state blue … well, then, he’s my best buddy. Until 11/7 (in most states) or 11/9 (in Maricopa County, Arizona).
lacp
@Violet: Perhaps in the great American tradition about the “only good Indian.”
Scamp Dog
@Violet: Of course good government is easy. How hard is it to sit on your hands and watch the Free Market do its work?
Hill Dweller
@SFAW: I saw him on Chris Hayes’ show earlier this year, and he didn’t seem all that bright.
SFAW
@aimai:
What, you’re telling me that other rags wouldn’t jump at the chance to pick up the poor (wo)man’s MoDo? She’s a veritable cubic zirconia in the rough!
dr. bloor
It’s actually an assembly of solo acts, with participants being arranged in a circle.
ericblair
Good government is easy. Therefore any fucking idiot can do it. Gary Johnson is a fucking idiot. Therefore elect Gary Johnson. It’s logic!
WereBear
Yup. It’s a way of being different that isn’t.
blingee
Maybe Greenwald is useful for something after all. Getting Repub clowns to vote for Johnson. I have a hard time believing any Democrat would vote for him.
PeakVT
Good government is easy. Watch.
There’s an amazing amount of bullshit packed into those five words.
SFAW
@lacp:
Jacoby’s always been a fool, with the possible exception of when he’s on a “I love Israel so much I’d felch Bibi” kick. Plus, his physical resemblance to Glodberg would make Pammy Geller think he was either Lucianne’s or Malcolm X’s illegitimate child. (Probably the former – I don’t think Malcolm was Jewish. Yes, I know Lucianne’s not, either.)
The word most often used in my household, after reading Jacoby, is “idiot.” On the other hand, I guess that’s redundant with “conservative,” with only a few exceptions, e.g. Larison.
Cassidy
So, has anyone stopped by the Cole household to make sure no one is being
held against their willloved in the basement?xian
Republicans read Greenwald?
Reasonable 4ce
Obama leads Romneytron 2.1 in Colorado?
PANIC!!!!
Redshift
@PeakVT:
It reminds me an awful lot of “hold my beer and watch this,” but on a national scale.
SFAW
@xian:
Fixed.
Arm The Homeless
@SFAW: I dislike the odd occasion where Larison is brought on NPR to play the “reasonable, aghast Conservative”. Maybe I miss some of his other appearances, but I caught him as the counterpoint before the second debate, to some Van Hollen Slate humper whining about Obama’s performance.
I hope Larison isn’t going to let himself be type-cast as the Frum, both sides disappoint me in the 2:00 I have to discuss the Horse Race(R) type of commenter.
Ruckus
@dr. bloor:
Now that was a nice turn of phrase.
The nicest way to say circle jerk that has ever been written.
SFAW
@dr. bloor:
Beat me to it. (Oooh, shouldn’t use “beat”.)
My version was going to be along the lines of:
Wingnut to his landlady: “Ma! I’ll be in the basement being a Libertarian for awhile. Don’t come down!”
Redshift
@blingee:
When I was out canvassing yesterday, I actually met a 2008 Obama voter who is “probably” voting for Johnson. I asked about issues, and he said the things that turned him off Obama were sending more troops to Afghanistan and the auto bailout.
Afghanistan I might have been able to talk to him about and maybe bring him around, but if you’re enough of a libertarian market-worshiper that you’re outraged about the auto bailout, well…
It was pretty obvious he was never going to vote for Romney, so half a vote is better than none.
karen marie
@Redshift: +1
Ken
My mind must not be deep enough in the gutter. I thought it was a reference to a circular firing squad.
Baud
@Ken:
You need to spend some more time with Sarah Proud and Tall posts.
Cargo
“Abolishing government is easy. Watch.”
Roger Moore
And if you believe that 4% of Coloradoans are going to vote for Gary Johnson, I have a friend from Nigeria with a once in a lifetime business opportunity. The people who change their minds when they hear about Johnson are mostly embarrassed Republicans who don’t want to admit they’re going to vote for Romney and don’t want to call themselves undecided. If Johnson gets anything like that share of the vote, I’ll eat my hat.
Cassidy
I thought we had a freakout about dicks on the front page? What changed?
Hill Dweller
@Redshift: This is the kind of shit that drives me crazy.
The Pentagon would eat Johnson alive. Hell, they almost destroyed Obama, who is smarter and a better politician, in his first year.
I’m not sure the average voter appreciates the institutional pressure Presidents face.
RSA
@SFAW:
Right: “Can a conscientious liberal back Obama?” How long should we wait for “Can a conscientious conservative back Romney?” Crickets…
SFAW
@RSA:
I’m sorry, but “conscientious conservative” does not parse. Kind of like “steadfast Mitt” or “policy wonk Ryan” or “intelligent Republican” or “non-moran TeaBagger”. Can you rephrase?
ETA: Perhaps it was a typo, and you meant “unconscious” instead? Although “unconscious Republican” would be redundant, I guess.
Yutsano
@RSA: You expect consistency. How adorbs.
SFAW
@Yutsano:
“Adorbs”? WTF?
It reminds me of when Howard Cosell started calling them “intercepts”.
Straighten up and fly right, soldier. (So to speak, of course.)
SiubhanDuinne
@SFAW:
Snap!
Older_Wiser
Libertarianism: Trying to fit 10 lbs of bullshit into a 5 lb bag.
SiubhanDuinne
@SFAW:
You leave Yutsy alone. He is TOTES adorbs.
Davis X. Machina
Between Vennocchi and Jacoby, the danegeld the Globe pays to damp down the ‘liberal’ chants is pretty damn high — and it doesn’t actually work.
I always waited for the day when Ellen Goodman snapped and took her Elijah Parish Lovejoy award plaque and beat Vennochi to death with it, on the front lawn, in full view of the Morrissey Boulevard traffic.
Alas, Ellen is now retired — it probably won’t happen.
SFAW
@SiubhanDuinne:
What is this with the “adorbs” shit? “Totes” is bad enough, unless you’re talking about a brand of umbrella or galosh.
Nothing to do with Yuts, except for the usage of a word that should be RIGHT OUT.
Davis X. Machina
@SFAW: Whatevs.
Yutsano
@SFAW: I am neither a buzzard nor a monkey. And I r irrepressible. You’re welcome to make the attempt though.
@SiubhanDuinne: I have my moments. But I don’t have the wherewithal to be a true Internet troll. I leave that to the pros.
FlyingToaster
@Cassidy: No. No. No.
If JC is getting a life, you (and [scold]everybody else[/scold]) need to stay out of it. Jogging that guy’s elbow is the very last thing I want to do, or let anyone else do.
While I understand prurient interest, please indulge it somewhere else.
Toaster -2 (drinking my second cup of coffee while Warrior Girl plays “Choo Choo Soul” videos repeatedly on her computer.)
SFAW
@Davis X. Machina:
Seems to be a common problem: “If we give ground on THIS issue, then the wingnuts will stop being such assholes about the other stuff!” That has always worked out so well.
I also miss Ellen Goodman.
SFAW
@Davis X. Machina:
Gaaahhh!
SFAW
@Yutsano:
Cabbage crates over the briny? Which is my way of saying: I don’t get the reference/joke.
KoolEarl
@Roger Moore: I agree that in no way does Johnson get 4% in CO, but if he can scratch out 1-1.5 points, I will take that
Ash Can
@Cassidy: If SPT’s photos had featured dongs with neckties tied around them, everyone would have figured it was a post about a Romney-Ryan campaign appearance, and there would have been no controversy.
Yutsano
@SFAW: Sigh. Kids these days. Using all these hip references without knowing where they came from. Lawn. Off. Now. Also. Too.
(The vid is kinda wrong but he’s not too bad for a Brit pop boy trying something else.)
Cassidy
@FlyingToaster: Lighten up Francis.
SiubhanDuinne
@SFAW:
Whatevs.
SiubhanDuinne
@Davis X. Machina: oops, you beat me to it!
Ben Franklin
@Yutsano:
But I don’t have the wherewithal to be a true Internet troll
You don’t know that, for sure.
SiubhanDuinne
@Davis X. Machina: oops, you beat me to it!
Ben Franklin
@Yutsano:
But I don’t have the wherewithal to be a true Internet troll
You don’t know that, for sure.
SiubhanDuinne
@Davis X. Machina: oops, you beat me to it!
Ben Franklin
@Yutsano:
But I don’t have the wherewithal to be a true Internet troll
You don’t know that, for sure.
Frankensteinbeck
@Yutsano:
Does this help? Totes adorbs, y/n/r/a/f?
FlyingToaster
@Davis X. Machina: Jacoby was half of the proximate cause I cancelled my Glob subscription in 1994. The other half was that during the 80s and 90s, the only thing they covered about Somerville was the every-third-year murder.
Jacoby was an insult to my attic-dwelling intelligence in 1994 (and to my tenement-dwelling self while he was at the Herald).
I still bought the Sunday Glob for the cheap-ass decorating tips and recipes in the old Magazine; when that went “upscale” in 2003(?), I stopped altogether. The only useful part left is the Sunday real-estate/open house ads (if you’re trying to get out of a crappy school town before your child turns 6), which are not behind the paywall online.
Jacoby is part of the “make our paper attractive to a rich buyer” nonsense; all it got them was bought by the effing New York Times.
FlyingToaster
@Cassidy: [Tips hat, waves.]
Cacti
@Yutsano:
Libertarian = Republican who enjoys smoking pot, getting laid, and/or isn’t particularly religious
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@SFAW:
I used to work with a guy who was slowly being driven insane by people who used “Google” as a verb.
Also, too, you are swimming against a tide started in part by PG Wodehouse in the 1920s, whose characters would talk about “taking a moody forkful of e. and bacon” at breakfast. Tide gone, ships sailed, horses, barns, etc. etc.
SFAW
@Yutsano:
Well, I think the use of the phrase pre-dated the song, but whatevs.
Lurking Canadian
@Scamp Dog: That’s it, exactly. The only thing these people have that amounts to a political philosophy is “That government is best that governs least.”
If you’ve drunk that Kool-aid, then governing does look easy. Do nothing. Repeal what you can. Veto everything that comes from Congress. Abolish the regulatory apparatus.
And watch the good times roll!
Davis X. Machina
@FlyingToaster: Also the long shadow of busing. There was a time, up until relatively recently, when it was about as easy to get a newsstand Globe in Southie as a copy of the Sun in Liverpool.
SFAW
@Mnemosyne (iPhone):
What about verbing “AltaVista”, as is my wont?
Well, it isn’t really, but it sounded good to my not-drug-addled brain.
Well, actually, it didn’t.
Whatevs, as the beatniks say.
eemom
Does anyone have information about the actual track record of Johnson? As governor or otherwise?
I ask because I do know one Johnson voter who I do not detest as a human being, and in fact actually like…..so I am curious.
DFS
@eemom: If you want to get a handle on Johnson, imagine Ron Paul with most of the really dumb shit squeezed out.
He was pretty effective and well-liked as governor of New Mexico. His second term was marred by some budget brinksmanship over the school voucher issue — he was wildly in favor, the Democratic legislature wasn’t.
He’s been an anti-drug-war guy since way back. That was what gave him a national profile in the first place, when he called for marijuana decriminalization while still governor.
If you’re a left-bent voter, though, the problems with Johnson are mostly the same as the problems with any libertarian. He’s great on civil liberties, the drug war, and overseas intervention. (He also has sane positions on abortion and gay rights, unlike Paul.) On the other hand, he wants immediate massive federal budget austerity, he wants Obamacare repealed, he wants to blow up Medicare and Medicaid, he’s got some iffy notions regarding the Fed, etc. So yeah. He’s better than some libertarians, but fuck me if I’ll ever vote for him.
arguingwithsignposts
@dr. bloor: Win!
arguingwithsignposts
@Cacti:
The “getting laid” part is up for debate.
Cacti
@arguingwithsignposts:
Well, they enjoy the thought of getting laid.
eemom
@DFS:
Thank you. This part
does a lot to explain why my friend supports him. ; )
The Red Pen
I was in DC this weekend. WaPo has a funny collection of campaign signs for losing candidates (“re-elect Tom Jefferson!”). Someone taped a Gary Johnson sign to a light pole across the street. It seemed sadly appropriate.
Another Halocene Human
@SFAW: Jacoby earned his clownpants the day he wrote a long, impassioned op-ed about how much the fish suffer in catch-and-release sport fishing.
The man wouldn’t know irony if it struck him right between the eyes.
Another Halocene Human
@Redshift: I hate the auto industry so I freely admit my prejudice, but the auto industry bailout is one where I must admit in retrospect that I was wrong, and move on.
I guess that dude can’t.
Also, too, every other big country bails out their car industry from time to time. Must be important for some reason. I tried the term “industrial policy” on some wingnut at work but FoxNews had discombobulated his thinking cap.
SFAW
@Another Halocene Human:
I missed that one. But he’s definitely a target-rich environment for ordnance keyed to hit stupid.
El Cid
Speaking of libertarians, the Honduran coup government’s attempt at (1) pleasing Galtian Gulchers and more importantly (2) insulating the Honduran business and land elites from any future governments, in the form of “ciudad modelos” or privatized cities, was smacked down by the Honduran Supreme Court as un-Constitutional because, uh, duh, it is against the basic principles of sovereignty.
Things like this, as well as things like NAFTA, are efforts to chip away at the very notion of a sovereign republic where citizens have some democratic capability of exerting rule over themselves and their territory.
The business classes haven’t yet figured out how to do that outright, so they just chip and etch here and there to make it harder and harder for citizens to exert any influence over what happens in their territory and over any resource or company or laws which once might have been in their purview.
Libertarians (meaning the right wing version in favor of economic totalitarianism) do not believe in the basic principles of democratic sovereignty, so this should come as somewhat of an outrageous surprise to them that a court would dare talk about such things when all their poor hearts wanted to do was have More Freedom.
S C Butler
Hey look, it’s not too late to get a Gary Johnson for President commercial on TV! We can do it. An ad on fox business is only $350 and an ad on CNBC only $300. Who knew? The campaign ain’t over yet. Let’s put Gov. Johnson on a TV ad and show the American public who he is. If voters know him, they will love him. How can you help? Go here now: http://americansforgaryjohnson.org/