Gary Johnson Tosses His Hat Into The Ring

Bruce E-Mails from Albuquerque:

Ur NM man annouces bid for Presidency in 2012 (What a pathetic joke)

True story?:

CONCORD, N.H. — Self-made millionaire and former two-term New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson said on Thursday he will seek the Republican nomination for U.S. president in 2012.

..."This is the first time I get to say this: I am running for the president of the United States," Johnson said to the applause and cheers of about a dozen supporters. "To do that, I think you have to have a certain resume, and I'd like to think I do have it."

...As a state governor, Johnson pushed for lower taxes and lower government spending, and set records by vetoing some 750 pieces of legislation.

...Johnson mentioned President Barack Obama just once, saying he supports repealing Obama's health care overhaul legislation. But he also criticized Republicans, saying they also are to blame for out-of-control spending.

"I think Republicans would gain a lot of credibility in this argument if Republicans would offer a repeal of the prescription health care benefit they passed when they controlled both houses of Congress and ran up record deficits," he said.

Johnson said he would bring spending down by raising the retirement age and making other changes to Social Security and reducing spending on defense, Medicare and Medicaid by 43 percent each. The latter two programs would become block grants controlled by the states, he said.

He said he opposed the Iraq war from the start and though he initially supported the war in Afghanistan, he no longer believes American troops should be there. He also supports legalizing marijuana as a way to eliminate much of the violence along the Mexico border.

God save us! Actually I was very, very surprised Johnson chose approximately April 20th for his announcement (4/20 being the marijuana signifier in the 1994 movie ‘Pulp Fiction’). Johnson actually waited a few hours, so his announcement came on April 21st, probably just to avoid people making that overt connection, but still, I think it’s pretty ballsy of him.

I was not that impressed with Johnson when he was Governor (he kept cutting the budget in a state where the budget was already pretty damned lean), but when it comes to libertarian credentials, he walks the walk. To me, libertarians of the West are much-more-tolerable as politicians than religious conservatives from the South (Huckabee; Barbour), or Ayn-Randian gold bugs (Rand Paul), or neocons (Bolton), or the half-dozen other GOP varietals out there. One reason Sarah Palin is having trouble these days is that what people thought they were buying was a Western libertarian, but what they actually got was an overpreening martinet with a family like a soap opera on steroids. You get what you buy with a genuine Western libertarian, which is basically a disappointment, but at least you aren’t under any illusions.