Watched the mini Republican debate yesterday featuring four third or fourth tier candidates and Congressman Ron Paul....It was for the most part a laughable exercise featuring a bell that signalled time’s up which reminded me of the game show Jeopardy.
As usual, Ron Paul was the voice of sanity- close Gitmo, end torture, pull the troops out of Afghanistan, legalize drugs and prostitution, audit the Federal Reserve, end foreign aid especially to Pakistan and Israel. He even said that gay marriage was okay at the state level as long as the people voted for it.
I’ve written about Ron Paul before http://rgdinmalaysia.xanga.com/678009005/third-party-dreaming-plus-two-reasons-i-am-not-a-libertarian/ He has absolutely zero chance of being president which is too bad because I think a Paul presidency would be a great thing for this nation....I think a lot of his nuttier ideas on domestic policy (for example shutting down the Department of Education and giving pilots guns) would be checkmated by congress but even if they weren’t it would be worth the risk for all he could accomplish in ending American imperialism and militarism and reforming the government.
Even though Paul doesn’t win, he does affect the debate in a positive way. The message gets out and trickles down (like it did in 2008).
Which brings me to former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson who is also running for president and was at the same debate. However, he didn’t distinguish himself from the pack coming off as a lesser Paul albeit one who is a recreational marijuana enthusiast.
Johnson, in fact, during his two terms between 1994 and 2002 governed as a fairly pure Libertarian (even more than Paul) vetoing hundreds of spending bills and pushing drug legalization.
However, a more than cursory glance shows that Johnson (who endorsed Paul’s 2008 presidential campaign) isn’t in synch with all of Paul’s views as this article meticulously lays out http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2011/04/21/gary-johnson-caveat-emptor/
Basically, this article presents a conspiracy theory that Johnson is the elite’s version of Paul. Paul has scared them (and by them I mean the Military Industrial Complex) and they have come up with their own Trojan horse, their own ringer to take the wind out of the Ron Paul movement. Specifically, there are still many areas of foreign policy that Johnson has not been clear about. He would have to take firm stands like Paul before I could support him.
If Gary Johnson did that then if by some miraculous accident or fluke of nature, Ron Paul got the Republican nomination for president, I would support Johnson to be his vice president.
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