Libertarian Party candidates for President
The Libertarian Party won’t elect their Presidential candidate until their national convention May 22-26, but you can visit this page and get a early look at some of the prospects. A good LP candidate should…
1) Be able to spread the libertarian message (although the LP debates tend to turn into “Who’s the MOST libertarian” or “Who can deliver the best one-liners about freedom)
2) Be able to raise a decent amount of money (being semi-famous helps)
3) Not be too crazy (this has been a problem in the LP)
Any sort of previous political experience is purely gravy, it’s not necessary.
So knowing these three things above, the only viable candidate is Wayne Allyn Root (shown right), a business mogul, television celebrity, TV producer, best-selling author, professional sports handicapper (wtf?), and Donald Trump wannabee. He’s got the supposed millions and fame to run a halfass campaign. (although I’m worried about the craziness factor)
However, here’s my honest prediction - Ron Paul never drops out of the Republican race even though he fails to win a single state. Then he’s nominated for the Libertarian Ticket, he accepts and runs for President as a spoiler, taking votes away from the Republicans and giving the Dems a victory just like Perot did in 1992 and Nader did to the Reps in 2000.
At this point in the race for the White House I have no idea who I would vote for. Although I lean to the right, and from time to time totally fall that direction. I am not sure who of any on the right I would follow. I am trying to think of positive things about all candidates, far right to far left and here is the hard part for me. Try to think of something positive that your favorite candidate has done without thinking of something negative that that persons opponent has done. I feel all the “mud slinging” has turned us into people who vote against a candidate not for a candidate. When my absentee ballet gets here I just might put it right in the trash.
Comment by Winter sucks — Mon, Jan 28th, 2008 @ 4:03 pm
Is that a halo around his head? Is he Crist reborn? Gee! That should earn him some points as madman. And his initials are WAR! Double Gee!
What’s his stand on abortion then? And on taxes? And social welfare?
Comment by Ragnarök — Mon, Jan 28th, 2008 @ 5:36 pm
Ron Paul is done. Perot took many more votes than Paul can hope for. I truly doubt that Paul has a chance to be a spoiler, because if it ever appears that he might, he’ll get confronted with his past, over and over again.
Anyway, if Hillary gets the nomination, she is not going to get all the votes from blacks as would normally be expected as I suspect that they will blame her for Obama not being the candidate, regardless of whose fault it might be.
So which party has the more-damaging spoiler?
Comment by Fred Fry — Mon, Jan 28th, 2008 @ 5:51 pm
I usually go on the “who cares” schtick, but it seems this year the elections will be interesting. The Finnish press has had the Clinton/Obama race in the limelight, not so much anything about the Republican candidates. I’d hope though they’d publish some kind of “who stands for what” as people here don’t know as much about the issues the different candidates stand for/against.
Comment by Hank W. — Mon, Jan 28th, 2008 @ 6:26 pm
I honestly think Ron Paul will not run as an independent. We’ll see about that later on.
Comment by Helsinkian — Mon, Jan 28th, 2008 @ 7:24 pm
Phil, I visited the website and started wondering about one thing. Why is it that Barry Hess wants to run for president without a website? I mean he his Hess for Governor site is still out there when he was Arizona LP candidate in 2006. Is he too busy to set up a website or is his webmaster too busy campaigning for somebody else? I wonder if we’ll see a Hess for Prez site soon or if he’ll just drop out of the race.
Comment by Helsinkian — Mon, Jan 28th, 2008 @ 7:50 pm
Why is it that Barry Hess wants to run for president without a website?
He’s a nutter, he ran the past couple terms. Check out Dave(?) Hollis, he’s the biggest weirdo of them all.
Comment by Phil — Mon, Jan 28th, 2008 @ 8:53 pm
Is Hess the same family of the oil magnates?
Comment by hfb — Mon, Jan 28th, 2008 @ 9:11 pm
I think Hess is quite a common surname.
Comment by Phil — Mon, Jan 28th, 2008 @ 9:29 pm
Wow that guy has all the flag waiving, tax lowering, I am the guy stuff. He even bashes the Nanny state.
His foreign policy sucks, with his apologize first, ask the world what we should do second. Like thats going to work, when its the USA providing the only real leadership in the world right now.
Comment by winter, "Yea, Proton Power, now in remission" — Mon, Jan 28th, 2008 @ 9:37 pm
Political Science for Dummies
DEMOCRATIC
You have two cows.
Your neighbor has none.
You feel guilty for being successful.
Barbara Streisand sings for you.
REPUBLICAN
You have two cows.
Your neighbor has none.
So?
SOCIALIST, FINISH STYLE, or the NANNY State
You have two cows.
The government takes one and gives it to your neighbor.
You form a cooperative to tell him how to manage his cow. You feel good.
COMMUNIST
You have two cows.
The government seizes both and provides you with milk.
You wait in line for hours to get it.
It is expensive and sour.
CAPITALISM, AMERICAN STYLE
You have two cows.
You rent a bull, and build a herd of cows.
Comment by winter, "Yea, Proton Power, now in remission" — Mon, Jan 28th, 2008 @ 9:59 pm
I’m sure that Ron Paul will try to get the Libertarian nomination. I don’t know enough about internal party politics to know if he’ll get it. However, even if he does, he won’t be a spoiler. He’s not even a spoiler in the Republican primaries, so I doubt he’ll have enough popularity to be a spoiler in the general election.
Comment by Ontario Emperor — Mon, Jan 28th, 2008 @ 10:39 pm
“You feel guilty for being successful.
Barbara Streisand sings for you.”
Haha
Comment by Miriam — Tue, Jan 29th, 2008 @ 5:30 pm
Phil #7: Yeah, I checked out Dave Hollist’s website. That was weird.
Comment by Helsinkian — Tue, Jan 29th, 2008 @ 5:43 pm
The American view:
You have two cows. Your neighbor has none. Your neighbor sues you. You loose both of your cows, one to his lawyer, the other to yours.
The European view:
You have two cows. Your neighbor has none. Your neighbor files in a EU subsidy form and gets money for not having two cows.
Comment by Hank W. — Tue, Jan 29th, 2008 @ 8:40 pm
“The government takes one and gives it to your neighbor.
You form a cooperative to tell him how to manage his cow. You feel good.”
No, no, no, You have two cows. If they are at least 8 months old and 50% of meat producing breed you apply for EU production subsidy by form 144. The national subsidy is applied using forms 101C and 107A.
Then you need a milk production quota. You can find the on sale sometimes on newspapers reader’s ads. Report the transaction using form 53106. Report in the national milk production subsidy program by filling the form 282. If you sell the milk directly, instead of sending it to the dairy, report the quantity using form 230 or 512007_06.
Finally, make sure that your cows don’t shit on a hill that is steeper than the EU approved limit.
Comment by Antti rn — Wed, Jan 30th, 2008 @ 12:03 am