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Going for Gary
By Derek Wallace | December 19, 2008
Jesse Ventura created quite a stir when he hinted at Ron Paul’s Rally for the Republic in September that he might make a 2012 presidential bid. “I will say this,” the former Minnesota governor told a cheering crowd. “If I see it over the next two to three years, if I see it start to rise up and this country shows me that it’s worth it for me to do it, well then maybe in 2012 … we’ll give them a race they’ll never forget.”
Yet many Ron Paul supporters are turning to a different speaker featured at the Rally for the Republic — former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson. While Johnson made no mention of a 2012 presidential bid at the rally, he is reportedly considering such a run. He is in demeanor, of course, the polar opposite of Ventura, which is a good thing, and ideologically he is much closer to Paul than Ventura. In fact, Johnson endorsed Paul for president and was the only Republican governor not to endorse George W. Bush for president in 2000. His record as a small-government conservative is much better than Ventura’s.
So far members of the Ron Paul revolution seem to be in a state of limbo when it comes to the 2012 presidential race. Obviously (and thankfully) it will be about two years before any serious campaigning begins, and the Republican ranks in general are in a state of turmoil, but one hopes a candidate will emerge who will help lead Paul’s liberty-minded movement forward. Paul, at age 73, appears unlikely to run again. Some Paul supporters are turning to South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, while others, judging by the reaction to Ventura’s hints, would be willing to support a Ventura candidacy. Johnson may yet be the best choice, however. He managed to get elected and re-elected in a state where registered Democrats outnumbered registered Republicans by a two to one margin at the time. During his time in office from 1995 to 2003 he was considered by conservatives to be one of the most successful Republican governors in the nation, and wound up vetoing around 750 bills, or more vetoes issued by all other governors at the time put together. He nixed tax increases, campaign finance reform and hate crime legislation, cut the rate of government growth in half, privatized part of the state’s prison system and left the state with a budget surplus and 1,000 fewer employees.
Paul supporters are hard to satisfy. Need proof? Just look at the way Libertarian candidate Bob Barr’s candidacy fizzled. Johnson, however, might prove to be a satisfactory option for them.
Topics: Political Commentary |