Gary Johnson wins Libertarian presidential nomination

[TomCADem]

Source: Washington Post

ORLANDO — Former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson won the Libertarian Party's presidential nomination on Sunday, fending off five rivals from different factions on two closely fought ballots and securing more than 55.8 percent of the total vote.

"I will work as hard as I can to represent everyone in this room," Johnson said after his victory. "After this convention, people will be looking to us to describe what it means to be a Libertarian. And I realize it will be up to me to tell them."

But Johnson's near-miss on the first ballot kicked off an afternoon of protests and delegate glad-handing, with the vice presidential race to be decided later. Johnson had run a careful campaign with an eye on the general election, picking former Massachusetts governor Bill Weld — like him, a Republican who switched parties — as his running mate. In Saturday night's debate, Johnson, alone among the top five contenders, said that he would have signed the 1964 Civil Rights Act and that he thought people should be licensed to drive cars. He was loudly booed for both positions.

"I liked it," Johnson said in an interview before Sunday's vote. "Let's draw attention to the only candidate onstage saying that he would sign the Civil Rights Act, let's draw attention to the only candidate onstage who's in favor of driver's licenses. I don't know about you guys, but I think that's a great distinction between myself and the rest of them."


Read more: http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/gary-johnson-wins-libertarian-presidential-nomination/ar-BBtCFGm?ocid=spartandhp

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Odd that the Libertarian candidate is somewhat less crazy than Republican nominee in that I have some doubts as to whether Trump would have signed 1964 Civil Rights Act.

[Orrex]

1. He pulled down a record 74 votes nationwide

Battle on, Mr... Wait, what was his name again?

[JonLeibowitz]

3. Mr. Governor of the Great State of New Mexico.

[RogueTrooper]

16. I keep trying to mention him in posts I am and making

and keep forgetting his name. I just keep writing "Thethat Libertarian candidate"

I hope the Koch brothers are going to have to spend a lot of money trying to make people remember his name.

[Orrex]

17. Maybe you'll remember once they nab more than 2% of eligible voters

No hurry, in other words.

[forest444]

2. Here's to Hillary's only hope.

And, considering the alternative, ours as well.

[TomCADem]

5. True. With All The Racists and Mysogynists Out There

Gary is our only hope.

[IronLionZion]

4. He might make a difference in enough swing states

to block out Drumpf

[airplaneman]

6. Lets see

He wants to end the ACA
He wants to end Medicare part D
He wants to cut Medicare by 43%
He wants to cut Social Security
He wants to end taxes for corporations
He wants to reduce taxes on the rich
He wants to implement a 23% federal consumption tax.
Gee what an alternative
-Airplane

[YOHABLO]

7. So in essence they want to have their orgies and guns, but pay taxes? Hell no.

[geek tragedy]

18. Good enough for Glenn Greenwald nt

[Heeeeers Johnny]

8. Damn! I was rooting for John McAfee

NSFW... language

[andym]

10. McAfee's still available for Trump's VP

What a combo Trump and McAfee would be..... It would be historic.

[janx]

22. haha!!!

[SecularMotion]

9. Fuck Ron Paul

[jomin41]

11. Two more things about Gary Johnson:

He is not a crook.

He has spoken out against the drug war for a long time.

That is all.

[MosheFeingold]

20. Libertarians are generally great on social issues.

Economic, not so progressive.

I actually kind of agree with them on some of the anti-discrimination/affirmative action stuff, on an intellectual (albeit not practical) level.

Someone wants to be a bigot and not serve someone? Great, said someone and I can take our business elsewhere. Have fun going broke.

The problem comes in the Deep South. Where there is no "elsewhere."

[Retrograde]

12. Hey - Californians haven't voted yet!

The Libertarian presidential primary here is June 7 - same as the others - and No Party Preference voters are allowed to vote in it. Where's all the screaming about us here on the Left Coast being disenfranchised?

Not that I was going to vote for him in the first place...

[question everything]

14. Also, when he was asked whether we should have participated in WWII

he replied: I don't know..

And... he was booed when he said he would have signed the Civil Rights Act

What a bunch of loonies.

[brooklynite]

15. OBJECTION: This wasn't an Open Primary!

If Democrats and Independents can't decide who the Libertarian Party's candidate is, how can that be fair?

[sofa king]

19. NPR hyped the Libertarians all weekend.

It's clear to me now that those planning to steal this election have given up on any conservative force helping to pull it off as a third-party candidate. Trump's racism and nationalism is what Republicans have really wanted all this time and there's no stopping him now.

Now that Republican voters feel safe to tear off the mask and show their swastikas Trump is no longer a guaranteed loss and now the GOP has to find some force which can steal votes from both sides to ensure that nobody wins a majority of electoral votes.

So they've bounced out to the silly Libertarians, who are still struggling to position themselves as a viable third alternative. That's why "someone" decided to make them a major story on public radio this weekend.

With the Libertarians in the picture there are still two ways for Republicans to steal it from everyone:

1) Use the Libertarian presence to divert votes from both Trump and Clinton to toss elections to the overwhelmingly conservative state legislatures. Thus a plurality win by Clinton can be pissed away by diverting electoral votes to a non-viable candidate, like the state's own governor, for example;

2) Use election theft mechanisms to divert electoral votes directly to the Libertarians, winning entire states for them and keeping both Trump and Clinton below 270 electoral votes.

You can laugh and say I'm crazy today, but your kids will be joining in the torchlight marches tomorrow if you do. The way Republicans plan--and have been planning--to steal this election is to ensure that no candidate wins a majority of electoral votes. If that happens Congress is supposed to choose from one of the three top vote-getters, but if they DO NOT CHOOSE, then Speaker Paul Ryan inherits the Presidency through continuity of government provisions in January (assuming the GOP retains the House and Ryan is reelected as Speaker in early January, 2017). Congress has only two weeks at the end of this year to decide; if they can run out the clock then there is no provision for choosing a new President and COG rules prevail.

A third-party candidate is critical to Republican election theft plans because a third party makes public opinion polls less reliable and permits the massive Republican election-theft mechanism to work properly behind the curtains. Just divert one out of five votes for either Trump or Clinton to the Libs and suddenly nobody wins.

[janx]

21. I've been watching this take shape.

I came back to see what was happening here and found the usual primary sniping. To me, this is the elephant in the room, and it became important, really, when Weld became part of the equation.

DU has been ignoring this, writing it off as some libertarian freaks who, as usual, won't get any votes.

But that's not what is going on. If they get into the debates--and I hope they do--they will make a dent,

[janx]

23. Ah...haha!

http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/31/politics/gary-johnson-libertarian-donald-trump/index.html