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On Sunday, Gary Johnson, the former New Mexico governor, won the Libertarian Party nomination for president with former Massachusetts governor Bill Weld as his vice president. Johnson is an impassioned proponent of the party's small government message, and he told the crowd he thinks most people are Libertarians but don't know it. At a news conference, he made a play for tea party voters, saying what started out as a fiscal, small-government movement was captured by Republicans, especially social conservative.... Johnson and Weld have more executive governing experience than the two major candidates. They currently draw 10 percent in many...

Never-Trumper Bill Kristol Is Eyeing This Conservative Lawyer For a Third-Party Run May. 31, 2016 5:35pm Tré Goins-Phillips Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol, a prominent leader seeking to block Donald Trump from becoming president, is working to recruit conservative attorney David French, according to two Republicans familiar with the Never-Trumper’s efforts. French, a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom, is a constitutional lawyer, the author of several books and the recipient of the Bronze Star, according to his biography at National Review, where he serves as a staff writer. French lives in Columbia, Tenn., with his wife, Nancy, and three children.

This was who he had in mind with that much-hyped tweet this weekend that had everyone wondering if Romney had reconsidered? An … NRO writer? Trump fans are forever deriding #NeverTrump as a “movement” consisting of, like, six guys at National Review and the Weekly Standard. And now here we are. I’m not sure about French’s net worth but I’d guess he’s 0-for-3 on those criteria given that the sort of “vast” wealth needed to run a national campaign runs into the hundreds of millions of dollars. As it turns out, Kristol actually touted French as a potential independent candidate...

And the grand reveal is...National Review writer David French? And it's not even confirmed? Don't get me wrong: French is a decorated Iraq war veteran, a strong writer, and a principled conservative whose stalwart commitment to religious liberty is admirable, even if one disagrees from time to time. He's also advanced eloquent, consistent and compelling arguments against both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton throughout the 2016 cycle. He's an impressive man. The impressiveness of his team -- if this presidential run ever actually comes to pass -- remains to be seen. But the notion that a relatively little-known writer could...

haha!

Now that we know former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson is going to be the Libertarian Party nominee after this weekend’s convention, much of the talk has centered around how Johnson could be a spoiler for Donald Trump against Hillary Clinton. Conventional wisdom would say that Libertarians and Republicans have a closer ideology than Libertarians and Democrats, and therefore, conservatives dissatisfied with Trump will vote for Johnson. The problem with this conventional wisdom is that 2016 isn’t conventional, and the candidates representing their parties don’t hold the usual ideologies of their parties. At this point, it appears there are more...

I was struck by this passage in a Wall Street Journal article about Romney and Trump. Not only is Romney a “no” to a third-party bid, he doesn’t even want to criticize Trump anymore (also, note the typically crummy personal shots from Trump): Conservative stalwarts revived a push for a third-party candidate, with a keen interest in Mr. Romney. “I made it clear I’m not running,” he said. On May 11, he again criticized Mr. Trump’s failure to release his returns, calling his position “disqualifying” and implying his returns could have “hidden inappropriate associations with foreign entities, criminal organizations, or...

Is the delusional Libertarian Party a threat to Donald Trump’s election chances? No. At its recent nominating convention the Libertarian Party played its usual role as the builders of the Tower of Babble. The Party that talks a good game about protecting individual rights has always been a haven for self-delusional and essentially disaffected Democrats who can’t bring themselves to declare who they really are. Their convention brought that fact home in a big way. When the attendees selected former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson as their standard bearer all seemed right in the delusional Party. Johnson had just quit...

At 5pm yesterday, Bill Kristol announced on Twitter that an “impressive” independent candidate “with a strong team and a real chance” of winning the presidency would be revealed. We’ve provided our readers with a countdown clock chronicling the time — down to the second — since Kristol promised the nation an “impressive” independent candidate:

Earlier this evening, Gary Johnson was elected to be the Libertarian Party presidential nominee, achieving a 50% tally in the second ballot and securing his second straight LP nomination. Austin Petersen and John McAfee put up good fights, but weren’t able to attain enough votes necessary to win the nomination, coming in 2nd and 3rd respectively. McAfee neglected to endorse Gary Johnson, but Austin Petersen made it clear from the beginning of his campaign that he would endorse whichever candidate the LP elected. While Petersen and Gary often had testy moments with each other in the debates, Austin stood by...

Bill Kristol and other Never-Trump Republicans have done extensive polling and talked to potential candidates and financial backers about how to stop Donald Trump, according to sources familiar with those efforts. Their continued work to halt Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, comes as Rep. Adam Kinzinger, a prominent GOP congressman from Illinois and Iraq War veteran, has decided to pass on an independent bid.

On paper, they make up the most formidable Libertarian ticket ever. But they still need to make the leap to seriousness. Former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson seized the Libertarian nomination for president at the party’s national convention this weekend and escaped a hotly contested convention with his hand-picked running mate, former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld. The pair form a political team of two former Republican governors that Johnson declared to be the most formidable third-party ticket in the modern era, one that he promised would thrust Libertarians from the fringe of American politics to “major party status” in a...

Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) will absolutely not be an independent candidate for president in November, his team confirmed to Breitbart News on Monday morning. A high-placed source close to former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has also confirmed that it will not be him running against presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump and likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in November. Another high-placed source, this one close to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), has confirmed that the Texas senator—Trump’s last serious competitor for the GOP nomination—will also not be launching an independent bid for president in November. Sasse, an outspoken critic of GOP presidential...

Donald Trump had a strong warning for Republicans after Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol said, a “strong independent candidate” is coming. Donald Trump’s warning to GOP after new weekend threat of independent candidate is HARSH, but true Read more: http://www.bizpacreview.com/2016/05/30/donald-trumps-message-to-gop-after-weekend-threat-of-independent-candidate-is-harsh-but-true-346233#ixzz4ABBmTxCO

Former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson won the 2016 Libertarian Party nomination for president on Sunday, as expected, winning on the second ballot with 55 percent of the vote. A former two-term Republican governor of New Mexico, he sought the Republican nomination for president in 2012, before deciding by the end of 2011 to seek the Libertarian Party nomination instead.Ordinarily, the Libertarian Party and its candidates attract little attention in a presidential race. Johnson got the Libertarian Party nomination in 2012 and went on to garner a little over a million votes, falling just short of one percent of the...

An investigation into the websites backing the so-called Renegade Party confirms that neoconservative columnist Bill Kristol has been plotting an anti-Trump political party since before a single vote was cast. Kristol’s Renegade Party was set up on January 10th — nearly a month before the Iowa Caucus. The move suggests that Kristol (or at least those close to him) had been planning an independent bid all along.

America got the contested convention it desired this weekend … from the Libertarians, anyway. Gary Johnson and William Weld managed to eke out majorities of delegates this weekend to become the only national party ticket with two former two-term governors on it, and both of them Republicans for that matter. Now that the circus has packed up, though, can the Libertarians compete for the first time, with both of the major parties nominating candidates with record unpopularity with voters? Politico reports that they will at least compete on funding, if nothing else. One big boost will come from the super-PAC...

Over the Memorial Day Weekend, Bill Kristol doubled down on his betrayal of this country with a pair of tweets: “Just a heads up over this holiday weekend: There will be an independent candidate — an impressive one, with a strong team and a real chance,” Kristol tweeted. He also said, “Those accused of betraying GOP by opposing Trump can take heart from P. Henry 251 years ago today: ‘If this be treason, make the most of it!’” This fatuous invocation of an American patriot to justify the betrayal typifies the arrogant disregard for political realities shared by all those...

Former Texas Republican Congressman and three-time presidential candidate Ron Paul confirmed in an interview with the Fox Business Network that he will not be supporting Donald Trump for United States president. He said in jest that he’s waiting for Trump to become a libertarian. When asked if there’s anything that Trump could say that would help change his mind, Paul replied that he wouldn’t know what to believe since “he’s all over the map.” The entire four-minute interview is embedded below: (VIDEO-AT-LINK) This is different from his son, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, who said he will support the GOP nominee,...