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At Liberty Hangout, an article has detailed a boorish, foolish, insensitive, and careless action by the Libertarian candidate for President, former New Mexico Governor, Gary Johnson.The nomination was strongly contested by two other candidates, Austin Petersen and John McAfee.  Austin Petersen came in second, John McAfee came in third.  When Johnson won the nomination, Austin Peterson pledged his support, and he did so with a dramatic flourish.  From libertyhangout.org: As a token of good faith, Austin gave Johnson a replica of George Washington’s flintlock pistol, to let him know that he has Austin’s full support in the general election. Tearing...

A conservative donor who has been scouring Republican ranks for a third-party candidate is pressing ahead with a group to get on the ballot in dozens of states. The candidate will come once the group sees that the ballot access is possible. The donor, John Kingston, a bundler and ally of Mitt Romney, said he will bankroll a ballot-access project to create a path for someone to run as another option. The effort is being called Better for America. The idea is “to do a proof of concept for everybody,” Mr. Kingston said. “It exists, there is a pathway, there...

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has sunken to third place among independent voters, a new poll reveals. Clinton pulled just 22 per cent of the independent vote in the latest Fox News poll, finishing behind Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson. Trump led among independents, pulling 32 per cent of the vote, while Johnson, a former governor of New Mexico, got 23 per cent. 'This is very bad news for Hillary Clinton,' Republican strategist Susan Del Percio told the New York Post. 'She needs independents to win in November.' Clinton did, however, show a three-point...

NEW YORK — Never Trump’s trial balloon went the way of Waterloo. Just days ago, Weekly Standard publisher Bill Kristol reportedly had found just the man to offer a third, conservative option beyond presumptive GOP nominee Donald J. Trump and the execrable expected Democrat standard bearer, Hillary Clinton.

Mitt Romney, the twice-failed Republican candidate for president, has kicked off a weekend convention of fellow-minded “NeverTrump-ers,” hosting a retreat at a secluded Utah spot so they can gather and talk without worry of media coverage and condemnation about how they should proceed politically, if the billionaire businessman wins the White House. It’s called the “Experts and Enthusiasts Summit,” or “E2” summit, and it’s set at the Stein Eriksen Lodge Deer Valley in Park City, the Washington Post reported. Reportedly, those in attendance will talk about their plans to take down Trump with a third-party candidate. Such talk was going...

Libertarian Presidential candidate Gary Johnson is still a relative unknown, but according to the latest polls, he’s drawing double digits against Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. But while Johnson might be gaining fans because of his position on legalizing marijuana—it’s a key part of his campaign’s platform—he swears that, should he actually win the White House, he would quit smoking pot (at least for his first term)....

Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson said something many other politicians won't. During an interview with The Hill Johnson said, "His latest comments on the Hispanic judge in California, nothing short of racist," "The comments are racist. Is he racist?" the reporter asked. "Clearly, clearly," Johnson replied Johnson directly called Trump racist, and it's not the only time Johnson has come out swinging. "Look, I think Donald Trump's statements on immigration are just really racist," Johnson said on Fox News.

I knew he supported open borders, which is Libertarianism 101 (except, oddly, within the Paul family), but I could shrug that off by reminding myself that this guy won’t get within 30 points of winning a state. He’s a protest vessel, nothing more or less. If you want to cast a vote this fall for smaller government and against authoritarianism, of which there’ll be two different flavors on the ballot in the form of the two major-party nominees, why not Johnson?

Hillary Clinton’s lead over Donald Trump narrowed slightly in the latest IBD/TIPP Poll, which finds her ahead of Trump by 45% to 40%. Last month, Clinton was head ahead 47% to 40%. But the poll finds widespread dissatisfaction with the two presumptive nominees.

Here is a sentence I never thought I’d type: After days of prayer, reflection, and serious study of the possibilities, I am not going to run as an independent candidate for president of the United States. I gave it serious thought — as a pretty darn obscure lawyer, writer, and veteran — only because we live in historic times. Never before have both parties failed so spectacularly, producing two dishonest, deceitful candidates who should be disqualified from running for town council, much less leader of the free world.

Hillary Clinton holds a 3-point lead over Donald Trump in a new Florida poll that shows Hispanics are helping the Democrat and also that the newly named Libertarian presidential candidate might be hurting the Republican. Clinton’s 45-42 percent lead over Trump in the Mason-Dixon Polling & Research survey resembles other recent Florida polls that showed a close race between the two. However, unlike other Florida surveys, Mason-Dixon polled Libertarian Gary Johnson for the first time in the state and found he comes in a distant third, with 6 percent. In a state known for close top-of-the-ticket races, Johnson’s relatively small...

A group of prominent conservative activists, including the writer and radio host Erick Erickson, aren’t satisfied with Bill Kristol’s suggestion of David French as a third party candidate and are still looking for another alternative to Donald Trump. The activists are working separately from Kristol, the editor of The Weekly Standard who favors French, according to two sources familiar with the discussions. “We’re not going to be jumping on board with what Kristol is doing,” said a person involved in the discussions. “We learned about this from the media along with everyone else.” Organizers of the self-described Conservative Against...

An incredibly close race between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump could easily tip with minor-party candidates suddenly flexing their muscles, a new poll revealed on Wednesday. If given a choice only between the Democratic and GOP front-runners Clinton and Trump, the former secretary of state holds a slim lead of 45 percent to 41 percent, according to the latest Quinnipiac University poll. But for the first time this election cycle, Quinnipiac pollsters added Libertarian Gary Johnson and the Green Party’s Jill Stein to the mix – and they pulled in 5 percent and 3 percent, respectively. With those additional choices,...

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...