Free Republic

Thursday, August 18, 2016 Gary Johnson's Seventy-Five Percent Posted by Daniel Greenfield This is the summer of Gary Johnson. The former New Mexico governor who has been steadily drifting left over his career is now doing his best to make Hillary Clinton into President Hillary Clinton. Back in 1999, Johnson rejected overtures from the Libertarian Party for a presidential run. “I'm a Republican, and I'm not going to run for President.'” Both parts of that statement proved to be lies. Libertarian and non-libertarian supporters see a principled politician in Gary Johnson. But Johnson has always been a political chameleon, shifting...

Johnson and one of his rivals, presumptive Green Party nominee Jill Stein, sued the commission last September, alleging violations of antitrust law and the First Amendment. Johnson and Stein are seeking spots on the all-important presidential debate stage this fall. But federal judge Rosemary M. Collyer threw out the lawsuit on Friday. In mid-September, the commission will add up five national polls and invite the candidates who are averaging at least 15% support. The first debate is scheduled to take place on Monday, September 26.

Ajamu Baraka, professorial with kind eyes, was an accomplished human-rights activist before joining the Green Party ticket as Jill Stein’s running mate. But the two leftist candidates—due for a mainstream close-up in a CNN town hall on Wednesday—also have engaged with some fringe thinkers and conspiracy theories. Baraka, especially, has an accomplished résumé in this field. Earlier this year, the former executive director of the U.S. Human Rights Network had his work featured in a book edited by accused Holocaust denier (“the Holocaust controversy was a legitimate topic of historical debate”) and self-described 9/11 truther Kevin Barrett. The book, Another...

A third-party presidential candidate is trying to make inroads with voters, but Texas residents monkeying around with pollsters may prefer a dead gorilla instead... “They call it gorilla glue because harambe was metaphorically the glue that held this nation together,”

Sen. Susan Collins appeared on CBS’s “Face the Nation” Sunday morning from the WGME studios, explaining why she is not voting for her party’s presidential nominee. […] Collins said she can’t support Hillary Clinton either. She said she is considering the Libertarian ticket, but that’s not a sure thing either. “I may write in a candidate who I believe would be best qualified to lead our country,” Collins said. …

It’s very, very unlikely — but new conservative independent candidate for president Evan McMullin can win. But only if he runs only in Utah. If, among swing states, Trump wins Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, he’ll have 273 electoral votes, three more than the 270 he needs to win. If he wins Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, and Iowa, he’ll have 272 electoral votes. Likewise if he wins Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, and Nevada. If he wins Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, and New Hampshire, he’ll have 270 exactly. If he wins Florida, North Carolina, Nevada, Iowa, and New Hampshire (the...

Revolt TV interviewed former U.S. Attorney, former Massachusetts governor and current Libertarian vice presidential candidate William Weld. Chief Political Correspondent Amrit Singh asked Weld about his views on guns. Specifically, whether or not people on the government’s secret, unaccountable Terrorist Watch List should be able to purchase “assault rifles.” […]“The five shot rifle, that’s a standard military rifle; the problem is if you attach a clip to it so it can fire more shells and if you remove the pin so that it becomes an automatic weapon, and those are independent criminal offenses. That is when they become, essentially a...

It seems a near-impossible hill for Evan McMullin, independent candidate for president, to climb. With the filing deadlines in half of the states already past and several more approaching in the coming days, the unknown 40-year-old former CIA agent doesn't have a straightforward way even to appear on the ballot. Despite the odds, McMullin sounds optimistic. "We expect to be on a broad number of states' [ballots], and in some especially critical states across the country. And we expect to be competitive. And we do see, even at this late hour, a difficult but very possible route to winning, and...

Under any scenario, however, the very fact of the McMullin candidacy is almost certain to have a major impact on the Republican electorate. Anyone can see this by heading over to large conservative communities like Free Republic where the members are positively incensed at McMullin’s bid and at the people backing him. Free Republic is an interesting case because, by and large, its members are more conservative than the Republican Party and also a majority of the membership took a long time to come around to support Trump during the GOP primaries. Initially, Anybody-But-Trump was the leading candidate with many...

A former CIA case officer who has served as top policy aide to House Republicans is launching an independent campaign for the presidency on Monday with the backing of veteran GOP strategists and donors determined to block Donald Trump of getting anywhere near the White House. Feeding off mounting discontent within GOP ranks over Trump, Evan McMullin — who is resigning today as chief policy director for the House Republican Conference — will announce his campaign with an open “Letter to America” aimed at rallying independents and conservatives to his cause. “It’s never too late to do the right thing,...

But if many Americans see their options as casting a hold-your-nose vote or staying home, others wonder about a third-party candidate. We saw that interest spike after a July 7 editorial exploring potential alternatives, as readers found their way to our website to learn about Gov. Gary Johnson of the Libertarian Party and Jill Stein of the Green Party. By July 19 when Johnson, the leading third-party candidate, met with the Tribune Editorial Board, his CNN poll numbers had climbed to 13 percent. That visit, again, led to a bump in web traffic, social media "shares" and reader feedback. Voters...

Evan McMullin, a former CIA counterterrorism operative, will run for president as a third-party conservative alternative to Donald Trump, the group backing the candidate told ABC News today. The group, Better for America, has been working for months on trying to select a candidate and get on ballots throughout the country. In some states, like Texas, they will likely have to sue to get on the ballot. It's an extreme uphill climb, but they are confident McMullin, 40, can act as a disruptor who they hope can peel off some red states in a race where some Republicans are still...

Key players in GOP’s anti-Trump movement are preparing to launch an independent presidential campaign for Evan McMullin — a CIA veteran and the chief policy director of the House Republican conference — sources close to the effort told BuzzFeed News. Veteran Republican strategist Rick Wilson, a Florida-based media consultant and outspoken Trump critic, is expected to be involved in McMullin’s campaign. Sources said Wilson was in Washington on Sunday meeting with members of McMullin’s prospective campaign — which includes some who were involved in a group called Better for America, which has been pushing an independent presidential bid.

YahNé Ndgo, a featured speaker and a self-described “Bernie Lover,” asked convention goers at the Green Party Nominating Convention in Houston, “Are you going to try to go inside there and reform this [Democratic] Party, that has demonstrated in every way, with every opportunity, that they really do not give a flying f**k about what it is you care about?” “And for me, that’s not a hard decision,” Ndgo said. She added, “Are you going to open up your mind to the possibility that there is something in place, an organization, a national organization that is already in place, that...

Mitt Romney, George Bush 41 and George Bush 43, as well as other mainstream Republican party figures, are set to endorse Libertarian Presidential Candidate Gary Johnson next week, say sources within the "Never Trump" movement and other disaffected Republicans. Johnson, the former Republican governor of New Mexico, is known for having balanced the budget during his 8 year tenure. The Libertarian's Vice presidential running mate is also a former Republican governor, William Weld of Massachusetts.

Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, the organization that recently posted thousands of the Democratic Party's internal emails online, will speak via live stream at the Green Party national convention, party officials announced Friday. Assange is scheduled to speak at 11:45 a.m. Saturday over a live stream from the Embassy of Ecuador in London. He will speak on the third day of the progressive party's national convention at the University of Houston, before the party nominates its 2016 presidential nominee, widely expected to be Jill Stein. Assange is expected to be interviewed by 2004 Green Party presidential nominee David Cobb,...

Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, the organization that recently posted thousands of the Democratic Party's internal emails online, will speak via live stream at the Green Party national convention, party officials announced Friday. Assange is scheduled to speak at 11:45 a.m. Saturday over a live stream from the Embassy of Ecuador in London. He will speak on the third day of the progressive party's national convention at the University of Houston, before the party nominates its 2016 presidential nominee, widely expected to be Jill Stein. Assange is expected to be interviewed by 2004 Green Party presidential nominee David Cobb,...

CLEVELAND, Ohio – Nina Turner, the Democratic former state senator from Cleveland who has emerged as a rallying figure for Bernie Sanders' disappointed supporters, said she is considering an offer to run for vice president on the Green Party's national ticket. Massachusetts physician Jill Stein, the party's presumptive presidential nominee, reached out with the pitch, Turner told cleveland.com Sunday evening in a telephone interview. The Green Party opens its convention Thursday in Houston. Turner would stand for nomination there if she agrees to be Stein's running mate. Her decision is expected in the coming days.

Former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney is thinking about supporting the Libertarian presidential ticket this year. Well, at least, that’s what the Libertarian ticket says. In a interview Thursday afternoon with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, former Govs. Gary Johnson and Bill Weld, of New Mexico and Massachusetts, respectively, said they have had spoken with Romney and he was “considering the possibility” of endorsing the two of them.

Sen. Bernie Sanders rebuffed calls from the Green Party — and a loud minority of his delegates and supporters here — to abandon the Democratic Party and build a third force outside it. The Green Party, which has never again reached the heights of its 2000 performance under Ralph Nader, has held a series of Philadelphia events since the weekend aimed at persuading Sanders voters to make a "DemExit." Jill Stein, the party's likely nominee, has spoken even as rainstorms shut down meetings, repeatedly calling on Sanders to quit the Democrats and talk to her; Cornel West, a Sanders supporter...