Gary Johnson, Trump spoiler, Koch supported, wins Libertarian nom

[realmirage]

This is the guy that's going to siphon tons of votes from Trump. Has the backing of the Koch brothers. Will easily cancel out the Bernie or bust vote and then some. In a couple months everyone will know this guy's name.

http://fortune.com/2016/05/29/gary-johnson-third-party/

[beachbumbob]

1. Trump loses...6 to 8 % to johnson

Hillary could get 400 electoral votes, democrats win back 7 senate seats and 20 house seats....and make conservatives a footnote....

A real irony...

[realmirage]

8. That's the plan

Git er dun

[Historic NY]

10. +1

[TeamPooka]

14. Please let it happen. nt

[Walk away]

2. Yeah! Bye Bye Bernie!!!!!

He and his Followers can walk off to where ever people like that go when they become completely irrelevant!

[BootinUp]

3. ROFL

[Zambero]

4. Is Bill Weld accepting the VP nod?

His inclusion on the ticket would draw an even greater number of GOP voters away from Trump who are looking for a credible 3rd party option.

[FloridaBlues]

5. Let's hope enough republicans vote their way. I suspect they will

[SaschaHM]

6. Johnson is pushing for him, but a lot of Libertarians dislike the guy.

They're voting on the guy soon.

[wysi]

7. Weld bombed at their meeting, apparently

Too "authoritarian", is what I read. He's pretty much an old school establishment republican from the 1950s.

[Agschmid]

17. And yet he was the governor of arguably one of the most liberal states...

Boggles the mind.

[wysi]

21. Full disclosure admission

I'm from MA and voted for him in 1990. My only republican vote ever. The Democratic candidate that year was John Silber, former president of my alma mater (Boston University), and Silber would have made a horrific governor. We needed someone who could work with the legislature as the state was deep in recession at the time. I don't regret my vote.

[forjusticethunders]

22. i'm too young lol

I literally only remember Republican insanity and fascism and then I hear these stories of "sane, moderate Republicans" and it's like another world.

[wysi]

24. There were some, back in the day...

Especially in MA. We elected an African American senator the year I was born (1966) - he was a republican, believe it or not.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Brooke

The crazy really started to happen when the republicans took out the Contract On America in 1994, which coincided with the rise of RW talk radio. There were signs of it before then, but that's when it really came into force, in my view.

[realmirage]

26. You guys know your politics

I knew nothing about his vp. Glad there are people here who actually educate themselves. Breath of fresh air

[wysi]

27. I'm old...

I turn 50 this year and have been interested in politics since the 1972 election (I was in first grade). I must have been one of the few kids who watched NBC nightly news every night when I was aged in single digits (and I remember watching the Huntley-Brinkley Report before that). What a weirdo.

[realmirage]

28. 50 isn't that old

I like politics too. I think it's a no brainer to be concerned with something that impacts your life like government does. But we are in the minority.

I'm not familiar with the Brinkley report, and in 72 I wasn't an earthling yet : )

Glad there are communities like this where "some" people know their stuff. There are plenty of the other kind running around here

[wysi]

30. There's a lot of people who seem to treat it like a sport...

... and they are rooting for a "team". It's not, and they're not, they just think it's so. It's much more important to take the long view, rather than focussing on one election.

I grew up in a pragmatic, blue-collar Democratic-voting family in MA. We always talked politics... my great grandfather unsuccessfully ran for city council (as a republican!) back in the 1920's, and every conversation at his house or my grandparents' house would eventually focus on politics. I learned a lot from listening to the adults.

[realmirage]

31. Funny how the people with the most experience

seem to know stuff. Our youth obsessed culture is one of our biggest problems.

Listening to older people, what an idea!

[Agschmid]

16. Yes.

[SharonClark]

9. Weld is the veep candidate and Trump attacks

From CNN...
At the party convention in Orlando, Florida, Johnson got his preferred running mate, former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld, in a weekend gathering that drew sharp contrasts with the major party candidates -- Trump and Hillary Clinton, the likely Democratic nominee...

At one point on Sunday, an announcer told the convention that Trump had begun attacking Johnson and Weld. The audience roared in approval at the news. It was not immediately apparent what attacks the announcer was referring to, but in a statement to the New York Times about Weld, Trump said, "I don't talk about his alcoholism."

[StevieM]

11. I don't think Johnson will get too many votes and I think a lot of them will come from Hillary.

Last edited Sun May 29, 2016, 11:19 PM - Edit history (1)

I am hoping that Johnson and Green Party nominee Jill Stein won't get significant support. Hopefully no more than three percent between them.

[TwilightZone]

12. Johnson's a right-libertarian. Outside of a couple of issues, he's a conservative.

Most of the votes he siphons off should come from Trump.

Stein barely hit the 450k mark in 2012. I doubt she's going to be much of a factor.

[StevieM]

13. But a lot of third party voters are just looking to vote for someone other than

the two major candidates.

[TwilightZone]

15. Eh, not as many as the Sanders camp wants everyone to believe.

Independents split about how one would expect - roughly one-third lean left, one-third lean right, one-third don't care enough to lean one way or another. The left and right leaners are basically Democrats and Republicans who just don't bother to ID that way.

Trump would normally get most of the one-third right, though Johnson may siphon some of them off. The left third will vote mostly for Hillary. The middle third will split -- some polls have shown they might lean slightly Hillary.

Johnson got 1% in 2012. With all of the anti-Trump sentiment, he could get maybe 1-2 points more in '16. I don't see him drawing much from the left unless they don't learn anything about him. Possible, I suppose.

Jill Stein got 0.3% in 2012. There's little indication her support is going to grow much. Many of the people pushing her on DU were pushing her in 2012 as well, and it didn't help.

If Johnson gets 1-3% and Stein gets 0.3% or slightly higher, it's still a net plus for us and a net loss for Trump. A lot of the people who dislike both Trump and Clinton just won't vote.

[StevieM]

18. I'm thinking that all the third party candidates together may get 3 percent of the vote.

And I am hoping that HRC crushes Trump in the debates and goes on to win the GE by double digits. I am thinking maybe 54-43 Clinton.

The most important reason why we need to crush Trump is so that we can carry in a Democratic congress. That won't be easy given the realities of the GOP gerrymandering. But it's not impossible.

[TwilightZone]

19. Total "other" in 2012 was about 1.8%, so I could see 3% this time.

A significant win and an influx of Democrats into Congress would certainly help. Hillary would be able to pursue a much more progressive agenda if she had Congressional support.

[DLCWIdem]

29. conspiracy theorists

I think Johnson will siphon off the conspiracy theorist from the dems who are Sanders supporters now. But those CT's were really not Dems in the first place. He will also try to get the young students but I don't believe it will be successful. They want free college not to "bring the costs down on college education". Hilary's policies on college tuition will be much better so most of the kids will come around.

[TwilightZone]

32. Yeah, that's possible. Ron/Rand Paul somewhat oddly seem to have some adherents here, not to

mention that dope HA Goodman at Salon, so some could go Johnson's way.

Wouldn't make sense since he's mostly a conservative, but the Paul support here never made any sense to me, either. They thought they were the cool kids or something. I thought it was more like a cult.

[Cha]

20. Oh, he's going after BS voters, too.. but they wouldn't have voted for Hillary

anyway..

Propane Jane ??@docrocktex26
For every Bernie or Bust person who won't vote D in protest of HRC, there's a newly registered POC, woman, or young person who will.
12:14 PM - 21 May 2016
258 258 Retweets 385 385 likes

https://theobamadiary.com/2016/05/21/on-the-way-to-vietnam-and-japan/

[realmirage]

23. Anyone who votes for Johnson was never a liberal anyway

So no votes lost

[eastwestdem]

25. Good news for us!! nt