Gary Johnson had his much anticipated Press Conference this morning at 10 AM Mountain Time in the Capitol Rotunda of New Mexico.
He formally 'left' the GOP yesterday, and has absolutely milked every drop of PR possible out of the process of changing parties.
Good for him.
Gary clearly brings a new standard of quiet and professional competence and confidence to both the Libertarian Party and the 2012 Presidential Race.
Gary has all of the positives you can say about any of the Candidates in the other two parties, with none of the negatives.
Gary has none of the racist skeletons in his closet that Ron Paul has and none of the Socialist/Big Government skeletons of Romney and Gingrich.
What he does have is a track record of successful Governorship of New Mexico. He spoke today of having vetoed more Bills than every other Governor combined in the other 49 states.
Gary clearly counts better than Obama, who has the USA with 57.
Gary is also clearly pro Israel. He clearly pointed out that his position on Israel is one of the three major points he differs with Congressman Paul on.
Governor Johnson said: "Israel is and has been an important Military Ally."
'It's naive to think that Israel won't address the Iranian problem.'
'The US should not give Foreign Aid to Israel.'
'I wholeheartedly support ...continuing to be Israel's Ally Militarily.' (order of sentence halves reversed for clarity)
Gary wants to cut the Military Budget by 43%. He pointed out this only turns the budget clock back seven years. He also proposed that Military Alliances that cost money are not 'Foreign Aid'.
Gary took many digs at Obama and Paul, not the least of which was when he stated: "It's not the messenger, it's the message - it's the agenda", challenging the cult of personality.
Governor Johnson came across as humble, thoughtful, humorous, relaxed and confident.
Early on, he threw a lot of red meat to the Libertarian crowd stating, "The LP is the Third Party!" He further pointed out 61% of Americans are willing to vote Third Party.
Gary made the case for the Fair Tax, and while I personally disagree, his point that it was 'the best of the worst', and his explanations of how it would be an improvement over the current system are very persuasive and certainly could resonate with voters at least as much as the Herman Cain 9-9-9 plan.
Viewership of the live feed rose steadily throughout the Press Conference that began promptly on schedule. This is in direct contradiction to all LP events starting on 'Libertarian Standard Time'.
I caught the feed when it was in the high 600s, ending up at over 1850 viewers.
He raised $8,675.31 raised from 103 donors at end of Conference. Total event fundraising traditionally will be much higher than the first final number.
The Chairman of the Libertarian Party and several other Libertarians, notably California LP Candidate and big Marijuana Legalization guy Steve Collet were in the Audience.
Gary wants to immediately withdraw from Afghanistan, is against Eminent Domain for the Keystone Pipeline, and for term limits and free markets.
The free market thing may be the fourth place where he and Ron Paul differ, since it seems that Gary is not against NAFTAesque treaties.
The audience was smallish, but enthusiastic, and kept the Governor on his toes with a wide variety of questions.
Governor Johnson for President Website: http://www.garyjohnson2012.com/
Note: as of 45 minutes post Conference: $10,141.32 raised from 112 donors.
Copyright December 2011 - Bruce Cohen
All Rights Reserved
Reprint rights granted with credit given.
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