It is a good question and it should be resolved.  For both to run splits the libertarian vote and causes an establishment candidate to win.  On the one hand, Gary Johnson has youth and is similar to the ideas of Paul without the social conservatism that turns off some from supporting the Texas congressman.  However, Cong. Paul is clearly the number one movement libertarian, has tremendous name recognition and can raise  money and supporters.  One site dedicated to the internet sites dedicated or supporting Paul, has about 265 pro-Paul sites registered.  (Your blogger just registered THIS site there this weekend.)  Paul is also on the opinion shows almost every night and is a frequent guest on foreign media as well.  It will be hard for Johnson to overcome that.  He would have to establish all of that exposure Paul has now.

Ron Paul and Gary Johnson agree on virtually all of the top issues that are relevant in a nationwide election. The differences come in the emphasis placed on the different issues. Johnson tends to focus more on civil liberties and a non interventionist foreign policy than sound monetary policy and the Federal Reserve.

I agree.  The simple solution is one the author does not state but implies:  Both of them run together as a team.  Let Paul/Johnson be the 2012 ticket for the libertarian movement.  Paul brings the enthusiasm and money; Johnson brings the future voice of the movement.  If they win, Paul would probably only serve one term and then campaign for Johnson as his successor.  If they lose, Johnson would inherit most of Paul’s support and take up that mantle.  He would be the TV king that Paul is now. 

Let Paul and Johnson run together – no drama on running mates BUT two campaigners to stump a state or nation.  Paul/Johnson 2012 is the libertarian dream ticket. 

Somebody might ask:  What about Jindal?  I am conflicted.  Jindal is very intelligent and very much an over-achiever.  He’s been a success in every job he held.  He’s trying to clean up his native state – no mean feat.  I believe he will be a great President and I hope I can help him.  The Conflicted Libertarian is truly nonplussed.

However, I believe 2016 (or 2020) is Jindal’s year after eight years as Governor of Louisiana.

Here is Gary Johnson’s official Our America web site.  His positions are similar to Cong. Paul’s web site.  Thanks to tajitj for this news tip!

I’ll never forget the day – about 2002 or so when I first found Cong. Paul.  He was against the war in Kosovo and I soon read about his pro-financial privacy and anti Patriot Act and money laundering laws.  I could hardly believe it.  I knew he was right; I figured Cong. Paul would always be one of those men or women in politics who was right but seldom effective. 

I had just offered to help out for the 2008 Presidential campaign of Jim Gilmore (All right, stop laughing!  Governor Gilmore is a very intelligent politician who knows about the three T’s important to governing:  Technology, Taxes, and Terrorism.  He just had utterly insufficient national name recognition and no way to get it.) in early 2007 when I read the bottom of one of the cable news networks that Cong. Ron Paul was setting up an exploratory committee to run for President.  I said – if Gilmore says no, I’m going for Paul!  I did not get an answer from Governor Gilmore so I switched to Paul. 

Now I admire Governor Jindal for very different reasons than I admire Cong. Paul.  Gov. Jindal has a tremendous record of achievement and is a clear intellectual who wants to solve political problems.  He is willing to look outside the box.  He is a staunch conservative and open believer in Christ.  Jindal is a leader of strong integrity.  Cong. Paul appeals to the libertarian side of me.  He also is a staunch conservative and Christian, too.  He is also not going to change position for political gain.  It’s a hard choice.  Maybe the answer is:  Paul/Jindal 2012!

Here’s another comment that excites me and will send tajitj to new heights of rhapsody!  This is a quote from Bill Kauffman in the American Conservative cited in GOP 12:

At breakfast the morn of the rally, I sat across the table from a friendly dude wearing a peace-sign T-shirt and looking like an affable old surfer. He introduced himself as Gary Johnson, the former two-term governor of New Mexico. Over the next day, I spent a fair amount of time chatting with Governor Johnson: mountain-climber, triathlete, vetoer of 750 bills.

He told me that he may take a shot at the Republican presidential nomination in 2012 as an antiwar, anti-Fed, pro-personal liberties, slash-government-spending candidate—in other words, a Ron Paul libertarian.

This is small potatoes compared to this next story.  Dick Morris suggests in Newsmax that former Massachusetts Mitt Romney is out of serious 2012 running due to his healthcare “solution” in his home state.  I would seriously consider anything Morris says about politics.  You might not agree or feel confortable with Morris but he is a brilliant politico on the level of Machiavelli.  I respect anything he says. 

Morris also says that former Alaska Governor Palin has a way to go to be the GOP front runner:

“I think that Sarah Palin’s book sales are doing well, and I think she’s an incredible woman, but a lot of people were concerned when she resigned from the governorship of Alaska. Right now there is no front-runner…”

I think this has been a good two weeks for Governor Jindal.  He is quietly not making mistakes but being a good, competent governor of an important state.  I know he wants to run for re-election but i also know he listens to the Lord and if He says, it’s time, thne it’s time.

Governor Johnson, who caused not slight controversy in calling for the legislation of marijuana while serving as his state’s chief executive, is a fine libertarian candidate in the Ron Paul tradition.  I am not sure he is as socially conservative as Cong. Paul (although he may be one of the first so-called pro-choice politicians that was endorsed by National Right to Life!), but he is a principled politician who has something to say.

Here is Evertts first blog entry:

A few TRILLION dollar nails in Americas fiscal coffin.

$1,000,000,000,000 dollars. A thousand billions. A million millions. About $3,400 dollars for every man woman and child in the United States of America. 34 million times what I made last year. You could buy 15 million houses like mine.

In the last 8 years our Federal Government has (or is a few weeks from passing) with a few yeas and nays, passed four things that will cost that much or close to that much. None of them are Constitutional, really needed, or would allocate that trillion dollars better than the people.

• The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
• TARP bank bailout
• American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Obama stimulus)
• Very soon to be healthcare bill.

Lets compare the national debt and Federal budgets to average American finances. Receipts (taxes brought in) were 2.52 trillion and the national debt was 10 trillion dollars at end of fiscal 2008. So, our Federal governement owed 3.92 times what they brought in through taxes.

Lets say you and your wife bring home $50,000, around the median American income. If you owed 3.92 times what you made in a year, you’d be $196,000 in debt. That is getting bad, way too much for me personally, but Americans if employed and being thrifty can live like that. By the way, you have ZERO savings just like the government, which means your future is very very bleak.

The three programs, purchases, boondoggles, whatever want to call Washington’s expenditures, that already passed equal around 158% of 2008′s tax receipts. For you and your family that equals to adding $60,000 in new debt over last 8 years. You’re even telling your wife you absolutely need a new  boat (healthcare bill) for another $19,500 price tag.

You were doing ok, but now you can barely afford them, I guess you wanted a few perks. Even though your perks might be renovating the kitchen, getting a nicer car, or giving the kids a real big Christmas, while the governments perks are killing thousands of people in the Middle East, paying off old buddies who run huge banks, giving every lobbyist their dream pet projects, and trying to force the whole country onto an already bankrupt Medicare system.

2010 is looking much much worse, those little projects are coming back to bite you. The deficit is expected to be $1.75 TRILLION by end of fiscal 2009, the national debt is estimated to be 12.7 TRILLION. Meaning you would now have over $250,000 in debt. Something has to give. Either you have to sell your house(reform social security), get rid of a car(cut the empire), get another job(raise taxes), or you will go bankrupt. It has to give now, you will not be able to keep this going for another year. The bank (China) is not going to give you anymore money because they see what is going on. No different for our government.

They could have keep right on going with the status quo, racking up yearly deficits of a few hundred billion dollars. We could have taken care of Osama and his gang in Afghanistan, got through the housing bubble, took care of needy Americans, and fixed Medicare all without bankrupting America. Washington lost its mind in the past decade. Only now people are wising up to what is going on. They could have kept right on being corrupt as any institution in the history of the world, but they got greedy. We needed a bigger empire, the banksters needed more of our money, lobbyists needed more influence, and the entitlement system needed expanded.

In a Gary Johnson administration, there will be people looking to the future. Short term fixes and pleasures will be out the window and the American peoples interests will be fought for. Not big business, big union, big bank, big military. Women, whites, poor, black, gay, atheist, wealthy, young, southern, catholic, healthy, hispanic, rich, sick, old, it does not matter. All Americans will equally benefit by the executive branch of government doing less. The alternative is the end of the American dream for everyone.

This is well said.  I would only add that the debt to PRC will make us subject to their persuasion on policy issues.  Better not discuss persecution of Christians or Tibet or Taiwan (Taiwan is the most mistreated nation in the world – the Republic of China is not allowed to enter the Olympic Games with their national flag or name.  They are also not in the United Nations) or we’ll not be happy!  The PRC debt should be retired first.

MORE from tajitj in a few days!  Go eat turkey and dressing and remember the important stuff:  The SAINTS will win Monday night!

Sandy the Chief Blogger

But McDonnell will be a national figure in the GOP.  He won convincingly.  Winning is everything in politics.  I did note that he’ll campaign for out of state GOP candidates but not go to Iowa!  I agree.  2012 is too soon for McDonnell in national politics.  But he may be asked to be the VP for another candidate, maybe another governor who has come to Virginia to campaign for him twice – Bobby Jindal of Louisiana.  You saw it here at THIS blog first…

Ron Paul is only 8% behind Barack Obama. Is anyone else surprised by this number?

Paul is actually more popular with Democrats than either Palin, Huckabee or Romney.   He has the most undecided and has the lowest Obama percentage, according to Politics Daily:

Obama leads Mike Huckabee by 49 percent to 44 percent with 7 percent undecided; Sarah Palin by 51 percent to 43 percent with 5 percent undecided; Ron Paul by 46 percent to 38 percent with 16 percent undecided; and Mitt Romney by 48 percent to 43 percent with 9 percent undecided.

I think that this is good news for Ron Paul.  Very good news.  He is now a mainstream candidate.  Many do not know him.  They can be persuaded to support him.  I am impressed at all the video press Cong. Paul gets.  And every time he speaks, I am sure somebody somewhere says, “I like this guy.  Let me find out more.” 

Perhaps a Paul/Jindal ticket in 2012?

UPDATE:  Cong. Paul’s Audit the Fed act survived a major gutting in committee and may go to the House floor for a vote.  The co-sponsor with Paul is Cong. Alan Grayson of Florida.  See this video.  This is of course a reason why conservatives find Paul troubling.  Thanks to Abraham, Senior Member of the Ron Paul forums for that last insight.

Let me know what you think!

They are Andy Harris of Maryland, a state senator challenging Rep. Frank Kratovil Jr. in a rematch of their close 2008 race in the 1st District; Martha Roby of Alabama, a Montgomery city councilwoman who is taking on Rep. Bobby Bright in the 2nd District; Steve Pearce of New Mexico, a former House member who lost a Senate race in 2008 and is seeking to reclaim his old 2nd District seat, now held by Rep. Harry Teague; Steve Stivers of Ohio, who is waging a rematch campaign against Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy in the Columbus-area 15th District; and Van Tran of California, an assemblyman who is taking on Rep. Loretta Sanchez in the 47th District.

It COULD mean he has 2012 on his mind.  But it could more likely be preparation for a future leadership advance.  Congressman Roy Blunt, his “boss” in the leadership, is running for US Senate.   That means Cong. Cantor is a decent chance for the (hopefully) Majority Whip position and maybe even higher (Don’t count on it happening like Salon suggests!).  Also the ERIC PAC has been around since at least 2004.

Moreover, there is a huge obstacle in Cong. Cantor’s way to running for President and Congress at the same time (this also applies to VP, too!):  Va. Code 24.2-504 (emphasis added)

Only a person fulfilling all the requirements of a candidate shall have his name printed on the ballot for the election. No person shall have his name printed on the ballot for more than one office at any one election. However, a candidate for federal or statewide office, or a candidate for an office being filled in a special election, may have his name printed on the ballot for two offices at an election.

This means that, unlike Cong. Paul, Congressman Cantor must decide between Congress and President.  My faithful readers will be the first to know after I do if there is any attempt to change this law.  With divided government in Richmond (The GOP controls the house and the Dems the state senate and we’ll know shortly who is governor), it seems unlikely.  It is a shame in that Cong. Cantor would make a great candidate for either President or VP.

This is a bit of a surprise.  I thought Romney and Palin would be strong but not behind Huckabee.  Jindal did not place in this poll but many believe he will not run in 2012 and the Louisiana governor has not been in the public eye.

Palin’s book is about to come out and that will increase the visibility of the former VP candidate in 2008.  Speaking of visibility, it appears that Palin is not campaigning in either NJ or VA.  Governor Jindal has a book coming out soon, too – sometime next year.