The Man Who Won’t Be President (But Is Worth Backing Anyway)

Behold: the latest stirrings of the ongoing Gary Johnson boomlet. The former governor of New Mexico (1994-2002) will probably announce his Presidential candidacy early next year. Hence this Daily Caller piece and an article in the New Republic. No-one, alas, expects Johnson’s candidacy to fare brilliantly, though theoretically he should be the candidate the Tea Party backs and he already enjoys Ron Paul’s blessing.

Paul’s success – in fundraising if not traditional campaigning – surprised almost all Beltway journalists back in 2007. In retrospect, however, that’s where you find the genesis of at least some parts of the Tea Party movement. Truth be told, Paul, with his goldbuggery, his hostility to a mythical North American Union, his oddball, if at times endearingly goofy, TV manner was not a great pitchman for his brand of conservative-libertarianism. Johnson, by contrast, is a showman.

Unlike Paul, Johnson also believes in the free movement of goods and people so he’s the kind of libertarian who appeals to the Cato-Reason crowd more than to the Lew Rockwell peeps or many of the cultural conservatives who’ve rallied to the Tea Party banner.