The Park Record of Park City, Utah, ran a feature on Libertarian presidential hopeful Wayne Allyn Root under the headline “Ex-Oddsmaker Re-Ups For 2012”. The newspaper says Root, “who is a former Las Vegas oddsmaker, campaigned alongside Bob Barr as the Libertarian Party’s 2008 vice-presidential nominee. In 2012, Root said he plans to be the party’s pick for president.”
Root “rejected notions that the views of Libertarians lie at the political fringe. ‘All Libertarian really means is fiscally conservative, socially tolerant. All it is is the best of the right and best of the left, in my opinion.'” The article says Root, “who recently closed his sports-handicapping business in Las Vegas, said his passion for politics could soon be on display five days a week should he land a job hosting a radio talk show.”
Root said, “I’m very close to signing that deal. Right now, the best thing I could do for my campaign is building a giant national audience that knows who I am.” Root said Barr lacked the name recognition needed to perform better in 2008, adding, “If we had a candidate who was on the radio five days a week with a Rush Limbaugh-like show with millions of listeners, that would have been a totally different thing.”
Root also predicted Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will challenge President Obama for the 2012 Democratic presidential nomination and defeat him. Root considers Mitt Romney to be the Republican frontrunner.
@25 Liberals aren’t the only ones who “pervert themselves”. Need I point out the numerous recent stories of so-called “moral” conservatives engaging in so-called “immoral” behavior?
Wish more of our papers in Utah would run features on Libertarian candidates.
To me, personally, the Libertarian party is the ultimate political compromise. We conservatives get small, low-cost government, and the liberals get to pervert themselves all they want. Each gets what’s most valuable to them. I’m willing.
Tom Knapp: “gee some one with Lib street cred finally GETS IT”
Personal note: my one and only wife was told not to get pregnant again as a life threatening precaution. I was concerned enuf to get a vasectomy. Doctor RP, on the other hand, claims that he [in 10K medical cases] he has never seen a woman that needed an abortion.
Me, one of one, he zero out of ten thousand.
Hmmmmmm. Some one grab a Constitution Party /AIP pin for his lapel and introduce him to zealots Cody Quirk and Doctor Donald Grundmann!
mdh,
You write: “Ron Paul has NEVER been anti-GLBT. He’s also stated that he does not want a federal ban on abortion. There’s no evidence that he is a fan of any sort of theocracy.”
When a guy goes on talk radio and says that where God’s law and man’s law conflict, God’s law has to come first, that’s evidence that he’s a fan of some sort of theocracy.
And when that same guy, a guy with a reputation as a “constitutionalist,” writes and sponsors legislation (the “Marriage Protection Act”) aimed directly at suspending the Constitution for the sole purpose of facilitating bans on same-sex marriage, that’s objectively anti-LGBT.
Jake writes:
“But he (Root) is the only candidate doing the work necessary to win a significant vote total, such that it could be built into a win within 8-12 years.”
Nonsense. Third party candidates can’t win national elections in America. Period. The two major parties have seen to it that third parties can’t win. It has never been the role of third parties to win elections. Their role has been to push the mainstream parties to adopt certain issues. Even this is nearly impossible due to the saturation of television media support for a two-party system and the virtual exclusion of exposure to third parties.
The few moments that libertarians receive on television in no way compares to the 24/7/365 coverage of Democrats and Republicans. In America, if something is not covered over and over again on television, it does not exist regardless of how many radio shows or web pages there are.
This is why it is absurd to abandon libertarian principles as a tactic to win elections. If you truly believe in libertarianism, you won’t convert others by keeping it secret.
If a Libertarian ever does win an election, it will be because Americans have become libertarian and not because a candidate announces his election early and talks the Republican talk about guns, God, gambling and tax cuts for a decade.
Milnes, Ron Paul has NEVER been anti-GLBT. He’s also stated that he does not want a federal ban on abortion. There’s no evidence that he is a fan of any sort of theocracy. You are wholly uneducated on Ron Paul and his platform.
Thomas M. Sipos, yes, I can’t help bashing RP/RP. & I’m not the only one. He falls in with the counterrevolution/reactionary movement. That is EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE of what I’m trying to do. Yes, he’s anti-war & so is the CP. But look at what goes along with that. Theocracy, states’ rights=code for conservatism. Anti-abortion rights=code for anti-women’s rights. Anti-GLBT.no code needed. Why aren’t YOU bashing RP also? PS. No refunds on 35 million gone to RP/GOP. Write-in Paul v Barr/Root. is not a very good choice. We have to do better in 2012. ONE GOOD WINNING CHOICE set up. That’s what we need.
Milnes, you keep bashing Ron Paul, but Ron Paul is loudly antiwar, and very popular among many leftist youth because of it.
Paul is extremely popular among many “left libertarians.” I’ve known several such LP officers who told me they wrote-in Paul (as did I) rather than vote for Barr/Root.
Jake has a point though. The sooner the libertarian left (LP, BTP) gets their act together the better. The things necessary to build a movement, significant vote total, campaign warchest etc take time.
Phillies, Kubby, Knapp, Ruwart, Milnes et al clearly lean left.
The LP CANNOT POSSIBLY WIN. They do not have access to sufficient numbers or blocs. 20%MAX-see: The Libertarian Vote. However they COULD either Ally with The GP or the CP. In the former case they would be supporting a progressive movement/revolution. In the latter case they would be supporting a Ron Paul Constitutionalist/Theocratic counterrevolutionary movement. Libs=kingmaketrs. The political future depends on whether they lean left or right or status quo. Root clearly leans right.
“As White House Communications Director under Reagan —— [Jacking the Reform Party, Patrick] Buchanan worked for the administration in which Bush Sr. was technically no.2, but in reality the real boss ………..”
and in the 21st Century, de facto President Dick [less] Cheney manipulating Puppet Boy Bush League …………..
I wish Root the best and hope he gets his show. I would like to see him change his tune when it comes to unions and the working people in this country. He seems to think the latter don’t pay taxes.
Jake,
You write:
“Root had declared a year in advance of the Denver Convention. The others were all 100% delusional, entering the race with less than a year to campaign.”
Root declared a year in advance of the Denver convention. Then he declared that he hadn’t declared. Then he declared that he was thinking about declaring. Then he finally declared in November, seven months ahead of the convention.
Phillies declared in early 2006 and stayed declared.
Kubby declared in August, 2006 and stayed declared.
I think Root has the right idea. The National LP presidential run is all about mass media. The best candidate is the one who keeps our message as pure as possible, while keeping it in front of the largest number of people.
This “not knowing” precisely what’s going on in the mind of the candidate is maddening to most libertarians who inherently distrust electoral politics. But the candidate must “dumb things down” to some extent. In areas where the candidate cannot go into vast detail without offending the soft-skulled masses, he must speak in generalities.
Many people don’t want to be confronted with the pure truth. They will simply say “He made me uncomfortable, so I’m not going to vote for him” (actually, they won’t say or think it, they will simply “run away” and not think about it, and then not vote for that candidate).
I think Root is as good a candidate as it is possible to have. He spends a lot of time speaking, and refining his talking points. He understands that it is important to reach people multiple times.
He is exactly right that he should spend his time building a giant demographic.
We’ve disagreed many times on specifics. But he is the only candidate doing the work necessary to win a significant vote total, such that it could be built into a win within 8-12 years. The other LP candidates are planning nightmares. In 2008, they all waited until the last minute, and then shot themselves in the foot (along with Root). Pointless. Root had declared a year in advance of the Denver Convention. The others were all 100% delusional, entering the race with less than a year to campaign.
Anyone who knows so little about strategy that they believe that the Libertarians are able to campaign “last minute” (like the Dems and Reps do), knows so little about strategy that they should not represent the LP.
We cannot pretend that we are fighting on a level playing field. We need to start fighting, keep fighting, and never stop. Obviously!
Root is the only one following that plan.
After the assassination attempt, I think Bush was really the senior partner in the Reagan-Bush administration.
It would be more typing than I would want to go into anytime soon to lay out a decent case for that, though.
I’m not convinced Bush Sr. was the real boss. Just because it wasn’t Reagan doesn’t indicate that it was a guy who ran against him and wasn’t part of his inner circle until after the election.
Kennedy and Buchanan did indeed run against sitting Presidents of their own parties. But neither man ran against a president he’d actually worked for.
As White House Communications Director under Reagan, Buchanan worked for the administration in which Bush Sr. was technically no.2, but in reality the real boss.
I do think that Root is on crack if he believes Hillary will WIN the nomination, though.
It all depends on how the national and world situation is by then.
Take a depression, war escalation, and thrown in a major epidemic or two, and she might beat him, or he might declare a national emergency, or …who knows?
If the nanotech/quantum computing singularity, or the Biblical Armageddon and rapture etc. occurs, all bets are off.
Tom, that’s actually still the same situation as with Henry Wallace. Truman fired Wallace from his Cabinet in 1946, and Wallace retaliated by running for President. The result: epic fail by Wallace.
Kennedy and Buchanan did indeed run against sitting Presidents of their own parties. But neither man ran against a president he’d actually worked for. That’s just unheard of in the political world — it’s considered the ultimate act of treachery. Even Colin Powell didn’t run against Bush in 2004, though he clearly hated him and might have had a shot at winning.
Jeremy,
Perhaps Root thinks that Hillary will not be part of the administration by 2012.
In 1980, Ted Kennedy ran for the Democratic presidential nomination against Jimmy Carter. Pat Buchanan has run in GOP primaries against sitting Republican presidents.
I do think that Root is on crack if he believes Hillary will WIN the nomination, though.
Root really thinks Hillary Clinton is going to run against Obama from inside his administration? He’s on crack. The last time someone attempted that was Henry Wallace in 1948, and he was run out of the party.
Wayne Root will be LIVE on The Jerry Doyle Show at 5:30 PM
EST TODAY!
Four million listeners!
Station finder:
http://www.jerrydoy le.com/stationfi nder
I honestly want to hear Roots opinion on the following Republicans:
1. Jon Hunstman (former Gov of Utah)
2. Gary Earl Johnson (former New Mexico Gov)
3. Jeff Flake (Arizona’s 6th district)
I thought winning edge went the way of the dinosaur or something?
Former oddsmaker? He still seems to be running a sports tout service as per his website, http://www.winningedge.com?