(The following was originally published in The Wall Street Journal.)
OXON HILL, Md. – The presumed Republican presidential candidates each get time alone on stage here to address the gathered conservative activists. And then there isGary Johnson.
Mr. Johnson, the former New Mexico governor, is gearing up for another national run, he said in a hallway interview at the Conservative Political Action Conference. This time, he won’t bother begging his way into Republican debates – he is aiming to win the Libertarian Party’s nomination.
“I don’t have any delusions about this,” Mr. Johnson said. “I do believe that the things that I’ve been saying have been the truth, that I am reality-based, and that I am reflective of what most Americans think. Democrats and Republicans don’t provide any of that and so to be able to do this, I don’t know, I’m doing it for myself, I guess.”
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/234068-gary-johnson-decries-marijuana-prohibition-at-cpac
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/video/2016-candidate-gary-johnson-gops-stupid-stance-pot-29256510
http://www.syracuse.com/politics/index.ssf/2015/02/cpac_2015_ann_marie_buerkle_makes_case_against_legalizing_marijuana_video.html (she’s the reefer madness lady in the video above; Johnson’s reply is covered).
http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/weed-smokes-out-conservative-fault-lines
http://gazette.com/waynes-word-blog-pot-talk-at-cpac/article/1546945
We all know I’m not the world’s biggest GJ fan, but I have to applaud him for that move. Mockery can be a very effective form of persuasion, especially when the arguments you are facing are so blatantly ridiculous.
I wonder what kind of drugs she had to take to keep a straight face as that happened.
LOL. Perfect response to the Reefer Madness woman.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNZYLconqvU&feature=share
This part, later in the article, was good:
He is here to appear on CPAC panels about legalizing marijuana (he is for it) and military intervention (“I would pose the option of not dropping bombs”).
The president and chief executive officer of a Nevada-based marijuana company, Mr. Johnson has a similar small-government platform as does Sen. Rand Paul (R., Ky.), who won the CPAC presidential straw poll the last two years. Mr. Johnson said he is Mr. Paul without the social conservative strain.