Eliot Nelson at HuffPo:
NATIONAL HARBOR, MARYLAND — Typically, when a politician meets a reporter for an interview, decorum dictates that said politician offer up a bland pleasantry to break the ice. “Thanks for spending time with us!” or “Try to keep up!” are standard.
When I meet former New Mexico governor and 2012 Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson at this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), he takes a different tack.
“So you drew the short straw? Some reporter always does.”
Johnson is a friendly, kinetic presence, but he isn’t exactly the brightest star in the political universe right now, a fact he’ll readily concede and even point out. Like much of the Libertarian Party, he finds himself in a precarious position heading into 2016. On the one hand, his laissez-faire platform has never been more popular, with the public increasingly skeptical about developments like the war on drugs, the militarization of America’s police departments and an increasingly intrusive regime of government surveillance.
On the other hand, his policy agenda is being partially appropriated by both of America’s dominant political parties, and the popularity and likely presidential campaign of libertarian-leaning Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) has only served to further diminish the Libertarians’ standing.
I encounter Johnson as he’s manning the booth of his advocacy organization, Our America Initiative, talking with supporters and catching knowing glances from passers-by. Where most prominent politicians would never deign to be seen very long in the deepest, most zoo-like bowels of CPAC, Johnson is happily holding court. Indeed, it feels at times that Johnson is no more a sideshow than The Weekly Standard’s photo booth or the gentleman nearby dressed as Captain America.
When an aide tries to interject some optimism by pointing out that Johnson finished third place in CPAC’s 2011 straw poll of presidential candidates, Johnson, who governed New Mexico from 1995 to 2003 and turned 61 this year, offers a characteristic retort.
“Yeah, you can see where that got me.”
Despite his less-than-hopeful outlook on his own political standing, Johnson remains cautiously optimistic about the effects of Paul’s success.
“If Rand Paul wins the nomination, that’d be terrific,” he tells me. “If he were to prevail he’d be the best Republican nominee in a long time.” His enthusiasm for the GOP field, however, ends at Paul. “Based on the current crop, I’d vote for the Libertarian candidate,” he says.
But Johnson still sees a lot of daylight between him and Paul on issues like marriage equality, reproductive rights, drug reform, foreign policy and immigration reform, and makes no attempt to hide it.
“He’s a social conservative and I’m not,” Johnson says. “I think he’s toeing a fine line on the whole military intervention thing” — a reference to Paul’s efforts to soften his image as an isolationist.
“I call it punting. His dad [former congressman and presidential candidate Ron Paul (R-Texas)] punted, too. They punt on drug policy, they punt on marriage equality.”
That said, Johnson, who says he is still hasn’t decided whether to seek the Libertarian Party’s nomination in 2016, is somewhat agnostic about the daunting prospect of another nationwide campaign. He hates it. I mean, he really hates it.
“When I ran in 2012, 90 percent of what I did ended up being wasted time. I must have spent three months on Internet radio talking to people who I envision were guys in their mid-40s and the only people listening were their parents in the room upstairs.”