Largely ignored by the mainstream media for most of the presidential campaign, Libertarian Party nominee Gary Johnson is suddenly racking up headlines in The Washington Post and New York Times and on CNN and NPR.
Volume of coverage is a difficult thing to quantify comprehensively, but consider one striking metric: Lexis-Nexis, which logs articles and transcripts from thousands of news outlets, tallied 452 stories related to Johnson in U.S. media between May 18, the day he tapped former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld as his running mate, and June 3. That’s more attention in a 17-day span than he had received in 4½ months of campaigning to that point.
Several factors likely contributed to the spike in interest. Adding Weld made a decent-size splash. A former Republican governor of a politically important state is certainly a bigger newsmaker than, say, a former county judge, which is what Johnson had on the Libertarian ticket in 2012…
But the most important factor is not the Libertarian candidates themselves — or their events. It is the impending nominations of Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Full Story @ Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/06/04/the-libertarian-party-so-hot-right-now/
I give GJ a B+ on his MTP performance. I do see improvement in his presentation, but still room for more improvement.
On the question of Trump v. Clinton, I’d throw this out as a possible answer:
Honestly, neither one. I’m running to give the American people MORE freedom, not less. The agendas put forth by Trump and Clinton will not put this country on the right track because neither candidate seem to get that freedom is what makes America great, and that — in slightly different ways — both Trump or Clinton are offering us LESS freedom.
That’s why I’m running: to give the American voter a real choice.
I acknowledge that the Libertarian ticket is a longshot, but the Republicans and Democrats are about to nominate two people who are wildly unpopular…for a reason. We don’t need more disease, we need a cure!
Go to GaryJohnson2016.com. Check us out. I believe you will find yourself nodding your head in agreement, because most people — deep down — are L, they just don’t know it yet.
Good points. What in the world is Gary talking about when he says he “isn’t going to attack” Trump or Clinton? Say what??
Somebody get this dude a coach, before we all fall asleep.
His Meet the Press interview wasn’t terrible, but GJ came across as a bit unprepared for standard questions for Libertarian candidates.
Prepare for campaign questions about whether you’d prefer to see Hillary or Trump elected, what a Libertarian sees as the roll of government, what regulations or activities should government keep doing etc.
Gary Johnson needs some speech coaching right away:
1) Stop using “Look!” and “At the end of the day …” so frequently.
2) You need to have your key issues and talking points prepared.
3) You need to practice and rehearse (but not like Rubio).
4) Have some spin, defense and thrusting points developed and ready to use.
Yep. And GJ is on MTP today.
This is becoming quite the Noise Machine.