Personal Political Presidential Observations

2 PARAGRAPHS 4 LIBERTY: #57

Three paragraphs for this edition: one for the presidential candidates for each viable political party in the upcoming election!

Of the five remaining Republican candidates only Ohio Governor John Kasich would be an effective candidate and president.  He has practical administrative experience, is a successful governor and works well with people of different political views.  His big downside for me is that he is still a Neanderthal on the issue of drug policy.  The most thoughtful candidate is Dr. Ben Carson, but he is far too laid back ever to win the nomination or even be president.  Mr. Donald Trump deserves credit for bringing focus to numbers of political issues, and he certainly has entertainment value.  But he would be a terrible and unendingly divisive president, and his authoritarian and bullying style would continually bring out divisiveness and rancor.  Fortunately, we will never find out how terrible he would be because he will never win the presidency.  Senator Ted Cruz is simply unelectable because he is so far out of the political mainstream, if only due to his position on abortion.  And Senator Marco Rubio is basically a very nice young man.

Of the two remaining Democratic candidates, I truly admire Senator Bernie Sanders.  He has intelligence, passion and integrity – and he tells the truth as he sees it, which is truly refreshing.  But taking our great country (further) down the road to socialism simply is transparently not in our interests.  Why?  Because it doesn’t work!  (Ask Cuba, Venezuela, the former Soviet Union and East Germany!)  Secretary Hillary Clinton has amazing credentials as a former 8-year resident of the White House, Senator from New York and Secretary of State.  But she also probably has more baggage than any other viable presidential candidate in our history.  It will be interesting to see if the Obama Justice Department has the courage to seek an indictment against her for the alleged breaches of security regarding her emails.  Remember Scooter Libby who was convicted for taking Top Secret documents home on the weekends and making false statements about them?  He was (rightfully) sentenced to serve 30 months in prison, but had his sentence commuted by President George W. Bush.  Libby’s offenses are not nearly as serious as the allegations against Secretary Clinton.  So this brings up a possible scenario that Secretary Clinton’s first act as President would be to pardon herself.  Not a good situation for the country.

And then there is the Libertarian presidential candidate, former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson.  I hope by now you know his story.  He started his own handyman company in his garage while in college, and turned it into the largest construction company in New Mexico.  He had about 1,000 employees, made payroll, and no employees lost their jobs when he eventually sold the company.  His first political venture was to run as a Republican for governor in 1995, and he won!  Then he was so successful and worked so effectively with people of all political beliefs that he was re-elected by even a larger margin.  After his eight years in office he left his state with a $1billion surplus.  Furthermore, there has never even been a hint of scandal throughout his life, and he has always stood for Liberty!  You may or may not agree with the position he took in 1999 as a sitting governor that our nation’s drug policy is not working, although more and more people now are beginning to agree with him.  But don’t you want a president who will stand up – even with no political constituency lobbying for the position – and act upon his beliefs?  That is the leadership we need and can trust!  In my view there have always been people like Winston Churchill, Margaret Thatcher, Golda Meier, and even Nelson Mandela in our society, but they don’t get elected.  Governor Gary Johnson is the man for our times.  Look into who he is, and also not just what he says but what he has actually done, and I am confident that you will agree.  And please spread this message on to your social media world.  Our country’s and our children’s future are at stake!  GGJ will give us a Government of Good Results instead of Good Intentions, so he is the right leader for a Better America!!

Judge Jim Gray (Ret.)
2012 Libertarian candidate for Vice President, along with
Governor Gary Johnson as the candidate for President