Electoral Results: 1.4 million Take Online Political Quiz iSideWith

What if people voted for which candidate they most closely aligned with on issues, and not based on who the media gatekeepers thinks you should vote for? -- PART II

Last month, I blogged about the results of iSideWith.com's quiz, when just over 600,000 visitors had taken their online quiz based on the issues, in a post titled "Johnson wins election if based on issues."

iSideWith.com has been overwhelmed with participants and now there have been over 1,400,000 quiz taker results. I had wanted to write an update at the 1,000,000 mark, but the consequence of their success was that they had to take down their state-by-state statistics for a few weeks so they could upgrade their software and crank through all of the results to give us updated state-by-state statistics.

The new state-by-state stats are now available. I've run all the calculations again, and here is the new map.

The map is created of over 1,400,000 quiz taker results on the iSideWith site. Users answer 36 questions that cover a range of issues from social, environment, science, foreign policy, domestic policy, immigration, the economy, and healthcare. Their answers are matched up with the candidates' answers, and then they are shown who they align most closely with based on a percentage scale, including percentage alignments of the other candidates so you can see the candidate you least agree with as well.

iSideWith generates state-by-state breakdowns so you can see which state's population of quiz takers supports which candidate from the most to least. I tabulated the data and assigned the electoral votes to the "winner" of each state. In case of ties, the electoral votes are divided evenly and the map shows multicolored lines in tied states. iSideWith included a couple candidates in their questionnaire who will only be on the ballot in a handful of states so I excluded them, but I did include the Constitution, Democrat, Green, Libertarian, and Republican candidates.

THE RESULTS

Barack Obama, as the incumbent, wins a total of 300.5 electoral votes in 26 states. He wins the states you’d expect him to win - the West Coast, Northeast and a few in the Great Lakes region.

Gary Johnson (Libertarian Party) loses the title of President from the first report, but he holds on to first place in 26 states surpassing everyone else, except Obama. Johnson receives 231.5 electoral votes.

Ron Paul loses the three states from the first report, but takes first in Mississippi. He had the highest number of 2nd place finishes in the first report, but slipped to only 15 second place finishes this time. Paul received 6 electoral votes.

Jill Stein (Green Party) loses ground since the first update. She doesn't win any states, but places 2nd in 16 states which gives her the highest number of 2nd place finishes. Zero electoral votes.

Mitt Romney also loses a lot of ground since the first update and his best finish is 3rd place in 5 states. Zero electoral votes.

Virgil Goode (Constitution Party) never made it out of last place in any state. Zero electoral votes.

Percentage in agreement

The most interesting thing of iSideWith is which candidate to voters agree with the most. The breakdown is:
Obama - 49.7% > Johnson - 49.1% > Stein - 45.5% > Paul - 43.3% > Romney - 37.5% > Goode - 24.1%. 

BATTLEGROUND STATES

Johnson and Obama are within 2% of each other in 12 states -- in modern media posturing these would be the battleground states: Delaware, Hawaii, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, Ohio, and Virginia. 

MY THOUGHTS

1. These results are what I would expect if the Commission of Presidential Debate gate keepers were to let Johnson into the debates, but as of right now they have set an arbitrary 15% threshold which was instituted after Ross Perot almost upset the old two-party party system when he was included in the debates, when he was only polling at 7%. Due to Perot's appearances in the debates, Perot shot up to 38% in the polls. Johnson would very likely follow Perot’s trajectory if Johnson was included in the general election debates.
2. When results are based on matching voters to candidates on issues you end up with minor parties winning some electoral votes, because there is no "wasted vote" syndrome to deal with. You might expect a similar sort of result with alternative voting methods such as Ranked Choice Voting or Approval Voting with fully informed voters.
3. iSideWith.com also shows you the breakdown of voters based on what site they came from (users from Facebook, DailyKos, DailyPaul. etc.). The more conservative sites are missing (i.e. FOX News, RedState, and WorldNetDaily), and older voters, who statistically have higher voter turn out and tend to run more conservative, are also least likely to use the Internet, so the results are definitely skewed, but they haven't changed all that much with the addition of 800,000 quiz participant results.
4. The final question comes down to: Do we want a qualified candidates leading the country who nearly 50% of question respondents agree with or someone with less than 40% agreement?

Here is the spreadsheet with the calculations of the results based on iSideWith.com’s data as of August 14, 2012, at approximately 6PM ET.

4 Reasons Romney/Ryan Ticket Helps Obama; Benefits Gary Johnson

IVN.us

Paul Ryan is not exactly a “small government” conservative. And he surely isn’t an anti-war advocate. Not that anyone expected Mitt Romney to pick a Ron Paul-like VP choice, but Republicans may be underestimating their ability to win the votes of the libertarian-right and independent voters. Although Rand Paul is speaking at the convention and there is no sign that his father is going to leave the Republican party, the GOP should not be quick to associate the “tea party” with the vocal libertarians who brought many of Ron Paul’s ideas to the mainstream. Here are 4 reasons why the Romney/Ryan ticket helps Obama and benefits Gary Johnson.

1. Libertarian-leaning Republicans will not Support Ryan, because he Supported TARP and the Auto-bailouts.

For those who don’t remember, the tea party started in 2007 as a grassroots fundraising rally cry for Ron Paul; while Bush was still in office. The movement exploded after the first bailouts were passed by congress and Rick Santelli called for a Tea Party on MSNBC.

Why is this significant? Because, at the time, the GOP was trying to rally their base around John McCain. But, even with Sarah Palin, a favorite of the modern-day tea party, as his running mate, the Ron Paul tea partiers wanted nothing to do with the party nominee.

So this time around, expect a similar reaction from the small government, anti-bailout libertarians. Many of them consider the leadership of the current Democratic and Republican parties to be almost indistinguishable. Like they did with Ron Paul, they might just flock to Gary Johnson in hopes of giving him enough votes to affect the dialogue. And unlike Ron Paul, who is strongly pro-life and has ideas that are quite ‘extreme,’ Gary Johnson’s more temperate libertarianism may be attractive to many voters hesitant to jump onto the Ron Paul bandwagon.

2. Conservative Anti-War Advocates will Fear Paul Ryan because he is a Staunch Interventionist

As the wars continue, non-partisan voters are becoming increasingly disenchanted with our interventionist foreign policy. But, Paul Ryan is a staunch advocate for an agressive foreign policy. Further, his economic plan slashes the budget for diplomatic purposes.

Although the pro-war Bush-era policies of the Republican right may still be attractive to the GOP as a whole, Americans are increasingly weary of calls for war with countries like Iran and Syria. Anti-war advocates would rather promote a non-interventionist like Gary Johnson than support a VP who would cut domestic programs ahead of the defense budget.

3. Gary Johnson has More Experience and a Higher Approval Rating than Romney and Ryan

The two-term governor and successful business man has solid credentials as a conservative business-friendly leader. From Wikipedia:

According to one New Mexico paper, “[Governor] Johnson left [New Mexico] fiscally solid,” and was “arguably the most popular governor of the decade . . . leaving the state with a $1 billion budget surplus.” The Washington Times has reported that when Johnson left office, “the size of state government had been substantially reduced and New Mexico was enjoying a large budget surplus.” According to a profile of Johnson in the National Review, “During his tenure, he vetoed more bills than the other 49 governors combined — 750 in total, one third of which had been introduced by Republican legislators. Johnson also used his line-item-veto power thousands of times.”

Whether or not Johnson has a chance of making significant headway in the polls, his small-government record as a popular governor is undeniable. The GOP should not expect the small-government conservatives on the right to be satisfied with Romney’s more liberal record or his low approval rating as Governor of Massachusetts.

Adding Paul Ryan to the ticket may be of immediate benefit, but his lack of experience and his support of government intervention, domestically and abroad, do not bode well for the long-haul scrutiny.

4. Gary Johnson will Appeal to Independent Voters that are Tired of Partisanship

As polling, micro-targeting, and a divided media control the political debate, consultants now conduct campaigns by galvanizing their base, rather than persuading voters. But, voters are increasingly frustrated with the partisanship that defines the discourse. This sentiment is evidenced by the 40% of American voters now self-identified as non-partisan voters. Support it or not, Paul Ryan’s partisan budget does nothing to quell the extreme partisanship that pervades the political dialogue.

With a Google+ following of over 1 million, over 56,000 followers on twitter, over 200,000 followers on Facebook, and a reputation of appealing across party lines, Gary Johnson may just pull some critical votes away from Romney from all different directions.

Like the 1988 Libertarian presidencial candidate, Ron Paul, the support Johnson is likely to build will create a large enough base of supporters to give him a more powerful political voice in the future. And with voters becoming increasingly disenchanted with the parties, combined wit the ability of social media to galvanize movements rapidly, the future may come pretty quickly.

With the addition of Ryan to the Romney ticket, any voice Gary Johnson injects into the dialogue before election day could be a welcome one for Obama.

PPP Colorado August Poll Has Gary Johnson At 6%

Nice to see that Gary Johnson is still holding steady in Colorado in the latest PPP Poll of the state.

Q. If the candidates for President this year were
Democrat Barack Obama, Republican Mitt
Romney, and Libertarian Gary Johnson, who
would you vote for?

Barack Obama.... 46%
Mitt Romney..... 42%
Gary Johnson..... 6%
Undecided........ 7%

What's even more encouraging is that the former New Mexico Governor's favorability rating is up 3 points from June while his unfavorability is down 3, with 79% of those polled still having no opinion of him.

Once the summer ends and people start to focus more on the election, look for Gov Johnson's numbers begin to rise in the Centennial State, especially given the popularity of the Colorado Marijuana Legalization Initiative, 61% in the latest poll, and Gary Johnson's pro-legalization position.

Let's hope it's a Rocky Mountain high for Gary Johnson on election night

Gary Johnson Gets 19% In LASPAC Nationwide Poll

Fair is fair.

And don't forget the Gary Johnson Twitter Bomb tomorrow, 8/3.

LASPAC

We just conducted a nationwide telephone poll of registered voters. Here’s what the poll sounded like:



The results:
Barack Obama 56%
Gary Johnson 19%
Undecided/neither 25%

You may be thinking, “Why does that matter, since it doesn’t include the Republican?”

Here’s why it matters:

Gallup has been conducting presidential polls just like this:
http://www.gallup.com/poll/150743/Obama-Romney.aspx

Note the wording of their question:
“Suppose the presidential election were held today. If Barack Obama were the Democratic Party’s candidate and Mitt Romney were the Republican Party’s candidate, who would you vote for, Barack Obama, the Democrat or Mitt Romney, the Republican?”

It includes the incumbent, Obama, plus one selected challenger, Romney — and no one else.

Now here’s our question:
“Suppose the presidential election were held today. If Barack Obama were the Democratic Party’s candidate and Gary Johnson were the Libertarian Party’s candidate, who would you vote for, Barack Obama, the Democrat or Gary Johnson, the Libertarian?”

It’s exactly the same question, except we picked a different challenger.

The Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) wants candidates to get at least 15% in nationwide polls. But most of those polls only include Obama and Romney. So, if those polls count, then our poll counts too.

We did this poll cheaply (but scientifically) using a less-known robocall firm. Now we want to do it again, on a bigger scale, using a well-known polling organization like Public Policy Polling, SurveyUSA, or Gallup. If we ask the question the same way (just like Gallup), Gary Johnson has a very good chance of getting more than 15%.

Let’s show that to the Commission on Presidential Debates! They can’t have it both ways — they can’t include biased polls that only name Obama and Romney, and then ignore polls like ours.

We’d love to push the CPD into a corner. If they have to accept polls like this, then Gary Johnson has a great chance of getting into the debates. At worst, they’ll have to start demanding that all their polling organizations include Gary Johnson — and that would be a good thing too.

Gary Johnson At 13% In PPP New Mexico Poll 7/18

PPP

If the candidates for President this year were
Democrat Barack Obama, Republican Mitt
Romney, and Libertarian Gary Johnson, who
would you vote for?

Barack Obama....42%
Mitt Romney.... 38%
Gary Johnson... 13%
Undecided....... 6%

The bad news first, Gary Johnson is down 2% in his home state from April and is losing support among Democrats (-2%) and Republicans (-5%) over the same period. (Surprising aside, Romney has gained 10% with Democrat when Johnson is included and 9% when he is not. This has got to worry Barry and his minions a LOT).

The good news however is that the Former New Mexico Governor gained 1% with Independents to 24% and his favorability is up 2% while his negative is down 2%. In this measure, Democrats and Independents are basically unchanged from how they felt about Gary Johnson in April but his positive among Republicans is up 6 to 44% while his negative is down 7 to 34%.

For now Gary Johnson can be happy with this poll's results. A slight misstep by one or both of this opponents could result in a big jump in his numbers in New Mexico.

Mike Church Interviews Gary Johnson 6/12

Mike Church Show

Mandeville, LA - Exclusive Interview - Governor Gary Johnson on the Dude Maker Hotline with us. Governor, does it concern you that it seems both of the major parties seem not to care about how our wars are waged, how they are declared, and how we continue fighting them? Even up to this moment right now, there are people that don’t have a decision to make when it comes to sending troops to Syria or Iran, but they sure as heck are out there advocating for that proposition. Does that bother you? What would you do as president to stop that? Check out today's transcript for Mr. Johnson's answer...

Begin Mike Church Show Transcript

Mike: Governor Johnson, former governor of the great State of New Mexico, now a candidate for the Libertarian Party for the Office of the Presidency of the United States. Governor, it’s been way too long. How are you, my friend?

Gary Johnson: I’m fine. Headed off to Las Vegas this morning for Freedom Fest.

Mike: Oh, you’re at Freedom Fest? Tom Woods will be there, a bunch of dignitaries.

Gary Johnson: I’m about to head off to Las Vegas.

Mike: Governor Johnson, it’s been a while, so let’s catch up really quick. You’re making some press here lately. I wanted to ask you if you’ve read your press on Politico, Washington Post, Fox News, Wall Street Journal saying that Johnson could be Buchanan and Nader in 2000, that you could play the role of spoiler. You’re not running for president to play the role of spoiler, are you, my friend?

Gary Johnson: No, I’m not. The idea here is to win. The only way that happens, Mike, is if I poll 15 percent and get to be on the national debate stage with Romney and Obama. I am going to be one of three candidates on the ballot in all 50 states, which I think also gives some impetus to getting on stage, when people realize that. I am the only candidate that’s talking about slashing spending. I’m the only candidate that’s really talking about maintaining civil liberties. I’m the only candidate that wants to get out of Afghanistan tomorrow, bring the troops home, so end our military conflicts.

Mike: Last time I spoke with you, you had just articulated a plan, I believe, and maybe I got my numbers reversed, it was either cut 34 percent or 43 percent of next year’s budget. Are you still with that and what is the number?

Gary Johnson: Yeah, good job. It’s 43 percent. That would be the amount of money that we’re printing and borrowing to maintain this deficit, so $1.4 trillion reduction in federal spending, believing that unless we slash spending, we’re going to find ourselves in the midst of a monetary collapse where the money that we have doesn’t buy anything because of the accompanying inflation that goes along with what it is we’re doing. I don’t think we’re immune from the mathematics of continuing to borrow and print 43 cents out of every dollar we’re spending.

Mike: Governor Gary Johnson on the Dude Maker Hotline with us. Governor, does it concern you that it seems both of the major parties seem not to care about how our wars are waged, how they are declared, and how we continue fighting them? Even up to this moment right now, there are people that don’t have a decision to make when it comes to sending troops to Syria or Iran, but they sure as heck are out there advocating for that proposition. Does that bother you? What would you do as president to stop that?

Gary Johnson: It infuriates me. For starters, as president, if you were going to engage the U.S. military in a conflict, Congress would have to buy off on that. It infuriates me that politicians beat on their chest and they’re going to save you and I from terrorism at a cost of what? Men and servicewomen losing their lives, men and servicewomen coming back to the country with their limbs blown off. That infuriates me and it’s politicians with a basis in really reelecting as opposed to national security, as opposed to genuine defense of this country.

Mike: So you would be the -- George Bush, Sr. was called the education president. You would be the common defense president.

Gary Johnson: I would be the peace candidate. Elected president, I would declare peace and bring our troops home from the conflicts that we are involved in. These conflicts come at a gigantic cost: men and servicewomen losing their lives, and the treasure that we are spending building roads, schools, bridges, highways and hospitals in other countries as opposed to here. Don’t we have those same needs here?

Read the rest of the interview here

Johnson wins election if based on issues

What if people voted on what candidate aligned with them most closely on issues and not based on who the media gatekeepers thinks you should vote for? 

Here’s what the election map would look like....



The map is created off the results of over 600,000 quiz takers on the iSideWith site. Users answer 36 questions that cover a range of issues from social, environment, science, foreign policy, domestic policy, immigration, the economy, and healthcare. Their answers are matched up with the candidates answers and then they are shown who they align most closely with.

iSideWith generates state by state breakdowns so you can see which state supports which candidate. I tabulated the data and assigned the electoral votes to the winner of each state. iSideWith included a couple candidates in their questionnaire who will only be on the ballot in a handful of states so I excluded them, but I did include the Constitution, Democrat, Green, Libertarian, and Republican candidates.

The Results

Barack Obama, as the incumbent, wins a total of 217 electoral votes in 16 states. He wins the states you’d expect him to win - the west coast, north east and a few in the great lakes region.

Jill Stein (Green Party) beats out Obama in Vermont and Hawaii which are two of the most left leaning states and wins a total of 7 electoral votes.

Mitt Romney only wins 4 states - Utah, Alaska, South Dakota, and Alabama - and receives 21 votes.

Virgil Goode’s (Constitution Party) best showing was 3rd place in South Dakota, but generally placed in the back of the pack taking sixth in 43 states.

Ron Paul wins 3 states - Arizona, Wyoming, and North Dakota, but racked up the most second place finishes with 27. Paul received 17 electoral votes.

Gary Johnson (Libertarian Party) claims the title of President by collecting enough electoral votes to put him in the White House with 284 votes (270 is the magic number to win the presidency) by winning 28 states

My Thoughts

1. These results are what I would expect if the Commission of Presidential Debate gate keepers were to let Johnson into the debates, but as of right now they have set an arbitrary 15% threshold which instituted after Ross Perot almost upset the old party system when he was included in the debates when he was only polling at 7%. The debate appearances shot Perot up to 38% in the polls. Johnson would very likely follow Perot’s trajectory if Johnson was included in the general election debates.
2. When results are based on matching voters to candidates on issues you end up with minor parties winning some electoral votes because there is no wasted vote syndrome to deal with. You might expect a similar sort of result with alternative voting methods such as Ranked Choice Voting or Approval Voting with fully informed voters
3. The final question comes down to: Do we want a qualified candidate leading the country who 81.3% of question respondents agree with or someone with only 75% or 65% agreement?

Here is the spreadsheet with the calculations of the results based on iSideWith.com’s data as of July 18, 2012, at approximately 8PM ET.

[Note: updated map to fix some errors. ME and NV were marked as Obama winning, but Johnson was winner. WY was a tie for first with Paul/Johnson and IA was a tie for first with Obama/Johnson so these states are striped.]

New JZ Analytics Poll - Gary Johnson At 5.3% Nationally

If the election for president were held today, for whom would you vote?

Democrat Barack Obama .....43.6%
Republican Mitt Romney.....38.0%
Libertarian Gary Johnson....5.3%
Not sure...................13.1%

According to the poll Gary Johnson pulls more away from Mittens (4.1%) than he does from Barry (1.3%). Most polls where the former New Mexico Governor has been included generally showed that Johnson pulled equally from both, within 1%, so maybe this means that people are waking up to the fact that the Mittster is a horrible choice and is Obama-lite when it comes to most issues.

While this is down from the 7% Gary Johnson was pulling in a March PPP poll, he is still pleased, as he told Capitol Report New Mexico. "It’s all good, from our vantage point a lot more money is coming in. If people get the notion that I could win, that could be a game-changer. We’re not there yet, I’m not saying that, but these numbers are encouraging."

What Gary Johnson needs right now is money and exposure. It's encouraging to hear that a generous Libertarian supporter has recently donated $1 Million to a GJ2012 Super Pac but more is needed.

One way you can help is by participating in the #BlackoutCNN Twitter Bomb on Monday July 16th to @CNN, @CNNPolitics and @CNNBRK urging CNN to give Gary Johnson fair coverage.

The more people that hear about Gary Johnson, the better his chance to be included in the polls and hit the 15% mark that he needs to get into the national debates.

Let’s Put Gov Gary Johnson On The National Debate Stage!

Gary Johnson 2012

You know the story. The elite national news media and the Establishment-created Commission on Presidential Debates have rigged the game to try to limit this fall’s presidential debates to only the Democrat Barack Obama, and the Republican Mitt Romney.

They have rigged the debates by picking a number out of the air and declaring that a presidential candidate must have at least 15 percent support in a sample of national polls that – you guessed it – they choose.

Never mind that one out of three Americans don’t consider themselves to be either Republicans or Democrats, or that, in poll after poll, a sizable percentage of voters say they would seriously consider a ‘third party’ candidate.

And never mind that their arbitrary and unfair polling requirement might exclude from the debates a successful two-term governor who will likely be on the ballot in all 50 states.

If you agree that this debate-rigging is just plain wrong, go to www.garyjohnson2012.com and do something about it. Give Gov. Johnson a podium by joining our “15% in the Polls” Money Bomb.

The two-party establishment doesn’t want Gov. Gary Johnson in the debates for one simple reason: They don’t really want to have debates. They don’t really want to give a national microphone to a candidate who will challenge business-as-usual. And if they succeed in keeping Gov. Johnson off the stage, they will get exactly what they want.

What they want is a “debate” between two candidates who will argue over which government health care program is better, Obamacare or Romneycare. They don’t want to hear from a candidate who will actually scrap the job-killing tax code. What they want is a Republican and a Democrat who will just quibble about how to tinker with the existing system that lets them hand out subsidies and benefits to their friends.

Without Gov. Johnson on the debate stage, there will be NO debate about wars. Mitt Romney and Barack Obama both support foreign intervention. There will be NO debate about civil liberties. Just a Democrat and a Republican who both support the Patriot Act, who both will continue the failed War on Drugs, and neither of whom will defend marriage equality as a constitutional right.

If you want REAL debates, go to www.garyjohnson2012.com today and make a contribution that will put Gov. Johnson on the stage.

America deserves – and wants – to see real presidential debates. With enough financial support, we can make sure that Gov. Johnson has an opportunity to deliver a message of true liberty, real freedom and financial sanity. Help him show America that there really is a choice in this election.

The goal of our Money Bomb, starting today, is to raise $10,000 for every percentage point in the polls we need in order to put a podium on the stage for Gov. Johnson. Help make sure we do just that! Go to www.garyjohnson2012.com today and make a contribution.

Your support is the key. We can do this.

Thank you,

Ron Nielson
Senior Advisor
Gary Johnson 2012

Gary Johnson; Spoiler Or Contender

"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win."

We have seen from the beginning that his campaign for President, as both a Republican and Libertarian, has managed to garner little traction with voters due to the lack of coverage by the lamestream mediots and slights by polling organizations. Add in that he was only invited to participate in 2 out of 13 GOP debates even though he was polling as good or better than three of the invitees; Cain, Santorum and Huntsman, you can see why not may people have heard of the former two-term New Mexico Governor.

But something interesting seems to be happening, Gary Johnson is beginning to enter the ridicule phase.

It's not outright ridicule of course, but rather a portrayal of him as a dark-horse candidate waging a Quixotic campaign which he can't win and will only serve to be a spoiler.

The not-so-subtle message; a vote for Gary Johnson is a vote for Barack Obama.

This is ridiculous of course, Gary Johnson's message is worlds apart from both of his rivals. Where Johnson is running on a platform of fiscal responsibility and social tolerance, his rivals are simply running on maintaining the status quo of their respective parties, with very little daylight in between on key issues. Both Obama and Romney are in favor of government intervention at home and military intervention abroad with little interest in protecting civil liberties or upholding the Constitution.

When contrasted with his rivals, it is crystal clear why the power brokers don't want to see Gary Johnson gain any traction; if the American electorate were to receive a fair analysis of Johnson, he just might have a chance to win. This would be terrible news for the Republiocrat stranglehold on our political system.

As we have seen in the last two elections, the mediots play the role of kingmakers.

In 2008 a little known Illinois Senator came out of nowhere to beat the Clinton Machine and ultimately win the Presidency with the help of the mediots. The same can be said in the 2012 GOP Primaries where, with the media's help, various candidates jumped to the front of the pack only to fall back to earth once the reporting on them had turned.

There is a silver lining in all this. As the saying goes, any press is good press and right now it is a positive for Gary Johnson to just have his name mentioned in the same conversation as his two main rivals. The more the electorate hears about him the better his chances are to gain traction. Once this happens he will enter phase three, they will fight him.

One thing to consider, in a three-way race that is going to be tight, it is only going to take a plurality to win.

Gary Johnson may just shock the world; stranger things have happened.

Via Memeorandum

Gov Gary Johnson Responds To Anemic June Jobs Report

Gary Johnson 2012

GOVERNOR GARY JOHNSON ON JUNE JOBS NUMBERS: TIME FOR HAND-WRINGING IS PAST

July 6, 2012, Tampa, FL — Presidential candidate and former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson released the following statement regarding the June jobs report:

“The anemic jobs numbers for June simply confirm what Americans already know: That employers cannot and will not hire new employees with the federal government continuing to rack up trillions of new debt, a tax system that does all the wrong things, and massive uncertainty about the true costs of impending health care mandates.

“Abolish income taxes, repeal the health care mandate, eliminate deficits, and then watch as American entrepreneurs and the private sector put millions back to work.

“The time for hand-wringing and nibbling around the edges is past. We don’t need a 10-year plan for balancing the budget; we need a 1-year plan. We don’t need token reductions in income taxes; we need to eliminate them. And we need to elect a President and a Congress who get the simple fact that less government will mean more jobs.”

"I Like Gary Johnson But He Can't Win"

I hear this all the time. With people I know, on the blogs, on twitter; the common theme being that Gary Johnson is the best candidate for President who will be on the ballot in all 50 States come November, but they won't vote for him because he can't win.

The general mindset among these folks is that the former New Mexico washed out of the GOP race before the primaries, has little name recognition and was essentially made persona non grata by the lamestream mediots with their blackout of his campaign. These people like Gary Johnson and his proposals but since he is not the choice of the power brokers in this country, he can't win and they would be "wasting" their vote on him.

As it stands right now, Gov Johnson gets about 6-9% in state and national polls but with only 20-25% name recognition. That, my friends, is truly unheard of; that a candidate that almost no one knows is polling as high as he is.

So who is Gary Johnson and what has he accomplished? Well here's the skinny

-Built a one-man handyman business into one of the largest construction companies in New Mexico with over 1,000 employees
-Vetoed 750 bills during his time in office; 32% of the total number of bills submitted for his signature
-Used Line Item Veto thousands of times to trim the budget
-Cut taxes 14 times while never raising them
-Limited annual state budget growth to 5.0% during eight years in office
-Created more than 20,000 new jobs
-Cut over 1,200 government jobs without firing anyone
-Left New Mexico with a budget surplus and one of the only four states in the country with a balanced budget

It should also be noted that Gary Johnson has more executive experience than both his opponents combined. Romney served only one term as Governor in Massachusetts and Obama, who has only been POTUS for 3+ years, had none prior to his election. Johnson served two terms as a Republican in a State with a 2-1 Democrat majority.

Ok, so that is all well and good, but what would Gary Johnson do if he were elected? You asked, so here you go.

-Submit a Balanced Budget to Congress in 2013
-Cut Government spending by 43%
-Repeal ObamaCare and the Medicare prescription drug benefit
-Abolish the IRS
-Audit the Fed
-Stop spending on the fiscal stimulus, transportation, energy, housing, etc
-Eliminate government support of Fannie and Freddie
-Bring the troops home from Afghanistan and cut military spending
-Protect civil liberties
-Work to repeal the PATRIOT Act
-End Cannabis prohibition

So now I ask you, why wouldn't you vote for Gary Johnson? He has a proven track record as being fiscally conservative and socially tolerant; things that all liberty-minded American support.

A vote for Obama or Romney is a vote for the lesser of two evils, which means you are still voting for evil. A vote for Gary Johnson is a vote to get America back on track.

One thing to keep in mind, in a race that is as close as this one is going to be, it will only take about 34-40% to win the Presidency.

On this Fourth of July, declare your independence from the Republiocrat controlled system by supporting and promoting Gary Johnson for President. If every person who has said "I like Gary Johnson but he can't win" did vote for him, he would win and we would be well on the road to recovery.

Be that irate, tireless minority that Samuel Adams spoke about.

Gary Johnson Calls SCOTUS Obamacare Ruling An "Incredible Blow To Bedrock Principles"

Gary Johnson 2012

Libertarian presidential nominee and former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson released the following statement in response to the Supreme Court’s health care ruling:

“It has been clear for a while that we need a new President and a new Congress. Now it appears we need a new Supreme Court.

“Whether the Court chooses to call the individual mandate a tax or anything else, allowing it to stand is a truly disturbing decision. The idea that government can require an individual to buy something simply because that individual exists and breathes in America is an incredible blow to the bedrock principles of freedom and liberty. It must be repealed, and Congress needs to get about doing so today.

“There is one thing we know about health care. Government cannot create a system that will reduce costs while increasing access. Only competition and the price transparency that competition will bring can accomplish the imperatives of affordability and availability. Whether it is the President’s plan or the Republican prescription drug benefit, the idea that anyone in Washington can somehow manage one of the most essential and substantial parts of both our quality of life and the economy is, and always has been, fundamentally wrong.

“We can never know how many Americans are out of work today because of the uncertainty the monstrous health care law has caused. The Court has done nothing to remove that burden.

“Nothing about today’s decision changes the basic reality that it is impossible to eliminate deficit spending and remove the smothering consequences of federal debt without dramatically reducing the costs of Medicare and Medicaid. And neither the Democrats nor the Republicans have given the slightest hint of willingness to do so.”

Latest From PPP: Gary Johnson At 7% In Colorado

More good news for the Gary Johnson 2012 campaign as the Libertarian Party nominee stays consistent in another western state at 7% according to PPP's latest poll in Colorado

Q. If the candidates for President this year were
Democrat Barack Obama, Republican Mitt
Romney, and Libertarian Gary Johnson, who
would you vote for?

Barack Obama.... 47%
Mitt Romney..... 39%
Gary Johnson..... 7%
Undecided........ 7%

I'd expect Johnson to be doing better since his pro-legalization stance should give him a bigger bump with Colorado's initiative to legalize marijuana having 46% support among voters as opposed to 42% against.

Now 7% only gets him half way to the Presidential Debates and this is a state poll, not a national one (Johnson needs to poll 15% or better in 5 national polls) but it shows that the former New Mexico Governor is getting steady support in the polls he is included in; 15% New Mexico, 9% Arizona, 8% Montana, 7% New Hampshire and 6% North Carolina.

As in other polls, Johnson is virtually unknown with 79% of respondents having no opinion of him so getting his name, record and stances on the issues out there is of utmost importance.

We have our work cut out for us.

Gary Johnson In The News

Nice to see that Gary Johnson is starting to get some semi-positive mentions these days, although it is more about his role as a spoiler in the election rather than what makes him a better choice than his two indistinguishable opponents.

Any press is good press though.

Is Libertarian Gary Johnson the Wild Card in Fall Election?

Could Libertarian Johnson hurt Romney in the West?

Gary Johnson Has The Beltway’s Attention

This is just the beginning but, in order to raise Governor Johnson's nation profile, which in turn gets him more media coverage, it is important to get him in the national polls. The more people that hear his message, the better his chances are of reaching the 15% mark and puts him in the debates against Barry and Mittens.

Please do what you can to promote Gary Johnson whether it be blog posts, tweets, telling friends and family or emailing the media.

Every little bit helps.

Jack Hunter Furthers The Case For Gary Johnson, He Just Doesn't Know It

Jack Hunter is continuing his campaign to justify Rand Paul's endorsement of Romney by dredging up Murray Rothbard's endorsement of Poppy Bush in 1992 to further his argument that Rand was right to back Mittens.

Now Jack does make some good points as to why Rand had to endorse Romney, whether you accept them or not, but this got me to thinking, who would Rothbard endorse this time around and would he think that Gary Johnson is "libertarian enough"?

As we all know, Robert Wenzel called out Gov Johnson for his failure to be versed in libertarian authors and writing. Johnson's libertarianism has also been called into question by various hardcore Libertarians, Austrian School adherents and Ron Paul supporters for a multitude of reasons, chiefly that he is not a by the book libertarian, that his pragmatic view of governing based on a cost/benefit analysis has no root in libertarianism and finally that he is a statist because he supports the fair tax, taxation of marijuana, limited military intervention only with Congressional approval and did not pardon drug offenders during his two terms as New Mexico's Governor.

Okay, so Gary Johnson is an 8 on a scale of 1-10 but does that disqualify him from consideration especially given that the only other candidates on the ballot in all 50 states rate about a 1 or 2? At least a Gary Johnson Presidency would be a step in the right direction and as he says, if we don't like it we can always go back

I'm no Rothbard scholar by a long shot but I think in this cycle, he would be supporting Gary Johnson given that he is by far the most libertarian candidate we have a choice of, especially when you look at the fact that there is little daylight between the positions of Mittens or Barry on the major issues. Yes both candidates differ on some social issues, but where the rubber hits the road both men are pro-big government, pro-war, pro-police state and anti-liberty.

If you take a long, hard look at the three candidates' records and beliefs, to use Rothbard's own words, "there is only one rational answer for the conservative, the libertarian, or indeed any sensible American".

That answer should be Gary Johnson.

Gary Johnson At 9% In Arizona

Outside of his home state of New Mexico, Gary Johnson has polled his highest total, 9% in Arizona according to PPP's May 23 poll of the Grand Canyon State, showing that the Libertarian nominee is indeed strongest in the West. What's most amazing about this number is that a full 80% of the respondents had no opinion of the former New Mexico Governor.

Mitt Romney..... 45%
Barack Obama.... 41%
Gary Johnson..... 9%
Undecided........ 6%

As with previous polls, Johnson is strongest among Independents at 15%. Also, as in previous polls, he does well among those that self-identify as "very conservative" with 11% support. In Arizona he has even gone above 10% among those who identify as "somewhat conservative", but the surprise here is that he is doing better with those on the other end of the political spectrum, the "very liberal" respondents, at 12%. With this type of broad-based support, Gary Johnson's message of being fiscally responsible and socially tolerant could turn out to be what the electorate is looking for.

The momentum continues to build for Gary Johnson but we need to still help spread the message.

Latest From PPP: Gary Johnson At 6% In North Carolina

More encouraging news for the Johnson campaign today with the release of the latest PPP Poll where the former New Mexico Governor comes in at 6%. In North Carolina, like the rest of the states polled, Gary Johnson is virtually unknown with only 22% of respondents having an opinion of him. Once again he is strongest among Independents with 12% support and just like in yesterday's NH poll, Johnson pulls away votes just about equally from Romney (3%) and Obama (2%).

Q. If the candidates for President this year were
Democrat Barack Obama, Republican Mitt
Romney, and Libertarian Gary Johnson, who
would you vote for?

Barack Obama... 46%
Mitt Romney.... 44%
Gary Johnson.... 6%
Undecided....... 4%

With all the recent PPP Polls showing Governor Johnson in the 6-7% range with minimal name recognition, he has nowhere to go but up.

The next goal is to raise his poll numbers to 15% in order to qualify for the national debates against Barry and Mittens. Once he gets that type of exposure and the voting public hears his fiscally responsible and socially tolerant message on the same stage as his fiscally irresponsible and socially intolerant rivals, the sky is the limit.

So please do what you can to spread Gary Johnson's message and make a donation to his campaign if you can.

Gary Johnson At 7% In Latest New Hampshire Poll

I was hoping for a little more support for Gary Johnson in the Granite State given the amount of campaigning he did there late last year and the fact that New Hampshire is a very libertarian state, but coming in at 7% in the latest PPP Poll is ok considering 65% of those polled have no opinion of the former New Mexico Governor.

Q. If the candidates for President this year were
Democrat Barack Obama, Republican Mitt
Romney, and Libertarian Gary Johnson, who
would you vote for?

Barack Obama... 51%
Mitt Romney.... 38%
Gary Johnson ... 7%
Undecided....... 4%

Johnson is still at his strongest among Independents at 12% while only garnering 6% support from Republicans and 3% from Democrats. The one number that jumped out at me is his 13% support among those that self-identify as very conservative. This is the highest rating among the various political ideologies.

For those on the right who want to say that a vote for Johnson is a vote for Barry, Gary Johnson pulls slightly more from Obama (3%) than he does from Romney (2%), so thus far he's not going to make or break either rival.

All in all the the Johnson campaign should be pleased that they are off to a respectable start with still 5 months to build momentum before the election.

Majority Of Americans Agree With Gary Johnson On The Issues

Great list put together by The Delaware Libertarian and something I have been meaning to do for some time now.

So where does Gary Johnson fit in on the issues as compared to public opinion?

Take a look for yourself...

77% of the American people support the legalization of medical marijuana.
So does Gary Johnson.  Barack Obama and Mitt Romney don't want patients to have that option.

75% of the American people think the defense budget should be cut.
So does Gary Johnson.  Barack Obama and Mitt Romney both want to spend more.

74% of the American people want the Federal budget balanced.
So does Gary Johnson.  Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, not so much.

72% of the American people think we're spending too much money on foreign aid.
So does Gary Johnson.  Barack Obama and Mitt Romney want to keep spending.

66% of the American people now oppose the war in Afghanistan.  
So does Gary Johnson.  Barack Obama and Mitt Romney both want to stay.

65% of the American people think we should be involved in far fewer military interventions overseas.
So does Gary Johnson.  Barack Obama and Mitt Romney are happy to send our troops out.

50% of the American people favor legalizing marijuana.
So does Gary Johnson.  Barack Obama and Mitt Romney want to continue the drug war.

50% of the American people favor marriage equality.
So does Gary Johnson.  Barack Obama is a recent convert; Mitt Romney isn't.

So why do the polls show that Barack Obama is polling at about 47%, Mitt Romney at 42%, and Gary Johnson at only 6%?

. . . because 75-80% of the American people don't know who he is, or what he stands for.

As you can see, the vast majority of Americans agree in principle with Gary Johnson on many of the issues that confront us today; the economy, spending, war and civil liberties. Unfortunately the mediots and their masters are all too happy to ignore Gov Johnson, much like they do with Ron Paul, because they know that it will put an end to the big government gravy-train that they have been riding for so long.

It's time for real change if we have any hopes of turning things around. With the opinions of so many people squarely in line with Gary Johnson's beliefs, the paradigm must shift away from the the thought that you are throwing your vote away on a third-party candidate.

The amount of daylight between Obama and Romney on the key issues is infinitesimal and debating which man is a better candidate for the future of America is about as significant as the debate over which is better, Coke or Pepsi. It doesn't matter, they're both the same.

If more Americans voted their conscience, instead of for the lesser of two evils, we would be in a better position to turn things around and end the stranglehold that the Republicrats have on power.

Remember, a vote for the lesser of two evils is still a vote for evil.