{"id":10422,"date":"2009-12-17T12:53:19","date_gmt":"2009-12-17T19:53:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=10422"},"modified":"2009-12-17T12:53:19","modified_gmt":"2009-12-17T19:53:19","slug":"politico-gary-johnson-%e2%80%98emerges-as-the-next-ron-paul%e2%80%99","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/12\/politico-gary-johnson-%e2%80%98emerges-as-the-next-ron-paul%e2%80%99\/","title":{"rendered":"Politico: Gary Johnson \u2018emerges as the next Ron Paul\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Gary

Gary Johnson<\/p><\/div>\n

Former Gov. Gary Johnson<\/a> is \u201cdoing little to knock down the idea that he may be looking toward a 2012 presidential run,\u201d Politico reports today in an article<\/a> profiling a man the article says \u201cemerges as the next Ron Paul<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFormer New Mexico Republican Gov. Gary Johnson is a teetotaling triathlete who looks the part of the laid-back Mountain West politician,\u201d the article begins. \u201cBut don\u2019t let the jeans and black mock turtleneck he\u2019s sporting on his new website fool you: Johnson is starting to sound like a mad-as-hell populist with an eye cast on 2012 and the building fury aimed at Washington.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m finding myself really angry over spending and\u00a0the deficit,\u201d the article quotes Johnson as saying. \u201cI\u2019m finding myself really angry over what\u2019s happening in the Middle East, the decision to stay in Afghanistan indefinitely. I\u2019m angry about cap and trade. And I\u2019ve been on record for a long time on the failed war on drugs.\u201d<\/p>\n

From the article:<\/p>\n

\u201cIs that enough to design a presidential campaign around? It might be, at a time of tea parties, rage at bailouts, job loss and general voter discontent. And there is plainly an opportunity for some politician to harness the anti-establishment, populist grass-roots fervor that is right leaning but untethered to any party at the moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s what\u00a0Ron Paul\u00a0tried to do in last year\u2019s presidential campaign, but Johnson may better positioned to ride the populist wave than the longtime Texas GOP congressman. For one thing, the anti-establishment energy was not at the fever pitch then that it\u2019s nearing now. And, unlike the unlikely Paul, a 73-year-old who got interested in elected politics when Richard Nixon abandoned the gold standard in 1971, Johnson is telegenic, is media savvy and, equally important, has twice been easily elected to statewide office.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Johnson has been quite active lately. He recently talked with NMPolitics.net\u2019s Peter St. Cyr about the budget crisis<\/a> in Santa Fe. And St. Cyr recently caught audio and video<\/a> of Johnson talking about his continued push for decriminalizing\u00a0and legalizing drugs in the United States.<\/p>\n

Johnson has also started a new, libertarian-leaning group, Our America Initiative<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That group is designed to \u201celevate the profile\u201d of Johnson, the Politico article states. And that\u2019s when the news organization points out that Johnson \u201cis doing little to knock down the idea that he may be looking toward a 2012 presidential run.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIs there room for something a little different? I\u2019d like to think I\u2019m putting that to the test,\u201d the article quotes Johnson as saying.<\/p>\n

Read the full article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former Gov. Gary Johnson is \u201cdoing little to knock down the idea that he may be looking toward a 2012 presidential run,\u201d Politico reports today in an article profiling a man the article says \u201cemerges as the next Ron Paul.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1],"tags":[108,107,116],"class_list":["post-10422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","category-uncategorized","tag-2010-election","tag-roundhouse","tag-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10422\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}