{"id":3661,"date":"2008-09-02T22:57:00","date_gmt":"2008-09-03T04:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/09\/johnson-praises-paul-speaks-about-his-tenure-as-guv\/"},"modified":"2008-09-02T22:57:00","modified_gmt":"2008-09-03T04:57:00","slug":"johnson-praises-paul-speaks-about-his-tenure-as-guv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/09\/johnson-praises-paul-speaks-about-his-tenure-as-guv\/","title":{"rendered":"Johnson praises Paul, speaks about his tenure as guv"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Former Gov. Gary Johnson<\/a> summed up his eight years in office concisely today during a speech in which he also spoke glowingly about U.S. Rep. and former presidential candidate Ron Paul<\/a>. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

<\/span>\u201cI had the most contentious relationship of any governor to their Legislature in this country. They thwarted me on dozens of my issues. I vetoed 750 bills while I was governor of New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> over an eight-year period,\u201d Johnson said today. \u201cTo put that in perspective, that was vetoing more bills than the other 49 governors in this county combined\u2026 \u00e0 la Ron Paul, huh?\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Johnson was speaking at Paul\u2019s Rally for the Republic<\/a>, an alternative to the GOP convention<\/a> currently underway in Minnesota<\/st1:state><\/st1:place>. The rally is also being held in Minnesota<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> and is timed and located to coincide with the Republican event.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The rally wrapped up tonight with Paul\u2019s own speech. Johnson, who endorsed Paul<\/a> in this year\u2019s GOP presidential primary, was one of several who warmed up the crowd before Paul took the stage.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Johnson gave a sometimes meandering speech in which he recounted his tenure as governor and praised Paul. He began by answering his own question — What\u2019s it like to be a former governor instead of a governor? — by saying, \u201cnow people wave at me with all five fingers, not just one.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

During the first half of that sentence, Johnson waved to the hundreds in attendance. During the second half, he appeared to give the crowd the finger.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Johnson listed several accomplishments from his tenure as a Republican governor, including cutting the number of government employees, avoiding tax increases, privatizing prisons and improving roads. He also mentioned his highly publicized view against the war on drugs — Johnson pushed for the legalization of marijuana — and his unsuccessful push for a school-voucher program.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Johnson, never one to mince words, also spoke about his opposition to requiring those who ride motorcycles to wear helmets, saying he wears one but doesn\u2019t believe the government should force him to do it.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have an organ-donor shortage in this country,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd if you want to ride without a helmet, go ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Johnson praised Paul\u2019s proposal to abolish the Federal Reserve and his stances on foreign policy and other issues. He said the United States<\/st1:country-region>\u2019 military presence in 155 nations is one cause of terrorism against America<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to embark on a process of getting those 155 countries unoccupied, \u00e0 la Ron Paul, thank you very much,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

He called for those in attendance at the rally to \u201cadopt a Republican\u201d and try to build the movement for limited government.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s see if we can\u2019t build some bridges here,\u201d he said. \u201cNothing to lose, right? Nothing to lose, everything to gain.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former Gov. Gary Johnson summed up his eight years in office concisely today during a speech in which he also spoke glowingly about U.S. Rep. and former presidential candidate Ron Paul. \u201cI had the most contentious relationship of any governor to their Legislature in this country. They thwarted me on dozens of my issues. I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3661","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=3661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3661\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}