Last week, my colleague Scott Lee interviewed former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson (R) on “The Score” radio show. They spoke the day before Johnson officially declared his candidacy for the GOP presidential nomination, so despite his best effort, Scott wasn’t able to get Johnson to break the news on the show. No matter. Over the course of the interview, Johnson’s goals became clear: push a strong fiscal message and aim it directly at those who backed Rep. Ron Paul (R-T3x.) in 2008’s presidential sweepstakes.
Johnson bolted out of the gate talking in broad strokes: liberty, freedom, personal responsibility. That last one is key, particularly for a libertarian-leaning audience that just wants the government nanny to leave it alone. (They can choose their own light bulbs, bathroom fixtures, car seats, snack foods, and so on just fine, thank you)
But it was on the fiscal issues where Johnson felt most comfortable. “We’re essentially bankrupt,” and “on the verge of a financial collapse,” and those who think we can pay back tens of trillions of old debt while racking up over a trillion in new debt each year are kidding themselves.
So, obviously, he’s for balancing the budget. But what of the competing plans out there from President Obama and House Budget Committe Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.)? Ryan’s plan “doesn’t put defense on the table.” “We can provide a strong national defense, but we can’t be building roads, bridges and hospitals in Iraq.” He’s also very much against the Libyan incursion, believing it, and the Iraq and Afghan wars, have bankrupted us. The president’s option got very little of his attention.
Johnson also said, “my Dad didn’t parachute into Normandy two days before the invasion for Medicare and Medicaid. The history of our country is that we’ve fought for people to have liberty, to have freedom, but we’ve gotten as far away from that as we possibly can.”
So Johnson has staked out ground where few, if any, of the other Republican presidential candidates will tread: radical spending cuts, complete devolution of Medicare and Medicaid to the states and, an old libertarian favorite, bringing the troops home.
They are the kinds of sentiments that send portions of the GOP base into tizzies. But Johnson isn’t talking to them. He’s aiming at Ron Paul’s voters, tea party voters, and those who believe that the American empire has robbed us of more than just blood and treasure.
It will be very interesting to see how his campaign evolves – and whether his message will find firmer traction than Paul’s did in 2008.
