The Libertarian Opportunity

David Harsanyi at The Federalist makes the case against Gary Johnson and William Weld in, "Libertarians Have A Chance To Make Some Noise. But Not With These Candidates". My favorite line he writes:

Vote Gary Johnson/Bill Weld! Because nothing says “libertarian” quite like “Massachusetts Republican.”

Read the entire article.

Johnson and Weld remind me of the mistake the Republicans have made every time they lose to the Democrats: The GOP always reads it as a message to become more like Democrats, even though the reality is Republican voters are staying home because the Republican candidates of recent times were already too much like Democrats. Why vote for the Republican Democrat when you can get the real Democrat?

Johnson and Weld are like too very bad attempts to reach for Republican voters. While I will vote for them if the Libertarians select them, even I will admit they are uninspired choices.

Harsanyi is right when he suggests:

The Libertarian Party, endlessly factional and self-destructive, has always been a sort anti-consensus party driven by a narrow ideological focus that often stands apart even from mainstream libertarianism. But, despite its best efforts, there is an opportunity here. And the only chance for it to work — a slim one — is for some charismatic candidate to make a compelling case to disgruntled conservatives. These are not them.

Best case scenario for Libertarians with Gary Johnson as the standard-bearer: A 19% finish, like Ross Perot's failed candidacy. That is the best you can get when the two majors run bad candidates and your own third party run is flawed. Johnson is only the "better than the alternative" candidate. You don't win elections as a "lesser evil" third party candidate.

There is only one candidate among the Libertarians with the charisma to pull this off: Austin Petersen. There is no guaranty Petersen will win, but he is the only candidate with a chance of pulling it off.