• Welcome to OGBoards 10.0, keep in mind that we will be making LOTS of changes to smooth out the experience here and make it as close as possible functionally to the old software, but feel free to drop suggestions or requests in the Tech Support subforum!

Failed Third Party Candidate Gary Johnson

Have seen a few interviews with Johnson/Weld and both mostly come across as sharp, thoughtful, pragmatic guys. Unfortunately having a tough time reconciling Johnson claiming he still doesn't know if the US should have entered WWII. Given everything we've known for decades about Hitler's elaborate coordinated plans to exterminate Jews, gypsies, and gays, that's a non-starter for me. That's without even factoring in Pearl Harbor. Unfortunately nobody's asked him to clarify. Trying to keep an open mind about Johnson, but fuck him if he forces me to hold my nose and vote for Hillary.

Trump laid into Weld big time over his alleged "alcoholism". Odd since Trump often talks about his brother, who actually was an alcoholic. People freaked out at how hard Trump went at Jeb, Cruz, and the other eunuchs, but looks like the primaries were just spring training for Trump. No more Mr Nice Guy. He truly was unhinged during his press conference.
 
Buckets, think of it this way, we will have about $5T in retail sales this year (http://www.chainstoreage.com/article/retail-sales-reach-49-trillion-2015). Even if you find another $2.5T in goods and services that can be taxed. This would be a total of $7.5T in taxable sales.

Hell, add another 33% and make it $10T. That's way high considering our total GDP is $18T.

The federal budget was $3.8T. This means the MINIMUM a Fair Tax would have to be is 38%.

Oh, yeah, then there is a "prebate" given to those who don't earn enough. Where's that money coming from?

This is the most regressive type of tax ever proposed to those who can least afford it.

Plus no matter what the proponents allege. The numbers cannot work.
 
buckets said:
Maybe the problem is the budget?
Click to expand...

Even if you cut the budget by 25%, you'd still be at 30-35% "fair tax" and maybe higher to pay for the costs you create by doing so.

Plus cutting the budget that much would immediately increase unemployment dramatically. Then there would be a ripple effect. Not just the government jobs, but the people who provide goods and services to those jobs.

It sounds good to "slash the budget", but then you have to think about the repercussions.

Something else you have to realize is that with people living longer, not taking in any Social Security taxes will necessitate a higher "fair tax" to take care of that.

The concept of "privatizing" Social Security inevitably will lead to the government controlling or setting immense regulations on equity markets. If you don't then there will massive poverty and a need for supporting tens of millions who lose or can't save. It would also put the government into the position of picking winners and losers in the markets.
 
I'm not ashamed to say I know next to nothing about Johnson.

Samantha Bee interviewed him for her show and this was my introduction to him. Interesting fella, not a typical candidate.

 
simosfrostyone said:
Actually, his record as governor isn't as fiscally conservative as you might think.
Click to expand...

What are you referring to specifically?

He vetoed a lot of bills. Some stuff got overridden because it was a heavy dem legislature.
 
FuckmouthedRube said:
Have seen a few interviews with Johnson/Weld and both mostly come across as sharp, thoughtful, pragmatic guys. Unfortunately having a tough time reconciling Johnson claiming he still doesn't know if the US should have entered WWII. Given everything we've known for decades about Hitler's elaborate coordinated plans to exterminate Jews, gypsies, and gays, that's a non-starter for me. That's without even factoring in Pearl Harbor. Unfortunately nobody's asked him to clarify. Trying to keep an open mind about Johnson, but fuck him if he forces me to hold my nose and vote for Hillary.

Trump laid into Weld big time over his alleged "alcoholism". Odd since Trump often talks about his brother, who actually was an alcoholic. People freaked out at how hard Trump went at Jeb, Cruz, and the other eunuchs, but looks like the primaries were just spring training for Trump. No more Mr Nice Guy. He truly was unhinged during his press conference.
Click to expand...

A hypothetical question about a war 70 years ago is the main knock for you? OK.
 
He seemed a bit spacy in the Samantha Bee interview. Maybe that was what he is going for but perhaps a little more gravitas would help, it is not a reality show. Oh, wait a minute, maybe it really is.
 
I thought he came across well in his 2012 Daily Show and Colbert Report appearances. But yeah, he was a bit loony in that interview with Sam and should shelve that personality during the campaign. Although he was extremely accurate at the end as to the type of folks you'd find at the libertarian convention - some pretty sane folks and some who are batshite crazy.
 
Thanks to the pervasive fish bowl nature of the presidency and social media, no rational human being is going to run for POTUS in the near future. Hillary and Jeb both have first hand knowledge of the job, and still signed on. Mitch Daniels is a smart, pragmatic centrist but he never ran because he didn't want to put his family through a public examination of how his wife left him and came back. Seems perfectly reasonable, but oddly quaint in this era. Palin was so eager to get on the national stage that she strapped an infant onto his big sister to hide her baby bump. Hard to compare Daniels and Palin as parents, spouses, and human beings.

Can find two dozen anonymous guys in a nation of 320 million to bump off Osama but can't find even a half dozen decent candidates to run for POTUS. Johnson's goofy as hell and agree with Bee's assessment that half his policies make sense and half are nutty. Still solid compared to Trump, Hillary, and Stein. Kasich's kinda goofy too, but still way better than the other 16 GOP chuckleheads.
 
CNN hosting a townhall with Johnson and Weld in primetime next week. That will be huge for them.
 
SCDeac13 said:
CNN hosting a townhall with Johnson and Weld in primetime next week. That will be huge for them.
Click to expand...

Agree. They can't afford to have any missteps early in the process. There are a lot of #NeverTrump and #NeverHillary out there that are waiting for a decent horse to hitch their wagon to. I really want to see Gary in the debates, so I hope they do well in the interview/town hall.
 
I was not impressed with the part of the CNN town hall I watched (about the first 1/2 hour). Johnson came off as even more of a goofball than Kasich and with less gravitas. He wasn't good at responding to the questions in a way that articulated a message or conveyed a connection with the questioner. Weld was much more impressive in both of these regards. Johnson just seemed like he didn't really want to be there and was chasing the red balls in front of him instead of conveying a themed message.

It was refreshing to not hear Trump babble or Hillary deflect, but I was hoping for more. I'd have been happier if the ticket was reversed and Weld was the presidential candidate.
 
so weird that people are warming to Johnson when they could've just had a plausible candidate in John Kasich.

dumb
 
i can still fault them for failing to coalesce around a plausible option rather than the sure-fire loser of their choice

republicans could've easily won this election with an instant run-off primary selection process
 
Weld is a much better speaker than Gary. I've heard Gary give better responses to similar questions than he gave last night so was a little disappointed in that regard. A few terrible questions didn't help either. But he still has my vote and hopefully it gets him some experience going forward.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top