Start Handicapping His Chances Now

The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that sports handicapper Wayne Root (James Cramer has praised him as "the Warren Buffett of his world") will be officially announcing his candidacy for the Libertarian Party's presidential nomination today.

Comments

[Dave Weigel]

Scott Lieberman, a member of the Libertarian Party's national committee, said Root wowed an audience of about 80 party faithful at a candidates' forum at a state party convention in California last month.

It was actually in Florida, but the rest of that is accurate. Root got a little corny ("I'm the W.A.R. you can vote for!") but he ran laps around the rest of the candidates.

[Brian Doherty]

Dave---There was a state party convention in Cali last month as well, so it may well be that Root ruled the roost at both events.

[Shelby]

Any thoughts on whether he'll come across as a kook to non-libertarians?

[Kwix]

He must either be in it to show that the LP isn't dead or he plans on rigging the elections. I hope it's the latter.

[scandalrag]

I saw he was endorsed by someone named Loveless, but then noticed it wasn't Dr. Miguelito Loveless and I lost interest.

[juris imprudent]

Reminds me of the political cartoon from '75, with Gov. Carter on the road to the White House in one frame and a snowball at the portal to Hell in the other. The caption was "I'm betting on the snowball".

[Quiet_Desperation]

Chances of winning: 0.000000000000%

That's as far as modern scientific instrumentality can measure.

There may be some chance greater than Plank's constant, but you need superstring theory to estimate it.

And since we're deaing with the quantum, someone's cat can come along and screw up even that.

[Quiet_Desperation]

>>> but then noticed it wasn't Dr. Miguelito Loveless
>>> and I lost interest.

He's endorsed by both SPECTRE and KAOS, if that helps.

[TLB]

I've sent him my libertarian questionaire, and I'm awaiting the answers:

1. Do you believe in the human right to live anywhere you want, no matter what those who live there think?

2. Do you believe that the seal on the 1903 Treaty of Dubuque's consular provisions 4 through 7 means that licensure for dogs is illegal?

3. Spell "Badnarik".

4. How much colloidal silver do you drink per day?

[highnumber]

Lonewacko will be here all week. He'd like to remind you to tip your waitresses. They work hard, even if they ain't here legally.

[crimethink]

Quiet_Desperation,

Well, according to the Many Worlds theory, there is a universe where Howard Stern was elected president in 2000, only to suffocate after all the air molecules in the White House collapsed into a single spot just above the Clinton-stain on the Oval Office desk.

[jf]

Lonewacko will be here all week. He'd like to remind you to tip your waitresses. They work hard, even if they ain't here legally.

That was the best LW post here EVAH!

[miche]

I

[miche]

All righty. Don't know what happened to the last comment but here it is again.

Root has come up with the novel idea of being the first candidate to ever run his entire campaign on reality television. He is partnering with Burt Dubrow Productions to create the reality show.

Dubrow discovered, created and produced both Jerry Springer and Sally Jessy Raphael, two of the longest running shows in American television history. The reality show will be titled, "ROOT for AMERICA!" Root is also authoring his new book, "The Conscience of a Libertarian."

Let's hope that it is not "Big Brother- Badder than you evah seen."

[Derrick]

Chances of winning: 0.000000000000%

Agreed. But, what do you think his chances are of making any sort of media splash?

[Rick Barton]

What happened to the threads below? They all have lines thru em.

[Rick Barton]

Jesse? Nick? Something's amiss.

[Rick Barton]

The front page has lines thru all the text but the threads are ok after ya click on em. What's going om here. I want a full report. Did the government do this?

[Rick Barton]

The main page has been hit too. I emailed Brian to let him know.

[Rick Barton]

The reason I let Brian know is that there's a better chance that he might still be up as he lives in Cal.

[Will Allen]

I've mentioned this before, but the only way for Wayne Root to deliver a State of the Union Address is via a toll-free number, with every alternate caller given a different message.

[Alex]

Libertarians are fucking nutbags. There may be some reasonable folks, but mostly they consist of your Loundrys, Single Issue Voters, Akira Mckensies, and Lonewackos.

IOW, y'all niggas ain't got a chance. Go adjust your tinfoil headgear.

[jp]

FWIW, according to his website he wants to build a border wall, and his get-out-of-Iraq plank is conditioned on the Iraqi gov't being able to manage things on its own. And for some reason, he says he wants to "drastically limit" corporate welfare. Why not just pledge to eliminate it?

[Frank]

Too bad for me that it's illegal to be a Libertarian or vote for a Libertarian in my state (NC). Coke and Pepsi... ooops... I mean the Republicans and Democrats sure do have a nice tight lock on the system.

[Eric Dondero]

If anyone is interested in joining the Wayne Root for President campaign please email me off list at [e-mail]

We are in need of Grass Roots campaign workers of all kinds. At this point we are most especially looking for State Coordinator candidates.

Thank you,

Eric Dondero, National Coordinator
Wayne Root for President

[jf]

I thought Rudy was the only way to go.

[Mike Laursen]

Root has come up with the novel idea of being the first candidate to ever run his entire campaign on reality television.

Sigh. We've seen publicity-stunting Libertarian candidates before. They never get as much publicity as they think they're going to get.

Does he still think he's going to grab the attention of the American public by making online gambling his big campaign issue?:

http://www.reason.com/blog/show/119179.html

[J Golden Rockwell]

I haven't paid any attention to the LP presidential ticket since Marrou-Johnson. It's a waste of time to campaign for them. They are only useful when they can get attention for local and state legislature candidates.

What we need is to take over at the lower levels. Let people see how much state government they don't really need, and how much better life is without County Arts Commissions and so on. Do that, and those local folks will start moving up.

[matt]

Breaking Speculation...

Is Wayne Allyn Root running for President to prop up the (one cent) stock price of his almost-bankrupt gambling venture?

Detailed speculation in the thread.

http://thirdpartywatch.com/2007/05/04/wayne-allyn-root-to-announce-lp-candidacy/

[highnumber]

Eric Dondero,

Are you a gun for hire?

I don't really know much about this cat, WAR, but I don't think you'll get as much shit around here for pimping him over Guiliani.

Good luck.

[Cutter]

He's admitted that he has no chance of winning (click here, scroll down to "Q: Wayne, several of your competitors promise to win the Presidency for the LP. What do you think of that promise?")

Root says he's just trying to increase the LP's visibility for the future. I'm sure he has ulterior motives, but if he succeeds in his stated goal I don't really care what they are.

[Guy Montag]

So, when I am working in "the Orient" can I campaign for him and Fred?

[jp]

We've seen publicity-stunting Libertarian candidates before. They never get as much publicity as they think they're going to get.

Howuhd Stoin fuh guh-vuh-nuh,
Howuhd Stoin fuh guh-vuh-nuh,
Howuhd Stoin fuh guhv-nuh of New Yawk.

C'mon, everybody sing!

[Eric the .5b]

WAR must be big on fighting the Dread Islamo-Fascist Hordes in order to get Dondero on his side.

Or else he just, you know, hired the guy. 🙂

[miche]

Eric Dondero,

Are you a gun for hire?

Dondero is a republican (liberty caucus r) who bangs the war drum on every libertarian site he can. He spouts untruths about different "foiled" attacks (Miami and Mackinac Bridge come immediately to mind) and preaches that we need to confront these scary Muslims. According to Dondero, libertarians should buy the hyped, made up threats and vote R because it is the only way we can "protect" freedom.

[tarran]

Go easy on Eric, he's doing the best he can to put food on his table and booze in his cupboard.

Eric is one of the few libertarians who recognizes that Al Queda has the industrial capability to build Sud missiles and launch them from mexico.

Also, he's also one of the few libertarians who can see past such outdated doctrines as individual responsibility and understands that society is to blame.

He also recognizes that when people disagree with him, they do so only because, being girlie-men (and yes, that's the term he used), their manhood is threatened by the existence of brave veterans like him, even if the "girlie-man" in question saw combat as a tank-gunner.

If you really want to get his measure read the whole conversation in the final link. It's a real hoot.

[Mike Laursen]

C'mon, everybody sing!

I have to thank Howard Stern. I first started listening to him during his gubernatorial run. I was a much more serious Libertarian then. He kept pissing me off, but I kept listening to him.

After a while, I turned into a huge Howard fan, and developed the ability to laugh at Libertarian Party silliness.

[Eric Dondero]

It's so sad that the typical libertarian cynics here just choose to emphasize the negative: Life sucks, We'll never see liberty in our time, Wayne Root is a charlatan, the Libertarian Party is a joke, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah...

Folks, you all are such downers that you can't even see a victory right in front of your own goddamned eyes.

Step back for a second and consider this:

We have a Republican Party for the first time that has a libertarian-leaning candidate as the Party frontrunner - Rudy Giuliani. A guy who the ontheissues.com site rates as a "Moderate Libertarian" at 60/60.

We also have Wayne Root, quite possibly the wealthiest, most exciting, inspiring, and positive upbeat candidate for President the Libertarian Party has EVER had in its history.

Can you imagine how wonderful it would be if Wayne was the LP nominee pushing libertarian-leaning GOP nominee Giuliani more to the libertarian side?

Can you imagine how wonderful it would be for Wayne to be in the debates, and him and Rudy double teaming Fascist Obama or Socialist Hillary Clinton?

[squoo]

I'd like to support Eric here. I lived in NYC when Rudy was mayor and it truly was a libertarian paradise. Because as Rudy says "freedom is about authority" and no other candidate is as authoritarian as Rudy. In fact, his libertarianism is so deeply ingrained that he tried to extend his term after 9/11 to bring more of his authority, and therefore more freedom, to NYC. Go Rudy!

[Eric DonSwinger]

"Can you imagine how wonderful it would be for Wayne to be in the debates, and him and Rudy double teaming Fascist Obama or Socialist Hillary Clinton?"

Doubleteaming Clinton and Obama, Eric?

Let's do this!

[J. Goard]

Well, as a gambling professional, he certainly understands that he has a significant if small chance to turn the results, like Nader undeniably did in 2000. Of course, he probably also understands that the odds of a democrat woman or racial minority winning the general election with the parties' electoral power so closely divided is vanishingly small.