Wayne Root, former Libertarian Party Vice Presidential Candidate and Current Member of the LP's National Committee: "It's Gotta Be Romney, There is No Choice"
Wayne Root, who ran as Bob Barr's VP candidiate with the Libertarian Party in 2008, currently a member of the
Libertarian National Committee that runs the Party, exhibits a lack of dedication to the LP by saying this on a Bill Cunningham podcast, right in the first couple of minutes:
I think the important thing now is to make sure Obama is not elected,and that means in my mind, I would love for a libertarian like Gary Johnson the two term governor of New Mexico would actually get elected President, but I think we all know that's not going to happen so therefore it's got to be Romney there is no choice.
Root tried to defend himself in this Independent Political Report comment thread:
I said in a perfect world I'd like to see Gary Johnson elected President, he'd be the best choice out there…I also said several times on the call that Mitt Romney is a big spending, big government Northeast liberal…that he will make very little difference because of this…
And that the difference between Obama and Romney…
Is that Romney will slow down our path off a cliff just a bit…and Obama will take us off the cliff in a matter of minutes.
But neither is good enough to save USA from long decline towards mediocrity.
And that Romney's victory will most probably prove that neither party can change our problems enough to save the economy…so hopefully it will lead to a serious Libertarian third party threat in 2016…of which I plan to be the Presidential candidate.
It's true, he did say the above. But before saying all that, he said that "it's got to be Romney, there is no choice."
That quote is accurate, and is clearly an LP official telling the world it has no choice but to vote for a GOP candidate–even if he goes on to say that GOP candidate is highly flawed.
The great advantage of telling the world there is no point in voting for his own party's candidate in 2012? It leaves the possibility of voting for his party's candidate in 2016–when Root predicts it will be him. I daresay this statement makes that far less likely.
