Robert Poole on The Libertarian Case for Mitt Romney

In the second of three pices outlining the libertarian cases for Democrat Barack Obama, Republican Mitt Romey, and Libertarian Gary Johnson, Reason's Robert Poole argues that the former governor of Massachusetts "would be significantly less bad than" a second Obama term.

Despite Gov. Romney being a long way from libertarian,  the differences between a Romney administration and another four years of Obama have major implications for liberty. They really do reflect two different conceptions of the role of the federal government, with the former focused largely on getting government out of the way of entrepreneurs and investors and the latter intent on government management of the economy. To be sure, a Romney administration might not govern consistently with its market-friendly rhetoric, but I cannot imagine it being less market-friendly than the current administration….

A Romney/Ryan administration would appoint far more market-friendly people to key agencies like the Department of Transportation, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Justice Department, the Federal Trade Commission, and more. These people's decisions have enormous consequences for the economy. It is at this level that rules and policy details are written, and the implementation of policies is often as important as the policies themselves.