William Weld For Libertarian Vice President Winning Respectful Attention
The announcement of William Weld as Gary Johnson's choice for his running mate in his run for the presidential candidacy of the Libertarian Party (the Party's delegates will be making their choice at their convention over Memorial Day weekend in Orlando) got the Washington Post to imagine the possibilities of the L.P. actually pushing the election into the House of Representatives.
The Weld pick is already paying off in other respectful media attention.
• Former L.P. supporter Jim Sullivan writes in the Boston Herald from the state Weld governed in the 1990s that this is an opportunity so great it would take a Party as often wrong-way as the L.P. to blow it, and he looks forward to:
watching so many Republicans tripping over themselves in a rush to discredit two of their most popular multi-term ex-governors. New Mexico had 20 of 24 previous years under Democratic rule prior to Johnson's two terms, voted for Obama in 2012, and also seats a large majority of Democrats in its state legislature. The credentials of Massachusetts as a Democratic bastion are unimpeachable. So both Johnson and Weld won in primarily blue states initially and were re-elected solidly. I can't wait to hear the whirling dervish sort of spin some Republicans will use in an attempt to make their accomplishments sound like a bad thing.
• The Christian Science Monitor wonders, under the headline "Could a Libertarian Party bid Derail Trump or Clinton?":
if many of Senator Sanders's supporters don't support Clinton – and if some Republicans such as Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska turn from Trump – the Libertarians could have a wider opening than previously thought. The potential Libertarian duo both have political histories including time served as state governors, and could feed off of the energy of Sanders and Trump, who rose to the top of their parties' races despite their outsider statuses.
• The notorious political operative and dirty trickster Roger Stone, who linked up with the L.P. in 2012 and has lately been on the Trump train, says Johnson and Weld are personal friends, great candidates, and should be in the debates.
• David Boaz of the Cato Institute gets in the Daily Beast to call a Johnson/Weld ticket "An opportunity to pick a positive good, not just the lesser of two evils." Boaz writes that:
they will present a clear alternative to Trump and Clinton: strong and coherent fiscal conservatism, social liberalism, drug-policy reform, criminal-justice reform, reining in mass surveillance, ending executive abuse of power, and a prudent foreign policy that is neither promiscuously interventionist nor erratic and bombastic — all grounded in a philosophical commitment to liberty and limited government.
• The Boston Globe reported on how Weld apparently kept his decision very secret until its public relevation, and how it highlights chaos in the GOP's status in Massachusetts:
The state's popular Republican governor, Baker, has said he would vote in November for neither Trump nor Clinton.
The state's last Republican to serve in Congress, former US senator Scott Brown, has backed Trump, as has its longtime national committeeman, Ron Kaufman. The party's chairwoman, Kirsten Hughes, has said she would back the party's nominee, but has not explicitly endorsed Trump.
And the party's last GOP governor, 2012 presidential nominee Mitt Romney, has actively worked against Trump and warned of a disastrous presidency if he is elected — as has former acting governor Jane Swift.
• A Wall Street Journal headline says the Weld idea is "boosting Libertarians."
