Gary Johnson Going Mainstream?

*Written by Rob Rimes.

The time is upon us, Gary Johnson is going mainstream! Well, at least one can only hope but his latest appearance on Comedy Central’s ‘The Daily Show’ may have helped at boosting Governor Johnson’s chances this coming November when he heads into the firefight between Barry Obama and Mittens Romney in an effort to bring a voice of reason to a game that has been solely dominated by two very powerful parties for far too long. In all honesty, this is the best damn chance we’ve had for a real alternative since, well.. since Abraham Lincoln ran as a third party candidate in 1860. Granted, I am not paying much mind to Ross Perot’s presidential aspirations in 1992 but at least he did throw a wrench into the two-party machine. A wrench that caused the two-party machine to change the rules, thus making it harder for a third party to compete with the big two.

Getting back to Johnson, Comedy Central has always been kind to the former two-term New Mexico Governor and I was glad to see him return to the highly-watched cable network last night on the invite of Jon Stewart: the typical college lib’s favorite political hero not named Stephen Colbert. Then again, it’s hard to say which of the two is more popular and despite that, they both play back-to-back and cater to the same audience.

Anyway, based off of Johnson’s last few appearances on both ‘The Daily Show’ and ‘The Colbert Report’ I was expecting the same sort of filler bullshit this round. You see, every time Gary Johnson has been on either show, he has been portrayed as the “pot president” due to his stance on marijuana use and the War on Drugs. While this label is somewhat justified, the marijuana topic has dominated the subject matter during all of Gary Johnson’s appearances on Comedy Central shows. I expected nothing different this time around but was pleasantly surprised by Jon Stewart who didn’t even bring the subject up. In fact, Stewart was more interested in how the two-party system works and how it has monopolized the game in an effort to hold down potential third party threats. I’ve got to give Jon Stewart a shitload of kudos for allowing Johnson the opportunity to shed some light on that issue, instead of just making pot jokes. I was elated that Gary Johnson got the respect that he deserved from Stewart and that the interview was well-formatted and not just a humorous yet pointless distraction catering to a less-than politically proficient audience.

Gary Johnson carried himself well, was sharp, was quick and had his talking points down without sounding like a robot shouting out a well-crafted mantra from a soapbox in an effort to generate cheap pops from the crowd. Essentially, he was the antithesis to former presidential candidates like Herman Cain and Michele Bachmann, who Gary Johnson recently shared a stage with in less than a handful of the Republican debates he was invited to before ditching that dying party to carry the Libertarian Party’s torch into the future. The worst and stupidest thing that the Republicans have done, after years of treating Ron Paul like a crank at the end of the bar, was to not include Gary Johnson in the majority of their debates. Now, like Ron Paul, Gov. Johnson is going to be a solid punch to the weak ribcage of the GOP. They took a big elephant shit on one of the guys who should have lead them into the future and now he is gone in an effort to oppose them and expose their weaknesses from the stance of a former insider turned scorned reject. However, Johnson isn’t a reject and Jon Stewart knows this.. or else he wouldn’t have had him on his show, let alone for multiple appearances. Gary Johnson is a strong and viable candidate with an incredible track record: a record that trumps Obama’s and Romney’s combined. Hell, it gives Ron Paul’s record a run for its money.

In a nutshell, Gary Johnson was overwhelmingly elected to two terms as Governor of New Mexico in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans 2-to-1. He started a one-man handyman business and built it into a construction company that employed over a thousand people. He brought his state up from having over half of a billion in debt to having a billion dollar surplus. He cut the number of state employees in New Mexico by 10 percent without having to fire anyone. He gave everyone on Medicaid the same insurance plan that he had as governor, which reduced medical costs by 23 percent. It also improved the outcomes of medical care in the state. He’s fought against the War on Drugs and been very outspoken about getting out of our other senseless wars: Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as being vocal against our involvement and foreign policy with other countries in the Middle East and Asia. On top of that, he has been in multiple triathlons, conquered most of the world’s largest mountains and survived breaking his back in a paragliding accident. He’s pretty much a real man’s man in the vein of Teddy Roosevelt, Vladimir Putin and Ron Swanson. Johnson may not be the wordsmith that Obama is via his teleprompter but he has more substance than anyone else in the race and he can lead us more effectively than the two better-known choices.

Gary Johnson also made an appearance on the late night Fox News show ‘Red Eye’, which is by far the network’s best show. He got to banter back and forth with host Greg Gutfeld and Penn Jillette from the infamous duo Penn & Teller. I heard that the appearance went really well but unfortunately I wasn’t able to watch it as it is on when I am in my daily hibernation mode due to whiskey and I couldn’t catch it online, as the tech-trolls over at Fox News can’t properly upload a video to their own website. I’d like to watch the available clips but regardless of that, it just goes to show that Johnson is starting to get some serious exposure, at least more so than what he got as a Republican candidate for president. Leaving the GOP was the best career move Gov. Johnson has ever made and truthfully, he didn’t really fit in with that club.

As the race moves forward, I think that Gary Johnson will continue to get interviews and build support. Ultimately, he needs to be at 15 percent in the polls in order to get invited to the debates; he’s at 8 percent now! If he can get that support and get on that stage, Romney and Obama will be caught off guard and their strategy at picking each other apart will be all for naught when Mr. X-Factor arrives. We’ve got several months left, let’s see if the people truly want an alternative.