Gary Johnson’s battle to be a contender
Sep 2nd 2016, 21:47 BY J.A. | WASHINGTON, DC
... The trouble for Mr Johnson is that, to most American political tastes, he actually is quite crazy. The sort of cautious, orthodox conservative that Mr Trump has repelled tends to be wary of dope-smokers. National security hawks, another conservative type that loathes the braggart tycoon, are meanwhile unimpressed by Mr Johnson’s extreme aversion to military intervention. Disgruntled supporters of Senator Bernie Sanders, Mrs Clinton’s opponent in the primaries—for whom Mr Johnson has expressed admiration—struggle to embrace a man who is opposed to putting a price on greenhouse gases and calls taxation a “plague”.
The loathing of most Democrats and Republicans for each other’s candidates is another factor working against Mr Johnson. It will make turnout for the two big parties much higher than it might otherwise be, preserving the two-party system in a lacquer of mutual detestation. Hence Mr Johnson, despite his joshing optimism about his prospects, is not kicking on as he had hoped to.
For that to happen, as he himself has repeatedly said, he must figure in the three televised presidential debates scheduled to take place in last September and October. To qualify, he would need, over the next two weeks, to raise his support to an average of 15% in a suite of polls. It is hard to imagine that happening ...
http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2016/09/spliffs-no-cigar
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