This long shot is worth a look

07.06.2004

Ralph Nader isn’t the only third-party candidate running for president. On May 30 in Atlanta, the Libertarian Party nominated Michael Badnarik, 49, as its presidential candidate.
A computer programmer living in Austin, Texas, Mr. Badnarik said Friday that he moved there from California in 1997 to escape the state’s strict gun laws and to exchange California’s top 9.3 percent income tax rate with Texas’ 0 percent.
He won the Libertarian Party nomination, he said, after spending much of 2003 and 2004 attending party conventions in 26 states, traveling by car to save money. His campaign still is a shoestring operation, expecting to spend $5 million, compared to the more than $100 million raised by each major party candidate so far. Badnarik said he will refuse to take federal campaign money.
He has a tough campaign ahead of him. The last Libertarian Party nominee, Harry Browne, drew just 386,041 votes in 2000 out of more than 100 million cast.
But in a telephone interview as he campaigned in San Francisco, Badnarik said this election is more hospitable to a Libertarian candidate “because of the political environment. People of all kinds are disenchanted by the size of government and the war in Iraq. People are ready for another choice.

I see Freedom Communications still owns the Lima News.

That's one awesome editorial!

I hope the Lima News endorses him.

:wave:

Quote:Although this newspaper holds to a libertarian philosophy...

Sounds like my kind of newspaper. :D

Kudos to them for giving third-party candidates some ink.

I think Badnarik, like most card-carrying Libertarian Party members, adhere to a platform that's a bit too "purist" for most people (including me). But I do believe that if a moderate 'social liberal/fiscal conservative" really got the financial backing one day (a la Perot), he'd seriously challenge the highest political post in the land. There are many people, particularly among the younger generations, who favor lower taxes and free trade, yet at the same time support gay rights, anti-censorship, and a policy of military restraint.