Gary Johnson's Creative Fundraising

I love Gary Johnson's creative fundraising device that plays with the NCAA tournament brackets. Johnson is seeking the Libertarian nomination for President in the party's May convention. He has set a goal of being included in the national debates. The Johnson campaign wishes to demonstrate reaching some metrics in order to be considered for inclusion. From a Johnson campaign email:

Here is what March Mania is about: To qualify for our share of the matching funds presidential candidates receive from the money citizens voluntarily “check off” on their tax returns, we must receive contributions during the primary election campaign totaling at least $5,000 from each of at least 20 states.

For any third party candidate, inclusion in the debates is an excellent goal, and the use of brackets is clever stuff, given the devotion to the tourney every year.

Disclosure: I have not donated to his campaign, or to anyone else's. I just like the cleverness.

Great Barr Poll Numbers

(Big Sky, MT)- Libertarian Bob Barr is now consistently polling 6-7% when included in presidential polls among likely voters. I can't for the life of me recall Libertarian candidates being regularly included, let alone polling as highly as this, with this being the fourth presidential election cycle I've been supporting watching for such things. From the Barr Campaign:

In the first comprehensive general election poll (a sample of over 46,000 likely voters), Bob Barr is now at six percent nationally!

David (Beiler) was there in 1992 when Ross Perot, then polling at seven percent nationally, was included in the debates with Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush.

Four percentage points are all that we need to get into the Google/YouTube presidential debate that is scheduled for September 18th.

According to the debate rules we need ten percent in at least three polls before the debate starts in New Orleans.

These polling numbers are being achieved without benefit of huge TV ad spending, or constant media coverage. I have great hope that the media will increase with these numbers. From there, the campaign needs to ramp up the fundraising and get some ads on TV to boost Barr's name recognition. 

Inclusion in the debates would be phenomenal. I recall how Perot's numbers soared after inclusion in the debates. 

Pleasant Dreams

As I'm about to turn in for the night, I'll allow a delightful, wistful item from Radley Balko float through my mind as my head hits the pillow and I drift into sleep. It's a list of questions he would like to ask presidential candidates at debates. Here are my faves:

— A recent study found that over half the country now derives part or all of its income from the federal government. Three of the richest counties in the country are in the D.C. suburbs, a telling indicator of just how bloated with taxpayer dollars Washington has become. Do you think these trends are healthy? Would you agree or disagree that the federal government is getting too large, too influential, and too pervasive?

—Name five government agencies that are either superfluous, anachronistic, ineffective, or otherwise no longer necessary, and that you would eliminate? To make things interesting, let's take everything under the Department of Defense
off the table, with the acknowledgment that there's plenty of cutting to be done there, too.

—The U.S. currently has troops on 6,000 bases spread out over 135 countries. Do you believe this is a good or bad thing? If bad, from what countries would you remove U.S. troops?

I'm picturing stunned faces, immediate evasive maneuvers, and snickers at the squirming power-seekers from across the USA. Ah- sweet, sweet dreams...