United Liberty

Jesse Benton, Senior VP of Campaign for Liberty, recently discussed the presidential prospect of Ron Paul in 2012 with Kurt Wallace of Liberty Pulse.

Here is what Benton told Liberty Pulse:

If the answer had to be made today, it would be “no,” but he is considering it very strongly and there is a decent likelyhood that he will. A lot of it depends on things going on in his personal life and also what’s going on in the country.

So, everyone out there that wants him to run, and I am one of them, I encourage them to politely but energetically let him know you’d really like to see it happen.

There you have it. The next presidential is just around the corner and there is likely to be a few candidates that the liberty movement may be able to get behind, such as Gary Johnson or Joe Scarborough.

What do you think?

Ron Paul isn’t saying yes to another run for the White House, but he’s not saying no either:

It’s “too early” to say whether Rep. Ron Paul will run again for president, the Texas Republican said Saturday.

The libertarian congressman told a crowd in Iowa, the starting point for a presidential campaign, that he is simply focused on reelection to the House.

“It’s not on my mind, it’s too early, and I will be filing for my congressional seat,” Paul said in an interview with IowaPolitics.com.

“I don’t have any plans made,” he said.

If the first for liberty is going to be a campaign of ideas and not a cult of personality, then it has to move beyond devotion to one man.

So no, I don’t think Ron Paul should run in 2012. He wouldn’t win and, quite honestly, he’d be too old to be President even if he did.

Instead, it’s time to start looking at other candidates, like Gary Johnson.

Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico and self-described libertarian, continues to lay the groundwork for a run in 2012:

Gary Johnson is preparing to launch his Our America PAC shortly, as soon as he gets all of his legal ducks in a row. He will be hitting the trail hard soon, traveling the country to speak in support of issues and candidates, re-immersing himself in the public policy debate.

This December, Governor Johnson will also be releasing a book entitled “Seven Principles Of Good Government,” published by The Heartland Institute (a conservative-libertarian think tank).

Johnson confirmed the PAC to a New Mexico paper, but played down any run for president, at least at this time.

Once again, Newt Gingrich is hinting at a run for the Republican nomination for President:

Newt Gingrich, the former House Speaker and perennial big thinker in the Republican party, said this morning that he will likely run for president in 2012 if he and his wife, Callista, assess the field of candidates in 2011 and feel “a requirement as citizens that we run.”

Here’s the transcript from C-Span’s Washington Journal

C-SPAN: “If you were to run, what factors would you take into account? What would lead you to think about running?”

GINGRICH: “Callista and I are going to think about this in February 2011. And we are going to reach out to all of our friends around the country. And we’ll decide, if there’s a requirement as citizens that we run, I suspect we probably will. And if there’s not a requirement, if other people have filled the vacuum, I suspect we won’t.”

This isn’t the first time that the political world has seen Gingrich play this game.

In the immediate aftermath of her bizarre and still inexplicable decision to quit as Alaska’s Governor, Sarah Palin was in second place behind Mitt Romney in a poll of Republicans about their preference among candidates for the 2012 nomination.

A new Rasmussen poll, though, shows that Palin has faded to third place behind Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney:

Twenty-nine percent (29%) of Republican voters nationwide say former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee is their pick to represent the GOP in the 2012 Presidential campaign. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey finds that 24% prefer former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney while 18% would cast their vote for former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich gets 14% of the vote while Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty gets 4%. Six percent (6%) of GOP voters prefer some other candidate while 7% remain undecided.

These numbers reflect an improvement for Huckabee since July when the three candidates were virtually even. Huckabee’s gain appears to be Palin’s loss as Romney’s support has barely changed.

(…)

As of today at least:

In what may be the ultimate job rating, 43 percent of voters say that they would vote to re-elect President Obama if the 2012 election were held today, down from 52 percent six months ago, from April 22-23, 2009.

Obama’s job approval rating comes in at 49 percent this week. That’s down just one percentage point from late September, but it marks a new low approval for the president — and the first time the Fox News poll has measured his approval below 50 percent.

Moreover, the number of Americans saying they would vote to re-elect President Obama has dropped. If the election were held today the poll finds more voters say they would back someone else in the 2012 election than would back the president.

Despite winning the Nobel Peace Prize last Friday, the latest Fox News poll finds the president’s ratings on foreign issues are lower than his overall job ratings. All in all, 49 percent of Americans say they approve of the job President Obama is doing and 45 percent disapprove. His average approval for the term so far is 58 percent.

On Afghanistan, 41 percent of Americans say they approve of the job Obama is doing and 43 percent disapprove. For his handling of Iran, 44 percent approve and 43 percent disapprove.
On the president’s handling of the economy, voters are almost equally split: 48 percent approve and 49 percent disapprove. On health care, some 42 percent approve of the president’s performance and half disapprove, 50 percent.

Gary Johnson, a libertarian and former Governor of New Mexico, is expected to make an announcement on future political plans in the next few weeks:

I have been unable to verify details, but speculation is mounting that the former Governor is preparing to re-enter the public policy debate.

Over the last sixth months, there have been rumors that Governor Johnson  has been considering launching a campaign for the Republican nomination in 2012, although Johnson has not confirmed this.

Johnson has been mentioned as a possible candidate in the GOP primary for president in 2012. While many former governors likely running for president in 2012 talk about cutting spending and taxes and limiting government, Gary Johnson actually did.

Not sure about you, but he’d have my vote.

The ABC/Washington Post poll that I talked about earlier today in connection with Sarah Palin, also has this little tidbit about the yes-it’s-happening-way-too-early race for the 2012 GOP nomination:

As the shadowboxing for the GOP nomination begins, Palin’s eroding favorability among Republicans and white evangelicals could be a hurdle. The poll showed former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee leading a pack of potential contenders.