NATIONAL HARBOR, MARYLAND — Typically, when a politician meets a reporter for an interview, decorum dictates that said politician offer up a bland pleasantry to break the ice. “Thanks for spending time with us!” or “Try to keep up!” are standard.
When I meet former New Mexico governor and 2012 Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson at this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), he takes a different tack.
“So you drew the short straw? Some reporter always does.”
Johnson is a friendly, kinetic presence, but he isn’t exactly the brightest star in the political universe right now, a fact he’ll readily concede and even point out. Like much of the Libertarian Party, he finds himself in a precarious position heading into 2016. On the one hand, his laissez-faire platform has never been more popular, with the public increasingly skeptical about developments like the war on drugs, the militarization of America’s police departments and an increasingly intrusive regime of government surveillance.
On the other hand, his policy agenda is being partially appropriated by both of America’s dominant political parties, and the popularity and likely presidential campaign of libertarian-leaning Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) has only served to further diminish the Libertarians’ standing.
I encounter Johnson as he’s manning the booth of his advocacy organization, Our America Initiative, talking with supporters and catching knowing glances from passers-by. Where most prominent politicians would never deign to be seen very long in the deepest, most zoo-like bowels of CPAC, Johnson is happily holding court. Indeed, it feels at times that Johnson is no more a sideshow than The Weekly Standard’s photo booth or the gentleman nearby dressed as Captain America.
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“There’s no itch,” Johnson says flat-out when asked if he ever misses elected office. “I don’t feel an itch.”
“It’s the right thing to do [running for president]. If anyone else were doing this, I’d be back home. I love my life.”
Later, during a debate over drug legalization between Johnson and former Congresswoman Ann Marie Buerkle, Johnson fakes a heart attack and falls over on the stage to illustrate his opinion of Buerkle’s anti-drug arguments.
“You know, I think the governor has had great fun with his humor,” Buerkle, now a commissioner on the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, says. “It’s not funny. It is something that we as Americans have to pay attention to.”
Johnson is having great fun, which begs the question: Why on earth would he want to be president?
