Former 2-term New Mexico governor and presidential candidate Gary Johnson says that the Christian right’s anti-gay “family leader pledge,” which other GOP White House contenders are jumping to sign, “gives Republicans a bad name.” Too bad the media refuses to take Johnson’s presidential bid seriously (unlike, say, Herman Cain, with no government experience), but he doesn’t fit into their political narrative.
More. Johnson’s latest on YouTube, Tolerance is American.
Furthermore. Filed under “There he goes again”…. Ex-Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, gay-rights opponent and GOP presidential contender, gets mired in whether being gay is “a choice” (which he seems to reduce to the dispute over a specific gay gene), when in truth this should be irrelevant to whether gay people deserve equality under the law. (For what it’s worth, the answer, given what we generally mean by “choice,” is almost always no, but maybe for some bisexuals in the middle of Kinsey’s scale, and more often for females than males, sometimes kinda sorta, as if it matters.)
8 Comments for “Gary Johnson: Anti-Gay Pledge Is UnAmerican”
posted by RedRabbit on
They don’t take him seriously because of his position on legalizing marijuana, not because he does not fit in to their ‘narrative’. They know that alone will doom him, and it is what he is best known for, so they have written him off for that reason alone.
posted by another steve on
Well, they take Ron Paul seriously (at least in terms of media coverage), and he just joined with Barney Frank to sponsor a federal law letting states legalize pot.
posted by Jimmy on
They only take Paul seriously when they need a kooky sound bite, and he usually delivers.
posted by Tom on
… “gives Republicans a bad name.” …
Got that right, Johnson did.
Too bad the media refuses to take Johnson’s presidential bid seriously (unlike, say, Herman Cain, with no government experience), but he doesn’t fit into their political narrative.
And, I might ask, what are his standings in the polls?
Johnson isn’t even polling at 1% [June 30 Zogby], and Real Clear Politics isn’t even tracking him.
Johnson isn’t being taken seriously because he doesn’t, by any stretch of the imagination, have a serious chance of gaining traction. He’s not even on the radar screen, and it isn’t the media that is at fault.
I don’t think Cain has a snowball’s chance, either, but at least he is tracking around 10% in recent polls.
Stephen, before you launch into the media, let me ask if you are taking Johnson seriously. Are you? Have you contributed to his campaign yet? How much?
posted by Tom on
The “Marriage Vow” is going to blow up in the signers’ faces, sooner or later. Bob Vander Plaats is a raving lunatic and the media is going to make hay out of the story, particularly in Bachmann’s case because of Marcus Bachmann’s lying about Ex-Gay therapy. It plays right into the media’s theme that Bachmann is a barking crazy extremist.
I say “sooner or later” only because none of this will probably hurt Bachmann with her base — she’ll probably still win Iowa — but it is the kind of thing that, coupled with all her other over-the-edge statements, can’t stand scrutiny and will hurt her (and any ticket she is part of) with independents and Republicans outside her base.
posted by Tom on
If you want to see where the Michelle Bachmann debacle is headed, look at this Nightline segement.
Bachmann is trying to “pray away the reporters” — she’s sticking to her talking points and trying to avoid saying a word about the family business or her anti-gay history — but all that does is increase the media coverage. The media being what it is, the worst thing a politician can do is to try to hide from a story.
posted by Houndentenor on
I think we’ve all been frustrated at some point when a candidate we favored wasn’t getting any traction and therefore wasn’t being taken seriously by the media. Unfortunately our media would rather cover politics as a sporting event rather than as a debate on serious issues. That’s why we get lengthy discussions of strategy from the campaigns and very little actual policy substance. Candidates who try to make their campaign solely about substance get little attention.
While I understand the appeal of Johnson to gay conservatives, I can’t imagine a pro-gay Republican getting the nomination any more than I can imagine an anti-abortion Democrat getting on the ticket.
posted by BobN on
“Gives Republicans a bad name” seems like a really odd way to phrase “is a clear example of current GOP political priorities”.