Libertarians Looking for Tactics in 2012

LIBERTARIANS

• Nick Gillespie Talking Election 2012, Independent Voters, with Jon Caldara of Independence Institute (Nick Gillespie, Reason.com) The awesome Independence Institute in Denver, Colorado invited me out west last week to debate Ann Coulter about whether libertarians and conservatives could and should work together to defeat liberals such as Barack Obama.
• Gary Johnson and the possibilities of a third-party candidacy (Jim Galloway, Atlanta Journal Constitution/ Political Insider) Truth be told, the better third-party bet was in Athens this weekend, attending the state Libertarian party convention. Gary Johnson is yet another former governor – this time from New Mexico – who failed to scratch in the Republican contest. But when Libertarians have their national gathering in Las Vegas in May, Johnson is likely to emerge as the party’s candidate – just as Bob Barr did four years ago. Johnson left the GOP contest in December. Again, not that many noticed.

Independent Voters Discuss the Issues

Don Lemon's CNN panel of independents Dr. Omar H. Ali, Joe Gandelman, and Nicole Neily discuss the debt:


INDEPENDENT VOTERS

• Can Independent Voters Fix Our Broken Political System? (By Conor Friedersdorf, The Atlantic) Roughly 100 people showed up at Powell's Books in Portland, Oregon, Monday evening to hear the editors of Reason magazine, Matt Welch and Nick Gillespie, talk about their new book, The Declaration of Independents: How Libertarian Politics Can Fix What's Wrong With America.
• South Carolina Democrats Attack Gov. Haley Over 2001 Claim She is 'White' (Saul Relative, Yahoo! Contributor Network) It is just such petty incidents or non-issues that have caused a general outpouring of overall exasperation among the American electorate. It is why -- albeit one of the many small "whys" -- many voters have aligned themselves with neither party over the past couple decades.
• Millennial Independents to Washington: You do not reflect our interests (by Tina Korbe, Hot Air) Among independent voters aged 18 to 29, 55 percent agree that if taxes on business profits were reduced, companies would be more likely to hire. That’s according to a poll recently commissioned by Generation Opportunity, a nonprofit, non-partisan organization that seeks to engage young adults in a discussion about the immediate and long-term economic challenges that face the nation.

Presidential Polls on Independence Day

From Rasmussen Reports:
Voters not affiliated with either party are the most critical of Congressional performance. Just 3% of those voters give Congress positive ratings, down from 6% last month. Sixty-three percent (63%) believe Congress is doing a poor job, up from 57% last month.

From Zogby International:
Bob Barr gets 43% of libertarians and 11% of independents. On the left, Ralph Nader gets less than 2% nationally. Independents break 39% for Obama, compared with 31% who support McCain.

From an independent voter on Roosevelt Island (NYC):
I'm leaning towards Obama, but I really hope he doesn't take Hillary on as a VP candidate. I hear she doesn't like independents.