Is it unethical to fail—even to fail miserably? Is it unethical to volunteer for the impossible, nation-saving mission and fall on your face, perhaps by inadvertently igniting a grenade you are carrying and blowing your head off? Can we fairly deride the baseball player who strides to the plate with a chance to win the big game, and then looks like a Little Leaguer as he helplessly strikes out on three pitches without getting within a foot of the ball?
Maybe not. Still, when the stakes are high and a hero is needed, taking on the assignment when one lacks the acumen, skill and character to carry it off is at very least incompetent and irresponsible.
This brings us to Gary Johnson and the Libertarian Party. Again. Well, for the third time.
With Donald Trump attracting most of the media attention as the now completely politicized mainstream media devotes itself to defeating him by any means possible, and Hillary Clinton finding spectacular new and strange ways to make her own candidacy seem shaky even as the news media tries to bolster her, every interview, every second of air time, every opportunity to dazzle (because dazzling is the only chance a third party candidate has) is crucial for Gary Johnson. If he doesn’t know that, he’s an idiot. Since I assume he is not an idiot, and must know that he has to make every viewer who watches him who is not under the spell of Donald Trump or a true believer in Hillary Clinton say, “Hey! There’s a candidate on the ballot who is smart, informed, honest, dignified, healthy and rational with experience in executive governing!” Admittedly, this is difficult. There is no margin for error, and it is extremely difficult to appear brilliant and prepared unless one is brilliant and prepared.
Still, to presume to run for President of the United States is an assertion of remarkable ability, and to make that assertion without such ability is wrong, indeed horribly wrong. “Does anyone know CPR?” The intrepid volunteer steps to the fore and says, “I do!” and then proceeds to kill the stricken stranger because he doesn’t know CPR as well as he thought he did. “The pilot and co-pilot are unconscious! Can anyone fly the plane?” “I was a pilot!” says a confident passenger, who then takes the controls and power-dives the aircraft into the ground, because he’s more than a little rusty.
The Libertarian Party and its nominee have–I guess had is the proper word now—a once in a century opportunity, with both major parties betraying the public and nominating candidates who are unfit for the Presidency, and millions search for a way out. If they couldn’t do better than this, they should have left the job to someone who might have.
I have no idea what’s going on in the video above. NBC News’s Kasie Hunt was interviewing Johnson today how different things might be if he were allowed to participate in the upcoming debate between Clinton and Trump. Mid-answer, Johnson’s tongue emerges between his lips and he proceeds to try to talk, sounding for all the world like someone winning a bet by giving the Gettysburg Address while the tip of his tongue is between his fingers. It’s one of the strangest things I’ve ever seen any interview subject do, and also one of the funniest. Peter Sellers losing control of his Nazi arm in “Dr. Strangelove” was hilarious—
—but a renegade tongue is even better, or would be if it were in a movie comedy. Unfortunately, this was real, and it makes Johnson look ridiculous. If such an episode happened to Hillary Clinton, the incident would be presented as smoking gun proof that she had brain damage. (Watch Hunt’s face when this happens. She looks like she expects his head to crack open to reveal a tentacled alien inside; it’s a combination of fascination
Johnson seems like a nice guy, and he definitely has been unlucky, but we needed him to be better than nice. His country needed him to come through and be a hero, and he had to know that. Knowing that, he was obligated to do better than he has–who couldn’t do better than having a tongue go rogue during a TV interview?—and provide a plausible alternative to Clinton and Trump.
Now all we are left with is the faint hope that Trump will have the self-control to avoid doing a Gary Johnson imitation today.
I am not optimistic.
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Pointer: Mediaite
Ethics Alarms 
Who could let a setup like that go past?
*clears throat*
We don’t need another hero.
I’ll show myself out.
I think I hate you now. Aargh!
Clearly the implication was that he could go up on stage, do that, and draw even with Hillary and Trump.
The real question is which staffer keeps setting him up with msnbc spots? Whether its ambushing him with a question about Aleppo in a foreign policy discussion, or playing this up, he shouldn’t be going on msnbc and taking any chances. If Hillary had done this would the clip have been shown like that? Not a chance.
Part of being a serious candidate is understanding your audience and Gary Johnson needs to understand that he can not give a pro Hillary network like msnbc any rope with which to hang him.
Oh, there is no doubt in my mind that this was not intentional. None. It’s a stress reaction, or something similar.
There must be something in the water at Libertarian conventions. i bet he didn’t do this sort of thing when he was running for governor — the New Mexicans I saw whenever I was there were regular people….
Or……could we be seeing an actual manifestation of Pazuzu?
Whoa–never considered that!
I get what he was trying to say. I could see myself doing something like that with a friend who knows my sense of humor. It’s just a weird thing to do in a serious interview when you’re running for president. I can easily see Trump doing it and getting away with it.
Oh, I am certain that Trump can get away with anything.
Among those who say they will vote for Trump, 48 percent say he’ll create a database to track Muslims; 36 percent say there will be race riots; 33 percent say the government would default on its debt; and 32 percent say Trump would punish his political opponents and authorize internment camps for illegal immigrants.
Only 22 percent of Trump supporters believe he will start a nuclear war.
“The poll shows that Donald Trump is getting his message across, because he has promised most of these goals as part of his platform,” said B. Jay Cooper, the former deputy White House press secretary and communications director for the Republican National Committee.
If it gets Jack Marshall to write about Gary Johnson, then I call it an unqualified success. If it’s okay for the other nominees to be criminals and psychopaths, I think we can accept Gary Johnson being a little goofy.
#22!
Rationalizations for unethical behavior apply only to unethical behavior. There’s nothing unethical with being a little goofy especially when it is directly and effectively serves to reach your goals.
Well, that’s the question. Being deliberately goofy in a setting where goofiness undermines one’s responsibility is certainly irresponsible and incompetent. I don’t believe this was deliberate. But it is also unethical to take on an important role and block others more able to fulfill its challenges when one doesn’t have the goods.
Probably. I don’t think his goofiness undermines his responsibility….so, there’s that. I think it’s pandering to what will get him more exposure and when exposure is the goal, anyone who won’t do something goofy to get the exposure is not going to win an election.
#22 has no practical value in an election. I realize that comparative virtue doesn’t affect a person’s absolute virtue, but we don’t get to elect a person with unblemished virtue. That person isn’t running. We can only vote for the candidates we have.
Much to our sorrow.
Not trying to talk. Trying to demonstrate that he and Weld would look good even if he did talk unintelligibly…,which the Donald does every day
Good theory.
???!!