Gary Johnson's MSNBC appearance just brought the 'Libertarian moment' to a screeching halt

By Robert Laurie —— Bio and Archives September 8, 2016

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I've made no secret that I have a lot of sympathy for the strict constructionist leanings of many Libertarians. I would argue, much to the chagrin of social conservatives, that they're right more often than they wrong. The problem is that they simply can't get their act together as a party. Part of that is because a good chunk of them are really just closet Democrats trying to legalize weed, and part of it is because they don't have the organization, money, and media clout to get over the metaphorical hump. This year was thought by many to be "the Libertarian moment" - a time when two massively unpopular tcandidates would place the spotlight on third parties. Finally, they thought, we'll have a strong, knowledgeable, and likeable candidate who will lead us to respectability.

Gary Johnson just put an and to that notion with an appearance on MSNBC. Asked what he'd do about Aleppo - a city and region which has become the deadly focal point of the Syrian civil war - Gary Johnson answered "What is a leppo?" When it was explained to him, he downshifted into a garbled mish-mash of Libertarian talking points which managed to be somehow worse. Here's the tape. (See Below) Yikes. I don't know what's more cringe-inducing; that blank, deer-in-the-headlights stare or the incomprehensible gobbledygook he came up with after learning what Aleppo actually was...

VIDEO: @GovGaryJohnson: "What is Aleppo?"

These are the people running for president in the US...https://t.co/jHFk2EmWSO

— Gissur Simonarson (@GissiSim) September 8, 2016