So earlier this week, one morning before work, I'm on one of those tricked-up stationary cycles at the health club watching Morning Joe and pretty much minding my own business, unless you count taking occasional note of the lycra and spandex style show, when the following exchange between Mike Barnicle, a co-host, and Gary Johnson, the Libertarian party candidate for president, seeped through the fog of old-guy exertion:
Barnicle: What would you do, if you were elected, about Aleppo?
Johnson: About . . . ?
Barnicle: Aleppo.
Johnson: [looking panicky] And what is Aleppo?
Barnicle: You’re kidding.
Johnson: No.
Barnicle: Aleppo is in Syria. It’s the epicenter of the refugee crisis.
Johnson: Okay! Got it. Got it.
Barnicle: Okay.
Johnson: Well, with regard to Syria, um, I do think that it’s a mess. I think that the only way that we deal with Syria is to join hands with Russia.
You know how the most popular guy on most NFL teams is the back-up quarterback--until, pressed into service, he supplies evidence of why he was the back-up? With regard to Johnson, my first thought was that maybe it works similarly in presidential politics. You don't like the opposing first-stringers? Put the libertarian in the game! But once the chant achieves a certain decibel level, he gets invited onto a show, and immediately proves that he has thought less about the world's problems than a moderately earnest fifth grader subjected to "current events" as part of the elementary school's social studies curriculum.
I was disabused, however, by an article taking up the question of whether Clinton or Trump would benefit if Johnson's voters, appalled by his ignorance, deserted him. Like, there are more than three people in the country who, put off by the discovery that Johnson isn't serious, would determine to vote for Trump instead? The problem isn't really that a minor party has endorsed for president a know-nothing unfit for office.
At least the episode has inspired another memorable Borowitz headline: "Gary Johnson Vows to Get Tough on East Korea."
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