This may be the most news coverage Gary Johnson gets all cycle:
Former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson, an avid athlete who climbed Mt. Everest and has a strong libertarian bent, announced Thursday that that he will seek the GOP nomination for president, expanding an already crowded field.
Johnson, 58, made his announcement on the steps of the New Hampshire State House, and like his fellow libertarian Republican Ron Paul, made extensive use of email and Twitter to notify potential followers.
“Today's mess didn't just happen. We elected it—one senator, member of Congress and president at a time,” Johnson said in a statement. “Our leaders in Washington, D.C., have ‘led' America to record unemployment, a devalued currency, banking scandals, the mortgage crisis, drug crisis, economic crisis, loss of our nation's industrial might—and a long list of other reminders our nation is way off course.”
If Ron Paul, now 75 (yes, older than John McCain), doesn't run for president yet again, his gold-bugging supporters may gravitate toward Johnson instead. But will it make any difference? Despite raising enormous sums in 2008, Paul had no effect on the outcome of the Republican primary. He amassed just 21 delegates—less than 1% of the total—and his best showing the entire race was 25% in the Montana caucuses. A classic cased of sound + fury = nothing.
Johnson, meanwhile, lacks many of the advantages that Paul had. He hasn't been nearly as visible an icon to the libertarian right, and hasn't yet shown he can pull in the resources that Paul did. Even if Johnson is viewed as an ideological "heir" to Paul, as the linked article suggests, he has a long way to go before reaching even his distant mentor's not-so-lofty heights. I imagine it's possible that Paul could endorse Johnson and formally annoint him as his successor (poor Rand!), but if Paul himself couldn't have an impact on the race last time, I doubt Paul-once-removed in the form of Johnson can do any better.
But there is one thing Johnson ought to be good at: For those of us who enjoy watching the craziness of the GOP primary unfold, I expect he'll add his own entertaining flavor of nuttiness to the proceedings. And hey, what more can you ask for?