Opinion: Gary Johnson should be the next U.S. president

To the community,

In the movie “Searching for Bobby Fisher” there is a moment where Joshua Waitzkin offers his opponent a draw. The opponent, looking at what he thinks is a tactically superior position spurns the offer, “why would I do that”. Joshua, having clearly seen his path to victory, replies, “You’ve already lost, you just don’t see it yet.”

I think there are very few who will see Gary Johnson as having won the current presidential race. For that matter, there are actually only a minority of people in this country who even know of his candidacy, including the owner/publisher of this e-newspaper. But Gary Johnson is the kind of guy who will find a way to surmount obstacles. This presidential candidate has climbed Mount Everest, so if you can find a bigger obstacle than that: Bring it on. Gary has a long history of achieving his aspirations.

I am most impressed by his business history. Gary started out as a one-man handyman business in college. He grew that business to over a thousand employees before deciding to go and do other things. Gary understands business, especially what we really need in this country, small business.

After selling the business he turned his hand to politics. He ran for governor of New Mexico. As governor, he took a state that had a serious budget deficit when he entered office, and by the time he was termed out eight years later left the state with approximately a billion dollars in its coffers. And he cut taxes 14 times.

But he’s not just an adventurer, businessman, politician — he’s a real thinker, too. And he thinks about things like: If this is the land of the free, why do we lock up more people than anyone else in the world? And why do we lock people up for drug use when it would make so much more sense to treat it as the medical/psychological/economic issue that it really is? Legalize marijuana, regulate it, tax it and top the drug wars. In fact, stop all the wars.

Sounds good on the surface, but you’ve still never heard of him? Check out more online.

OK, sounds good, but he’ll never get elected? That is exactly where the title of this piece comes from. Because really, it’s “we the people” who are poised for an epic win. Gary has no corporate sponsor. When he becomes president, he really will be “the peoples president” because it really will be because of people like you and me who get him elected.

Gary needs to be in the debates. You can help put him there. Do we believe in fair play and the guy with the best ideas should win in this country or not? Help Gary get his chance to make his case for us on the presidential debate stage.

Donavan Spencer, Porterville