The ‘usual’ and the ‘unusual’ suspects running for President

Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson and Green Party candidate Jill Stein were not able to participate in the recent spirited debates which featured Republican Party candidate Donald Trump and Democratic Party candidate Hillary Clinton. Fortunately, for voters, important information about these candidates is available on each of the candidate’s website and on ballotpedia.org.
From ballotpedia.org:
Gary Johnson is the 2016 Libertarian Party nominee for president of the United States. He declared his candidacy on January 6, 2016, and formally received the party’s nomination on May 29, 2016, at the Libertarian National Convention.
Johnson, a business owner who advocates a “fiscally-conservative, socially-liberal” approach to government, served two terms as the Republican governor of New Mexico from 1995 to 2003. In his first campaign for governor, he defeated Democratic incumbent Bruce King by 10 points. As governor, Johnson focused on cutting taxes and spending and reducing the size of government in the state. He vetoed more than 700 bills throughout his two terms. In his 2012 book, Seven Principles of Good Government, Johnson wrote, “Although I do not believe that government is ill-intentioned, I strongly believe in less government. I vetoed 750 bills as governor because I abhor the government spending money on programs that show no improvement in our lives and criminalize actions that do not warrant criminalization.”
After a short-lived run for the Republican nomination for president in 2011, Johnson switched his party affiliation to Libertarian and went on to win the Libertarian Party’s nomination for president in 2012. In a statement describing his decision to leave the Republican Party, he said, “It was difficult because I have a lot of Republican history, and a lot of Republican supporters. But in the final analysis, as many, many commentators have said since watching how I governed New Mexico, I am a Libertarian.” In the 2012 general election, Johnson received almost 1 percent of the vote—a total of about 1.2 million votes.
Johnson’s 2016 bid for the presidency has attracted more attention than his 2012 run. In the first two weeks of August 2016, he raised more money ($2.9 million) than in the entirety of his 2012 campaign ($2.3 million). In addition, as the Democratic and Republican nominees have both experienced historically low favorability ratings, Johnson has managed to reach as high as 13 percent in national polls. Much of his campaign has centered on raising that number to 15 percent, which would have allowed him to participate in the general election debates in September and October.
Jill Stein is the 2016 Green nominee for president of the United States. She declared her candidacy on June 22, 2015, and officially received the nomination of the Green Party on August 6, 2016, at the Green Party National Convention.
For a decade, Stein was a fixture in Massachusetts state politics, running unsuccessful campaigns for state representative in 2004, secretary of the commonwealth in 2006, and governor in 2002 and 2010. She previously ran for president in 2012, winning her party’s nomination and securing 0.36 percent of the popular vote in the general election.
By trade, Stein is a physician who practiced internal medicine for 25 years. Although Stein retired in 2005, she has frequently cited her professional background as a driving force for her entering the political arena in her 50s. She explained in one interview, “Now, I say I’m practicing political medicine instead of clinical medicine because it’s the mother of all illnesses and we’ve got to fix this political disease so we can get down to fixing the things that threaten life, limb and even survival. That includes war, poverty and climate change, as well as our physical health.”
She supports progressive policy positions that would move “from the greed and exploitation of corporate capitalism to a human-centered economy that puts people, planet and peace over profit,” according to her campaign website. At the center of Stein’s platform is the adoption of a “Green New Deal,” which would seek to create millions of new jobs and improve infrastructure, agriculture, and conservation in the United States.
On August 1, 2016, Stein announced that she had selected human rights advocate Ajamu Baraka to be her running mate. She described him as an “activist, writer, intellectual and organizer with a powerful voice, vision, and lifelong commitment to building true political revolution.”
Stein has typically received between 1 percent and 5 percent support in national polls in 2016. Under rules promulgated by the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD), to qualify to participate in a presidential debate, a candidate must reach 15 percent support in an average of five selected national polls. Stein has said the CPD “is a thinly disguised scheme to protect the two establishment parties from competition” and called on Hillary Clinton (D) and Donald Trump (R) to demand that she and Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson be allowed to join the debates.
Much has been said in the media regarding Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton but there is still a lot of recent developments that voters do not know about the republican and democratic party nominees; Mainly, information surrounding Hillary Clinton’s private server email woes, and accusations of sexual abuse against Donald Trump. Some of the latest developments in the Clinton email saga are outlined in FBI director James Comey’s letter to congress. Comey explains the reason he contacted congress regarding the emails in a letter to FBI employees. The contents of that letter are below:
To all:
This morning I sent a letter to Congress in connection with the Secretary Clinton email investigation. Yesterday, the investigative team briefed me on their recommendation with respect to seeking access to emails that have recently been found in an unrelated case. Because those emails appear to be pertinent to our investigation, I agreed that we should take appropriate steps to obtain and review them.
Of course, we don’t ordinarily tell Congress about ongoing investigations, but here I feel an obligation to do so given that I testified repeatedly in recent months that our investigation was completed. I also think it would be misleading to the American people were we not to supplement the record. At the same time, however, given that we don’t know the significance of this newly discovered collection of emails, I don’t want to create a misleading impression. In trying to strike that balance, in a brief letter and in the middle of an election season, there is significant risk of being misunderstood, but I wanted you to hear directly from me about it.
The RNC responded to Comey’s letter with the following press release:
WASHINGTON – Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Reince Priebus released the following statement on newly released emails showing Hillary Clinton’s unsecure private server was subject to ten hacking attempts over a two day period in 2010:
“These previously unknown hacking attempts against Hillary Clinton’s unsecure secret server leaves no doubt she put highly sensitive national security information at risk to hostile foreign actors,” said RNC Chairman Reince Priebus. “The fact this is only coming to light a week before the election under court order is the direct result of her and her cronies’ deletion of thousands of emails in an attempt to cover up this criminal conspiracy. For Hillary Clinton and her inner circle, covering up her corrupt dealings as secretary of state was more important than coming clean about this dangerous scheme that jeopardized national security and sensitive diplomatic efforts. Clinton has no one but herself to blame for these new revelations. Her reckless decision to set up this server in the first place and her dishonest attempts to avoid accountability have rendered her unfit to be our next president.”
The DNC responded to Comey’s letter with the following press release:
WASHINGTON – DNC Interim Chair Donna Brazile issued the following statement:
“FBI Director Comey unequivocally cleared Hillary Clinton of any intentional wrongdoing three months ago, and said that no reasonable prosecutor would pursue the case in question further. Now, 11 days away from the election, he released a vague letter that immediately led to rampant speculation in the news media. This would be an irresponsible action at any time and, unsurprisingly, Donald Trump and Republicans are rushing to politicize this episode without any of the facts.
“The FBI has a solemn obligation to remain neutral in political matters – even the faintest appearance of using the agency’s power to influence our election is deeply troubling. At the very least, Director Comey must immediately address the serious outstanding questions over what, precisely his letter means, and what action or actions his agency plans to take.”
Regarding Donald Trump
Several people have stepped forward, according to reports, to support a woman who accused Donald Trump of inappropriate sexual behavior towards her when she was 13. There story is developing and has ties to billionaire convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
Almost 2 billion dollars has been spent thus far between the two campaigns trying their best to make the candidates palatable to the American voters. If the results of a past presidential election 72 years ago between two New Yorkers, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Thomas Dewey, is any indication, American voters may just decide to choose the “Devil” they know.