Nolan Chart chooses Jesse Ventura as Ron Paul’s successor

Could Jesse Ventura win the White House as a Libertarian nominee? I’d say no way, but Jeff Wrobel at Nolan Chart believes he can.

In the spirit of Dr. Paul’s request, it is time to choose his successor. It’s time to choose a candidate who can avoid the pitfalls of the Ron Paul candidacy. As discussed in a previous NolanChart article, Paul’s followers should sponsor a moderate libertarian celebrity for president. In the following mathematical model, I will prove that if Paul’s supporters place Jesse Ventura on the ballot, he will be the next president of the United States.

First: an introduction for those unfamiliar with Jesse Ventura. He’s 56 years old and is a former Navy Seal. He became famous as Jesse “The Body” Ventura in the World Wrestling Federation. He used his success there to become an actor. His most famous role was as a member of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s crack commando team in the movie Predator, where he uttered his most memorable line: “I ain’t got time to bleed.” In 1998 he ran (as Jesse “The Mind” Ventura) against very well-known candidates, Republican Norm Coleman and Democrat Hubert Humphrey III, for governor of Minnesota — and Ventura won!

Jesse Ventura could be placed at about the center of the Libertarian quadrant of the Nolan Chart. He describes himself as “fiscally conservative and socially liberal”. Like most libertarians he supports a smaller government in general, lower taxes, gay rights, medicinal marijuana, instant-runoff voting, opposes helmet and seatbelt laws, opposes the use of the National Guard overseas, and opposed the teachers union. In a few areas he disagrees with pure libertarians; for instance, he approves of well-funded government-run lower education and government-run public transportation.

Ventura can avoid most of the troubles that befell Ron Paul. First, Ventura is taken somewhat seriously by the media since he has actually served in a high public executive office (as both a mayor and governor) and has considerable media experience with his own radio and TV talk shows. Second, and most importantly, he is not as radical a libertarian as Ron Paul, so he’ll appeal more to liberals, centrists, and conservatives. Third, he is not nearly as old as Ron Paul, has an imposing 6′ 4″ frame, and (no disrespect to the very honorable Dr. Paul) has a fair deal of charisma.

You can read the entire article, including his mathematical predictions, here.

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A Libertarian Nader?

What happened
Former Georgia congressman Bob Barr, a Republican-turned-Libertarian, has launched an exploratory committee to run for president on the Libertarian Party ticket. Barr, one of the managers of the impeachment proceedings against then-president Bill Clinton, left office in 2003. Former Democratic Sen. Mike Gravel, who joined the Libertarian Party after dropping his long-shot bid for the Democratic nomination, is also angling to top the ticket when Libertarians pick their nominee in May. (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

What the commentators said
Barr envisions his run as “an extension of Representative Ron Paul’s campaign,” said Sarah Wheaton in The New York Times’ The Caucus blog (free registration). And if he does better than Paul at “pulling votes from disaffected conservatives,” a Barr candidacy could be bad news for Republican nominee John McCain.

Barr could in fact “throw the election—to John McCain,” said Daniel McCarthy in The American Conservative. The average disaffected Republican “has already pretty much made up his or her mind (in some cases without even knowing it) not to vote for the Republican nominee” in November. But Barr could “devastate” Barack Obama by luring away a small but important number of “Obamacons,” or Republicans and “Libertarians who might have reluctantly voted for Obama.” Barr would offer them a new, “honorable alternative.”

Barr will “almost certainly not” be “the Ralph Nader of 2008,” for either party, said Reihan Salam in The Atlantic’s The Current blog. But he “may well change the face of national politics for years to come,” if he can keep the Paul-inspired “youthful activists” energized. He would probably still be a “a fairly loyal Bush Republican” if he hadn’t lost his congressional seat in 2002 and then become “radicalized” over the “erosion of civil liberties.” Now he’s poised to tap into the re-emergent strains of “populist and nationalist currents” that have emerged with the “fragmentation of the political right.”