Well blow me down.

This morning Gary Johnson was on the 1787 Radio Network.  I didn't catch the front of the show, but will go through the entire thing later when it pops up as a podcast.

But, Gary Johnson effectively walked back from his claim at the Orlando Libertarian Convention in which he said "Nobody committed any crimes" in relationship to the financial collapse.  Now he says he believes that there may have been crimes, and they should absolutely be investigated and, if evidence is present, prosecuted.

And while he claimed he was "misquoted" (rather than simply saying "I was wrong", which would be more accurate -- anyone who was actually there and saw not only the performance, in context, but in addition witnessed Rob Harrington confront him on the floor immediately after the debate -- where he reiterated what he had said on-stage -- could not possibly believe that my often-used clip was a misquote) the fact remains that a position change is in fact a change in position.

More-importantly I heard a not-full-throated, but at least weak, support for One Dollar of Capital -- and/or it's half-blood (even if rather pretty) sister, Glass-Steagall.

This, if you recall, was something that I reported that Gary rejected out of hand while I was in his suite in Orlando, asking him this very question.

Governor Johnson doesn't appear to yet "get it" that implementing this standard is not about "new regulation" (which I suspect is what makes him uncomfortable with it, along with some other Libertarians) -- it is about prohibiting fraud in the form of effective counterfeiting of the nation's currency.

Is this enough for me to issue a full-throated endorsement?  Not yet; the two remaining places that I believe the Libertarian Party must address are:

• The medical system must have removed the cost-shifts and mandates that are forcing costs higher.  I've written on this repeatedly; you cannot fix medical entitlements as the problem doesn't lie there -- the medical entitlement mess is a symptom rather than a cause.  EMTALA must be repealed and the laws protecting the medical industry that allow it to effectively extort 2, 3, 5 or even 10 times as much money form one patient as another simply based on how they're paying must go away.  The market will fix the problem if the market is allowed to work (you'll never be able to sell a drug for $2 in Canada and $20 here if I can buy it in Canada and bring it across the border, selling it for $2.50!)
  
  
• The withdrawal from our military adventurism is largely about protecting energy access.  Therefore, if we stop that (and we must, both for ethical and financial reasons) we must at the same time address the energy problem or our economy will instantly collapse.  I've also written on this repeatedly and there are solutions.  We can implement them.  Gary Johnson and the Libertarian Party doesn't appear to understand this connection, or if they do, they're unable to articulate both the connection and that we can resolve it.

But the more I hear, the more it appears that Governor Johnson is figuring it out.   And while I disagree with Gary Johnson on the "gay marriage" issue (the correct and Libertarian solution is to remove the government from marriage entirely, not "insert" it into yet more people's lives!) that's a secondary issue -- the primary ones, from my perspective (and in my view the issues that will decide the election) are economic.

Gary has come to understand that deficit spending cannot continue; doing so will lead to a bond market and economic collapse. 

I actually heard him say that in plain English, on the air.

From an understanding of what's actually happening and will come all else, if you are intelligent, will ultimately follow once you put sufficient thought into the scope of the problem.

The tide is turning.... and so is my view on Gary Johnson -- in the favorable direction.