Johnson stumbles into the spotlight
Libertarian candidate makes Aleppo gaffe on morning show
Tribune News Service
Libertarian presidential nominee Gary Johnson has doggedly sought the spotlight in his long-shot presidential bid, but on Thursday he got an unwelcome jolt of notoriety when he blanked on the name of Aleppo, a city at the heart of the protracted and bloody war in Syria.
The gaffe, which was instantly and widely mocked, threatened to taint Johnson’s still-unformed reputation among most voters and undermine his effort to establish himself as a viable option to the two major parties’ historically unpopular nominees.
“The question is, does this become the one thing that people know about him?” said David Boaz, executive vice president of the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank.
The episode also exposed the limitations of Johnson’s quirky persona as he tries to woo voters from Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton. And it came at a particularly crucial time as Johnson seeks a spot in the three presidential debates, a milestone that would offer an immense credibility boost to his candidacy and the Libertarian Party as a whole.
The former Republican governor of New Mexico, Johnson has an awkwardly affable mien that is well-suited to discussions of his extreme athletic pursuits or recently halted recreational use of marijuana, but he has proved less adept at offering crisp, specific answers on policy.
Such was the case Thursday morning, when Johnson was asked on MSNBC what, as president, he would do about Aleppo.
Johnson clearly appeared at a loss by the query.
“What is Aleppo?” Johnson asked, prompting his interviewer to ask if he was kidding.
When told of the city’s significance in the Syrian conflict, he tried again to answer the question, advocating for the U.S. to work with Russia to find a diplomatic solution. He also made a broader point against foreign entanglements.