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I haven't given up on Smith -- in fact, I think she's the perfect candidate for the LP right now. We need someone who is going to grow the party laterally -- reaching out to women, minorities, gay people, and young people... all of whom are underrepresented in the LP.
We also need someone who will grow the party horizontally -- reaching out to people who don't participate in the political process (or have given up on it) because of Democratic and Republican corruption. This is the demographic that Sheehan has tapped quite effectively, and we certainly have a relevant message here.
Christine is also going to be campaigning heavily in the Bay Area as part of her run-up to our Denver convention. If you're interested in supporting her, I'd sign up for her newsletter updates, and think of sending her a donation (all the LP candidates need cash right now).
I wouldn't mistake silence for a lack of momentum. In fact, I personally think Christine will be on the LP radar months after the Ron Paul-GOP has come to its inevitable catastrophic flame-out conclusion. We'll need her energy and optimism when the doom-and-gloomers complain that the world is ending because Paul lost the nomination. Growing the party also ensures that the doom-and-gloom stuff represents an increasingly small portion of the party -- another thing that doesn't hurt us in the long run.
Cheers,
Brian
eric dupree <dupreeconsults@...> wrote:
With all due respect for Paul and Sheenan's bid, I'm wondering why there's no discusion on Smith.
Is it that with all Paul's success the LP has all but given up on Smith.
That makes it hard on future LP candidates.
When I talk to other alternative party people they are always montioning their person.
All this makes me more interested in Smith as I'm one to vote the party ticket and so far Paul and Sheenan is not on it!
She's working hard....I sent her a check and she personally called to
thank me last night. That's and her message is reason enough to keep
working with her. She cares.
Mike
I finally spoke with Christine Smith recently after meaning to call her for a long time. She said she's been to four LP conventions (New Mexico and San Diego among them, can't recall the others), and is hoping to soon attend the Illinois state convention. I was somewhat surprised she hadn't been to more, but I'm not sure how many state LP conventions have taken place yet this year, or how many the other contenders have managed to attend. She said she wants to come back to California including to San Francisco, possibly in the first week of November. I said we'd be happy to have her, and in response to her general pitch for a donation, offered $50 toward her flight if she comes out here and to let her crash at my place if she wants (she didn't offer to take me up on that). She said she was excited about trying to reach out to non-traditional LP constituencies, although recognizing that she needed to focus most pre-nomination on Libertarians who will be going to the 2008 convention in Denver.
Christine seemed to share my good opinion of Steve Kubby and not as favorable opinion of the other candidates for the LP presidential nomination, but said that she would not accept the vice-presidential slot if Kubby was the nominee. When I said I'd ask Steve the same question, she reported that Kubby has said that he would potentially accept the vice-presidential slot, which I had not heard. I think we could do a lot worse than a Smith-Kubby ticket, but at the same time I think that candidates who are more willing to play a supporting role deserve more credit for that flexibility and demonstrated lack of egoism than candidates who are not as flexible.
I'd heard that like Kubby, Christine Smith is committed to radical libertarian values, and nothing she said to me was at odds with that. Knowing that she is on the Outright Libertarians list and is for legal equality, I asked her orientation, and she said she's heterosexual. I told her I was impressed by that, as it spoke well of her making GLBTQ rights a strong priority. I read her the 5 Key Values of the Grassroots Libertarians Caucus (see http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GrassrootsLibertarians/ ), and she said they sounded good to her but wanted to see them in writing and asked for an invite to the group as well. She reported that her political background included starting out as a Republican, then switching to Democrat, and since a year and a half ago, Libertarian. She said that people had long been telling her that she sounded libertarian, asking her if she'd checked out Harry Browne, etc. She said she hasn't been to a national convention before. While she doesn't have Steve Kubby's length of attachment to the LP, or record of previously having run for any lower office (CA governor in his case), she does seem to have the passion and fire of the recently converted, which is a good thing. She spoke of the importance of fighting for the party, and expressed dismay at the attempts to moderate the party's stances in order to broaden its appeal, saying it was the radical ideas which had attracted her.
Love & Liberty,
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