Libertarians visit Philly to promote ‘brainy Bill, honest Gary’ as presidential alternative

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Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson (center) and his running mate William Weld (left) speak with Sirius XM radio host Michael Smerconish during a forum at the National Constitution Center. (Emma Lee/WHYY)

Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson (center) and his running mate William Weld (left) speak with Sirius XM radio host Michael Smerconish during a forum at the National Constitution Center. (Emma Lee/WHYY)

The Libertarian candidates for president and vice president were in Philadelphia Monday touting the ticket as “brainy Bill, honest Gary … that’s our pitch.”

Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson made the pitch at the National Constitution Center with his running mate, former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld, during a town hall broadcast on Sirius-XM satellite radio. 

Johnson has described himself as a fiscal conservative, a social liberal and a non-interventionist in foreign policy.

Weld said a vote for the Libertarian team in November would not be a wasted effort.”The reason we think we really do have a shot of winning the whole thing is that we represent a mix of policy views that is shared by 60 percent of the people in the United States,” he said.If the Libertarian candidates are allowed to participate in the upcoming debates, Johnson said, their name recognition could soar.”We’re believing we can still win this race and by ‘can still,’ we’ve always believed that from the very start,” said the former governor of New Mexico. “And it does start with the fact that Trump and Clinton are so polarizing.”So far, the candidates are not scheduled to be in the debates.

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