Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Barack Obama is Winning Reelection on Facebook, But Who is Gary Johnson?

In the real world, President Barack Obama faces a tough fight to win reelectionin 2012. Or maybe not. On Facebook, Barack Obama continues to build on the commanding lead he had when I first counted in January.

CandidateFriends on 1/16/2011Friends on 3/16/2011
Barack Obama17,822,15218,632,331
Joe Biden271,971274,670
   
Sarah Palin2,606,5862,777,509
Mitt Romney751,391814,705
Mike Huckabee522,079541,409
Ron Paul307,493307,495
Michele Bachmann150,467187,433
Donald Trump146,866184,512
Jim DeMint127,177129,848
Bobby Jindal121,977122,353
Newt Gingrich100,489113,269
Gary Johnson-110,466
Rand Paul-105,001
John Thune74,75474,837
Tim Pawlenty69,98573,135
Scott Walker-61,527
Paul Ryan50,90856,496
Herman Cain42,28955,720
Rick Perry51,45552,180
Mike Pence45,92347,712
Mitch Daniels39,41344,528
Chris Christie29,38833,990
Mike Bloomberg29,86230,344
Haley Barbour16,85417,459
Rick Santorum12,21113,252
Jimmy McMillan-8,362
John Bolton5,1705,658
Jeb Bush4,8415,027
Rudy Giuliani1,8912,194
Jon Huntsman-1,555
Fred Karger681826
Jon Greenspon581584
Buddy Roemer-570
   
Total Obama-Biden Friends18,094,123
18,907,001
Total Republican Friends5,310,731
5,979,951

I counted every Republican hopeful, wishful, wistful, or wasteful and even in the aggregate they don't have enough friends to unseat Barack Obama.

Of course it is too soon for this, but it is worth seeing where each candidate starts. Herman Cain did move up two notches from January, and Paul Ryan and Chris Christie each moved up one notch.

But who is Gary Johnson? I hadn't even been watching him until I noticed a suprising following that puts him at #9 on the Republican list, just a notch below the much better known New Gingrich and above a host of politicians giving the race serious consideration.

Turns out that Gary Johnson was Governor of New Mexico from 1995 to 2003. More recently he has been leading a political advocacy group called Our America Initiative.



Gary Johnson got his start as a door-to-door handyman, then started his own construction business, Big J Enterprises, which he grew into a multi-million dollar corporation that employed over 1,000 people.

"Good government is easy," Gary Johnson says. His method is a quiet but emphatic "just say no" with 750 vetoes on his belt in 8 years as governor. Only 2 of those vetoes were overridden.

Update: Red-meat conservatives won't find much to their taste on Gary Johnson's blog, at the Huffington Post, although the Other McCain thinks Gary is cool.

Update 3/25/2011: Added Rand Paul.

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