Linc Chafee files to run for president on Libertarian Party line
Who? You must be new around here.
Readers of Legal Insurrection know who Linc Chafee is.
For several years we covered the once-upon-a-time Republican Senator (in a seat he inherited from his father), and Independent former Governor of Rhode Island, is quirky, to put it mildly.
As I noted in 2012, Linc Chafee, Rhode Island’s Independent In Name Only Man:
The long suffering people of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations elected Linc Chafee Governor in 2010, on the Independent line.
When Chafee was a Republican Senator, he was ranked as the No. 1 RINO by Human Events. Chafee lost his reelection bid in 2006 to Sheldon Whitehouse.
In 2010, Chafee ran for Governor and eked out a win in a three way race beating the Republican candidate 36.1% to 33.6%, with the Democrat who famously told Obama to shove his endorsement of Chafee, coming in at 23%.
Since winning, Chafee has governed as expected, out liberaling Democrats on issues like illegal immigration, where he has sought to turn Rhode Island into a sanctuary state.
In 2015, when he announced he was running for president as a Democrat, I asked, Wut? Former RI Senator and Governor Linc Chafee for President?
Chafee’s 2015 run for president was amusing, particularly when he said her Iraq War Vote Disqualifies Hillary.
But Linc didn’t make it very far, in fact, he dropped out before 2015 was over, Don Quijote de la Chafee drops presidential bid:
Lincoln Davenport Chafee, former U.S. Senator and Governor of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Mayor of Cranston, son of the late U.S. Senator John Chafee, and most importantly, farrier extraordinaire, announced this morning that he is abandoning his quest for the Democratic nomination to be President of the United States of America.
His campaign never got off the ground. He did little fundraising, and appeared catatonic during the first Democratic debate.
In hindsight, Chafee assessed what doomed his campaign: He endorsed conversion to the metric system:
Looking back on the primary, are there things you wish you did better?
I guess the big mistake—I went back and forth on including the metric system angle. I was just crossing my fingers there would be some intellectual approach to the various proposals I put out in my announcement speech, which kind of covered the gamut, from ending capital punishment, to bringing Edward Snowden home. Also, I was for TPP. Unfortunately, my crossed fingers didn’t work, and it just turned into more of a joke about metric, not “let’s look at the bigger picture.” I think, and it’s a trend, there’s just less of a Walter Cronkite, I call it, approach to the news. It’s entertainment. Donald Trump, early on, said: I’m just going to push every possible emotional button I can. I don’t care! And he crushed the nomination.
The metric system seems like it works everywhere else.
Canada had it. And I was there when they were doing the transition to it. It’s no big deal!
It could be our undercurrent of anti-European sentiment.
Yup. I was saying, should I put it in or not? My wife said, no, it will be misunderstood. And she was right.
Linc no longer lives in Rhode Island, one of the benefits of our out-migration, but he’s back running for president. Providence station WPRI reports:
Former Gov. Lincoln Chafee is taking steps to make a second run for president, this time under a different party banner.
Chafee filed paperwork with the Federal Elections Commission on Sunday creating a Lincoln Chafee for President campaign committee based in Teton Village, Wyoming, where he and his wife now make their home. A related website indicates he plans to run for the Libertarian Party nomination, as he has previously suggested he might do.
“Thirty Years, Zero Scandals,” the website declares. “Protect Our Freedoms. Tell The Truth. No More Wars. No More Reckless Spending.” The URL he is using, LincolnForLiberty.com, was registered last September by Ballot Access Marketing LLC, a North Carolina consulting firm.
The news may spur concern among Democrats about the possibility Chafee could siphon votes away from their party’s eventual nominee in what is expected to be a tough race against President Trump. The 2016 Libertarian ticket of Gary Johnson and Bill Weld received about 4.5 million votes nationwide. (Weld is now challenging Trump for the GOP nomination.)
Run, Linc, Run!
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Comments
LOL Bill Weld, who said to vote for Hillary, is running for the GOP nomination.
Does he have a tooth? At least Minnesota’s clown, Mark Dayton, has teeth and a lot of money.
Farriers make pretty good money and it is a unique specialty, not an occupation for a millennial or snowflake.
Here’s to Linc’s “excellent winter adventure”, away from RI.
If nothing else, the entertainment value of the 2020 election just increased.
No one will notice another squirrel in the cage! How can he make a bigger fool of himself than the current ones already have?
If he can out-wacky Williamson, he might have a chance!
The Libertarian Party has fallen on hard times. The party allegedly stands for liberty first and foremost, but that is long gone. The present-day Libertarian Party is extremely hostile to civil liberties, especially religious freedom and free speech.
I saw that in 2016 when the Johnson/Weld Libertarian ticket tried to outdo Democrats in wanting to use government power to shut down businesses and jail individuals who opposed homosexual “marriage” on religious grounds. The Libertarian ticket was also all in on draconian regulations and lavish government spending programs to fight global warmi-, er, climate change. So much for economic and personal liberty in the Libertarian Party! “Missing Linc” Chafee fits right in with that mindset.
The Libertarian Party stood for libertarian principles in the 90s. The party was also pro Constitution. Harry Brown, their presidential candidate in 96 was brilliant, steeped in political theory, and principled in his libertarian beliefs. Now the party has morphed into an anti establishment cult of political has beens who have no understanding or belief in libertarian principles.
Agree. I am a registered independent with conservative leanings but always counted myself among kindred spirits with libertarians of the past…not anymore. Collegiate brain washing has warped that group beyond belief.
Harry Browne was a crook, using the campaign to make money for himself and his cronies while spending as little as possible on actual campaigning.
He is being paid to siphon Trump votes.
Won’t work. Might get some dumbass democrat votes though.
I’m wondering what Wyoming did to deserve this asshat as a citizen?
You’ll take my Imperial measurements, Mr. Chafee, when you pry them from my 40 degree Fahrenheit dead hands.
Who thought building a system of measure around base 10 was a good idea? Can’t even divide by 3 without having to truncate asymptotes. (That’s a fancy math jockey way of saying to round up an infinite decimal.)
Actually, Dred, the metric system is the only good thing that came from the French Revolution.It’s of quite immediate understanding, very easy to convert and manage any kind of measures with.
I, too, prefer metric to customary. Customary, I weigh 279. Metric? Only 123.7. FAR healthier that way.
Sorry, but no.
For one thing it’s wrong. Read The Measure Of All Things – it’s about how the kilometer was screwed up. (Because one of the surveyors refused to admit a possible mistake.)
For a second thing, it’s NOT really intuitive. Nothing on my body measures a meter (but I’ve got measures approximating 1″, 4″, 6″, 9″, 12″ and 18″). Temperature…. hoo boy! Fahrenheit is much more intuitive (100° is hot, 30° is not). A gallon is a useful measure – 4 liters is not. Measuring my flour with a cup is much easier than measuring it with a scale.
It IS very handy for certain things (science, for example). But certainly not for everyday human household things.
There are two kinds of countries. The ones that use the metric system and the one that put men on the moon.
… with press releases written in customary measure.;
Just what we need! Another mealy mouth soy boy fossil deluded into thinking someone wants/needs him. Break out the flannel footie pajamas.
He has all the backbone of a tape worm.
Being a farrier is a strange choice. If you are old enough and grew up in Chafee’s Cranston you would remember the sad occasion where John Chafee’s daughter – Linc’s sister – attempted to mount her horse from behind and was kicked in the head, killing her. A horrible accident by any means, and all the more bizarre that her brother would work with the very thing that killed his sister – horse hooves.
Who tries to mount a horse from behind? Even I know that’s not a good idea.
A truly dim bulb.
In what world is Linc Chafee a Libertarian? As a Republican he barely even qualified as a RINO, more like a RBB (Republican By Birth). He’s less of a Libertarian than the pro-gun control and government run health care advocates that headed the Libertarian Ticket in 2016. It’s hard to vote Libertarian when the Libertarian Party doesn’t even know what a Libertarian is.
Good for him. Maybe he can go full Monty and smoke a blunt on stage.
Wow, what a compelling candidate he will be. Just take any contributions that come in, set them on fire and flush ’em down the toilet. The end result will be the same.
We already have the metric system – a blended system.
I think I’ll vote for him just so I can have a “Don’t blame me, I voted for Lincoln” bumper sticker on my car
Long ago, in fifth grade, each child had to a report on a state. My son was unlucky enough to draw Rhode Island. Nothing has happened there since the early 1700. There wasn’t even a Revolutionary War battle fought there.
At least the report was easy to write.
He must be smoking crack. Only one in a thousand voters can even remember who he is, and most of those don’t like him. Soleimani would probably get more votes if he wasn’t already dead.