An Inconvenient Libertarian Video Clip William Weld Doesn’t Want You to Watch

As you will see in this video, Bill Weld stated with no hesitation or doubt that he’d run for Governor of New York even if he didn’t get the Republican nomination.

Q: I want to make sure that you are going to stick through to this to the end, no matter what threats you get from the Republican Party. And by the way, will you run even if you don’t get the Republican Party nomination?

Weld: Yes and yes.

As we reported earlier today, Weld dropped the race. Here’s how ABC News covered it:

Former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld dropped out of the race for governor of New York on Tuesday, averting a potentially bruising and expensive primary for the Republican nomination.

“I do think there’s a time to look beyond your aspirations for the bigger picture,” Weld said. “This is not a time for a contested primary.”

The move came days after the state GOP establishment threw its support to Weld’s rival, former state Assembly Minority Leader John Faso. If Weld had stayed in the race, he would have faced Faso in a primary in September.

Please pardon the Clintonism, but it depends on what the meaning of the word ‘yes’ is. Props.

posted Jun 6th, 2006 by Stephen Gordon
  • http://www.libertyforsale.com Timothy West

    The decision the NYLP made was still correct. It was strategic – if the deal had came through they would have gained much and lost little.

    There’s one other item. I think Weld realized that he was not going to get 50,000 vottes running only as a libertarian candidate, therefore he couldn’t be of benefit to the NYLP in any case.

    After knowing about his support of a stadium deal using ED however, I’ll never support him for anything again, nd I wouldnt have supported him preconvention if I had known. That’s not acceptable to even a moderate guy like me. There are certain things any kind of libertarian does not advocate and ED for private gain is one of them.

  • blowmedown

    Gee, a lying politician. Now *there’s* a novelty…

    -BM

  • http://www.caucusscandal.com Rolf Lindgren

    Weld guy is a weasal, welcher, a welder, a republicrat.

    He had me fooled.

  • Stuart Richards

    You’re not the only one, Rolf.

    Fuck Weld. I can’t believe I stuck up for him.

  • DAP

    Wow. Make sure that Weld sees a copy of this.

  • http://www.freedomrings.net/ John Teschky

    “The decision the NYLP made was still correct. It was strategic – if the deal had came through they would have gained much and lost little.”

    Some people, perhaps with a bit more practical political experience, thought that the decision was dangerous from the beginning. Career politicians are one-way opportunists, especially when you have nothing tangible to offer them in the way of a “deal.”

    Like Skinner in Illinois, Weld gained some media exposure from his short-term LP affiliation (the only thing the LP could really offer him.) Like the IL LP, the NYLP gained nothing.

    At least the NYLP didn’t lose as much as the IL LP did with it’s Skinner fantasy.

  • Adamson

    I thought the decision was wrong from day one, and I still do. Weld brought nothing to the LP table. Those who think the LP should hitch their cart to a celebrity horse need look no further than the Green & Reform Parties to see what can go desperately wrong.

  • jnice

    Didn’t the NYLP already learn this lesson with Howard Stern years ago?

  • Graham

    Oh well. The point is if he had managed to get the 50,000 it would have been huge. Ballot Access is a major obstacle for Libertarians. Its a lot easier to get those votes with a celebrity..and then they just go away and you build for the next cycle. You use and you get used. And when you are using someone, dont be surprised when they dump you.

  • Adamson

    Interestingly enough, I’ve read six different news stories today about Weld dropping out, and not a single one of them mentioned that he’d gotten the Libertarian endorsement. That’s how significant the LP is to the media – and BTW, to Weld.

  • disinter

    Alright, where is LibertyMix?

  • http://www.dubaitravels.net Robert Nanders

    This is very discouraging, but like Adamson says, the LP doesn’t matter to the mainstream media – which, I think many would agree, is anything but mainstream in any sense other than their general control over information dissemination…

  • http://www.thirdpartywatch.com Austin Cassidy

    It’s kind of disturbing to me that LP activists are calling Weld a celebrity candidate.

  • http://libertarianyouth.blogspot.com Nigel Watt

    What a fucking bastard. Fucking assrabbit goes after some publicity, jokes around, then is too scared to get kicked in the nuts come November. I want to buy a bronze foot for him and tell himself to repeatedly ram it in his crotch, to make sure he doesn’t spawn any more lying cockweasels.

  • George Whitfield

    I am disappointed in William Weld as I was hoping that he would stick with the LP and campaign no matter what, but I suppose his seeking the LP’s endorsement was just a temporary alliance for him. I am glad I didn’t contribute to Weld’s campaign, that would have been a waste of my money.

  • Devious David

    Certain people here sound like Republican talk show hosts with Bush when he does something that they ferociously lambasted Clinton for doing. It’s all apologies, excuses and tenuous explanations. Cognitive dissonance and simple embarrassment prevents these people from admitting that they were wrong, that their position flew in the face of all reason, especially when the most controversial and hated persons were right and took a lot of flack for it when it was an unpopular stance.

  • nsarwark

    Weld has made an major error that should terminate his political career. It’s known and accepted in politics that you can lie to the voters and get away with it. You make campaign promises, then the realities of governing make those promises impractical to fulfill. No big deal.

    Lying to supporters is a much bigger problem, similar to lying to opponents once you’ve been elected. Making political deals requires that a person’s word be his bond, especially since most political deals are made quietly in backrooms between people who maybe shouldn’t be seen together in public.

    Should Weld have promised to run even if he didn’t get the Republican nomination? Maybe not. But the fact is that he did and he broke that promise. As long as potential supporters remember that in the future, Weld’s career is over.

  • http://www.shamema.com Sam Sloan

    I an very glad that somebody has posted this clip. I am the speaker whose voice you hear asking the question and I was afraid that his answer had not been captured.

    Sam Sloan

  • vforvandyke

    What sucks is that Weld’s lie effectively puts the kibosh on libertarians nominating other Republican and Democrat candidates. I am especially angry at Weld because this could have been a useful strategy for us to get people into office that we actually have rope around on policy issues.

    At this point we’ll probabaly have to wait for an oppo party politician to do the post-election party flip before we can ever take them seriously for actually backing.

    Either that or have a candidate who will pledge X amount of money should they terminate their campaign without just cause (unlikely).

  • http://libertarianyouth.blogspot.com Nigel Watt

    There was once a sleazebag from Smithtown
    Whose principles were pretty far down
    But he could get press
    And he said yes and yes
    But then he went and skipped town.

  • http://www.phillies2008.org George Phillies

    Weld ran for governor of Massachusetts. He promised to serve if elected. He instead quit in mid-term.

    He was thus a known liar to his fellow politicians.

    Nothing surprising happened here, in terms of Weld’s behavior.

  • Sandra Kallander

    Natural Selection favors politicians who say what you want to hear. Whose fault is that?

  • http://www.HelpMeImpeachBush.com Help Me Impeach Bush
  • blowmedown

    “Natural Selection favors politicians who say what you want to hear. Whose fault is that?”

    The sniper instructors?

    -BM

  • blowmedown

    “Some people, perhaps with a bit more practical political experience, thought that the decision was dangerous from the beginning. Career politicians are one-way opportunists, especially when you have nothing tangible to offer them in the way of a ‘deal.’”

    I watched Murray Sabrin run for Governor on the LP ticket here in NJ a few years back. So I’ve seen how ugly it gets when principles are sacrificed to suck up to some retreaded sleaze sack whose only motivation is to wield power over others, no matter what tactics or affiliations are required…

    -BM

  • TerryP

    It stinks that he didn’t keep his word but to be quite honest we were using him more than he was using us. We wanted him for the media attention and chance at getting ballot access. What was he going to get from us? A few votes. The LP’s affiliation with him probably hurt him more than it hurt us. In fact I can’t see how it hurt us at all. We got media attention that we sorely needed and possibly if the party used this attention they were able to help some of their other candidates, promote liberty, and show a lot more people what libertarians value. In fact we may have even won a few converts. Without him we would have had no media attention, no opportunity to promote liberty to a wider audience, and very little chance of winning over more people to the libertarian party, and still get 1-2% of the vote.

    What did we lose? Probably the worst thing is that now we may not try to do the same thing in the future with a different but better candidate w/o sacrificing principles.

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