I've never understood all the paranoia about Gary Johnson.
I think his intent has always been to help the liberty movement and generally to help, or at least do no harm, to Ron Paul.
I think where people go astray is they presume that anyone who Gary appeals to, Ron would also automatically appeal to. But Gary does have a few different positions, especially on the key wedge issue of abortion -- Gary's position on abortion plays much better with the democratic crossover we seek. Also, a lot of people aren't policy-smart and it's all cult of personality, and Gary's personality appeals to a lot of people Ron's doesn't.
So people get all pissed off that Gary appears to be running a serious campaign...well what else was he supposed to do, run a fake campaign?
Meanwhile, forget about the small % of voters he draws...even if that's a negative and even if Gary's original plan wasn't to drop out of the GOP race before the first caucuses, consider Gary's larger plan. He's said repeatedly that his original hope was to be in the debates with Ron so that the liberty message would be "in stereo" (his words) and it would be harder for the establishment to paint Ron's positions as crazy as they did in 2008. Unfortunately that didn't work because he was kept out of the debates but I think we can all agree that would have been, and would still be, very helpful to Dr. Paul.
Having two real libertarians in the race ought to be a good thing. And especially given the proportional delegates business...that would allow Gary to collect delegates up until the end and then drop out and direct his delegates to Ron. (I think)
Second, some of you don't take Ron seriously when he says he's not interested in a third party run. Maybe he'd do it, maybe he wouldn't. But meanwhile we have a backup candidate ready to roll if Ron's GOP bid doesn't pan out. And remember, just because Ron doesn't run, doesn't mean he won't be involved! Imagine Gary running a third party campaign and Ron informally campaigning on Gary's behalf and helping to galvanize the RP supporters toward Gary's candidacy.
Also, as someone else pointed out, having Gary on the LP ticket NOW gives Ron a way to turn the third party spoiler fears on their head -- now there will be a libertarian third party candidate whether Ron Paul runs or not.
Also, of course, there's other wildcards like Americans Elect and an independent run by Trump. Who knows how those factor in or split the general election vote.
And then there's Roseanne Barr
But I think, look, I know a lot of us aren't fans of the LP (myself included), but they've got ballot access in all 50 states and unlike Americans Elect only liberty-promoting candidates can run (or LINOS like Bob Barr)...
So in closing let me simply say: everything's going to be fine...