How Gary Johnson Turned His Aleppo Gaffe Into A Pretty Good Day

Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson made a major gaffe today on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” He was asked by columnist Mike Barnacle what he would do about Aleppo, which is a war-ravaged city in Syria. Johnson asked Barnacle “what is Aleppo?”

Not exactly a reassuring demonstration of competence by Johnson in that clip. Although his answer on what do about Syria was not bad once he learned about Aleppo.

Although it should be pointed out that the Syrian people took up arms against Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad not because the CIA urged them to but because Assad violently cracked down on peaceful protests in 2011. But it certainly is true that the U.S. has backed regime change in Syria.

Instead of papering over his mistake, Gary Johnson owned up to it. First in a statement

Then in an interview with Bloomberg’s Mark Halprin.

Finally in an interview on “The View.”

Gary Johnson’s responses humanized him and even boosted his profile to the country. He comes off as something that neither Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump are, a fundamentally decent and honest man. I think this gaffe will help Johnson in the end.

Johnson needs to do his homework though. He really needs to invest in some policy advisers. He also needs to work on explaining his views a little bit better.

Gary Johnson is polling anywhere from 7-12% which is pretty good for a 3rd party candidate. Much of that is because of how repulsive Clinton and Trump are to the average American. Johnson just solidified his case as the decent and honorable man in this race and that’s enough this year.

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