Former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura is at the center of presidential political chatter again. This morning CNN has been promoting an upcoming interview with Ventura that leans heavily on his potential candidacy.
What’s still unclear to me is how Ventura would actually run for president. As an independent? On the Unity ’08 ticket? Libertarian? He’s not running as a Green. Unless he has ballot access through an existing party he would have to gather a couple million petition signatures across all 50 states to get on the ballot. That’s what leads me to believe that this is just a book tour promotion and that by summer we won’t hear much more about Ventura ’08.
Jesse Ventura is a curious character in Minnesota political history. Bear in mind that I was one of those “young kids” who, in a moment of frustration, voted for Ventura back in 1998. I was ultimately disappointed in his term of office, but mostly because he wasted a unique opportunity to be a strong non-partisan governor. Instead he focused on his own self-promotion and a very limited agenda. Still, it is worth noting that Jesse Ventura did EXACTLY what he said he would do as governor. It wasn’t pretty, but it was remarkable.
I don’t think Jesse was all that bad as a governor. He managed to not screw things up, unlike a certain current gov and his administration.