Buttrick v. Root

Hat tip to Mike Renzulli (via the LP Radicals list) and Freedom's Phoenix, which just posted video of a speech given by Maricopa County, Arizona Superior Court Judge John Buttrick at the 2009 "Freedom Summit."

What qualifies Buttrick to opine on the future of the Libertarian Party? Well, he's a Libertarian. He's been a party activist for decades. That should be plenty, but there's more -- in November of 2008, he got more votes for retention as a judge in one single Arizona county than the LP's presidential ticket got nationwide.

Buttrick's speech was supposed to be a debate with Wayne Allyn Root -- the Libertarian Party's 2008 vice-presidential candidate, failed CEO, and candidate for chairmanship of the Libertarian National Committee.

Root ducked the event. Smart move. Watch the speech if you want to know why. Buttrick's talk begins about nine minutes in, but the extended intro by Ernie Hancock is worth a listen, too.



Update, 02/04/10: Wow ... I actually stopped listening to this video at the end of Judge Buttrick's formal speech and skipped the Q&A. Bruce Cohen clued me in to the fact that I'm mentioned in the Q&A and that Judge Buttrick wrote in the Boston Tea Party's 2008 presidential ticket -- presidential candidate Charles Jay and Arizona "favorite son" VP nominee Barry Hess (I was the BTP's national VP nominee and appeared on the ballot in Tennessee). Very, very cool -- and I agree with his comments on the BTP in general, by the way.