Richmond --

This is what happens when you're a third-party candidate for president of the United States:

You show up for a political event in a jacket and jeans wearing a T-shirt with a "Peace" sign. You have no Secret Service protection just four guys crammed with you in a Hyundai Sonata. You are not afraid to directly answer questions from your audience. You're happy just to have an audience.

Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson, a former two-term governor of New Mexico, came to Richmond on Thursday to speak to students at the Maggie Walker Governor's School and, later, at nearby Virginia Commonwealth University.

Johnson, 59, was an early aspirant in the GOP presidential nominating process. He participated in two debates before essentially being ignored by the party establishment and not invited to further debates by major media and debate organizers.

So he decided to take his Ron Paul-like political populism to the Libertarian Party, which has him on the ballot in 48 states and, according to some polls, pulling up to 5 percent of the vote nationwide, support that advisers believe draws equally from both parties.

"I would not be standing here before you if I didn't think I was qualified to do this job," Johnson said. He described his rise from a one-man handyman service in college to the head of a business that employed 1,000 people and, later, his successful long-shot rookie run as a Republican for governor of New Mexico, where he prevailed in the Democratic-leaning state and served two terms from 1995 to 2003. "It's amazing what can happen in your life if you show up on time and do what you say you're going to do."

Here is the truth according to Johnson:

On Americans: "I think the majority of Americans in the country are fiscally responsible and socially accepting."

On the economy: "Abolish the income tax, the corporate tax, eliminate the IRS and replace all of that with one federal consumption tax," says Johnson, who said he would balance the federal budget by reducing Medicare costs and military spending.

Originally posted here:

Libertarian presidential nominee visits Richmond