major source: Independent Political Reporter    May 3, 2010

On Saturday April 24, Libertarian National Committee Chair candidates Ernest Hancock and Wayne Root debated at the LP state convention in Kansas.  9/11, and 9/11 “truth” were brought up a number of times during the debate:

One thing is clear - Wayne Root is scared to talk about 9/11. The arguments Root has presented in this debate only show a lack of courage to address the attacks of 9/11 after almost 10 years. Why are scare tactics the only way to discuss 9/11?  Mr. Root mentions Debra Medina’s campaign failure after talking about 9/11 on the Glenn Beck show as a reason to not elect Ernest Hancock.

Hancock told the audience: “I will not back off from this 9/11 investigation.  Will he?”  Root responded: “Abso-freaking-lutely. I’d run away from it like a train on the tracks. If you want to destroy this Party, name a national chairman who believes that 9/11 was an inside job by the government.”  Hancock rebutted by saying “if we’re not out there telling the Truth on things like 9/11″ then the LP is “not relevant”.

Ernest Hancock has posted videos of the debates. 

Here are links and highlights:

Part 1

• Root: Tea Parties are a unique opportunity for the LP.
• Hancock: I am nothing like the Tea Parties.  Fox News misrepresents them.
• Hancock: The LP was founded for challenging the cult of the omnipotent state, not for winning elections.

Part 2

• Root: A poll of Tea Partiers reported their preferred party is LP.
• Hancock: Libertarianism is already sweeping the country. Get in front of the parade.
• Root: What’s sweeping the country is moderate libertarianism — John Stossel, Glenn Beck.
• Root: Must expand LP beyond white male already-libertarians.

Part 3

• Hancock: Tea Parties are “controlled opposition” and a “psy op”. We suck in Tea Partiers by giving them Obama Deception DVDs.  Beck has already endorsed Mitt Romney for 2012. [IPR fact-check: Beck merely forecast Romney as the only announced Republican who could win in 2012.  Beck had called Romney a "socialist" only a day earlier.]
• Root: Ron Paul appeals to all the demographics I want us to pursue. Mark Rutherford and I “are the adult candidates” who will make the LP relevant again.
• Hancock: parents at my kids’ Christian school were eventually won over by my consistent radicalism.
• Hancock: Candidate training by LPUS? No, just stay out of the way and hold up good examples.

Part 4

• Root: I reach millions on talk radio. My radio guests have included Ron Paul four times, John Stossel, Glenn Beck.
• Hancock: I’ve interviewed Stossel, G. Gordon Liddy, Sam Donaldson, Tony Snow.  I’m afraid that Root will be seen by millions as the face of the LP.
• Root: I will campaign for our local LP candidates, and raise money for them.
• Root: I started out as a Goldwater/Reagan conservative, and I can help America make that transition too.

Part 5

• Hancock: My goal is for the LP to not need to exist.  “It won’t happen all at once, but it will happen overnight.”  Get out of the LPUS HQ lease.
• Root: The LP needs to work hard and plan patiently, like my plan to get my home-schooled daughter accepted into Harvard and Stanford.
• Hancock: I recognized the New World Order in my 20s, before I knew the term. I’ve been trying to expose the Truth ever since.
• Hancock: I’m not in this to be national Chair. I’m in this to set a standard for libertarianism. A lot of people know what’s expected of me. That’s where a lot of my financial support comes from. It’s from hardcore no-compromise wealthy libertarians that are begging to give money to the Party if it will actually represent libertarianism.
• Hancock: Is the LNC going to say Ernie can’t go out and be libertarian? Ernie can’t go and keep doing what he’s doing?  Is that written somewhere?

Part 6

• Root: I’m scared of naming a Chair that advocates 9/11 Truth. I will target small business owners as donors.
• Hancock: Jesse Ventura talks about 9/11. I don’t need to know whether a conspiracy theory is true. I just need to know: can they? If so, then what’s the moral hurdle for them not to?  I will not back off from 9/11. Will he?
• Root: Abso-freaking-lutely. Ventura killed his presidential chances with one gaffe, saying religion is the opiate of the masses. Then he grew a ponytail and went surfing in Mexico.
• Root: Sara Palin is not a libertarian. I basically agree with Ron Paul, but he’s too strident on a few issues.

Part 7

• Hancock: I need the Libertarian Party to be libertarian. If we’re not out there telling the Truth on things like 9/11, the drug war, foreign policy, then we are not relevant.  We need to be clear on what libertarianism is.
• Root: We’re not relevant, but Tea Parties are. I emphasize the libertarian issues that resonate: end the IRS, follow the Constitution, no universal healthcare adding to $100T in unfunded liabilities, pensions for government employees — that’s our single best issue.
• Hancock: I’m not afraid to advocate a libertarian society. We should care less what the media think.
• Hancock: We have a totally different perspective on what the LP should be. Moderation has been the problem.

Hancock and Root debated again the same day at the LP Indiana state convention, in a four-way debate that included John Jay Myers and James Oaksun standing in for George Phillies.  A subsequent IPR article will cover that debate.

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