What counts as a win for Gary Johnson?

• Author: Slade, Stephanie
• Position: Libertarian Party's presidential candidate - Follow-Up

George Stephanopoulos posed the question during a 2007 interview: "What's success for you in this campaign?" The goal is victory, then-presidential hopeful Rep. Ron Paul answered. "That's not going to happen," Stephanopoulos replied.

This was just before Paul's campaign took off. "Within six months he would raise another $25 million for his campaign," David Weigel detailed in the February 2009 issue of reason. "Within a year he would draw thousands of supporters to a 'Revolution March' in Washington.... By the end of 2008, Ron Paul would be a bona fide national political figure: author of a No. 1 NewYork Times bestseller, subject of two quickie biographies, a frequent guest on cable news shows."

But hope fizzled just as quickly after Paul failed to post respectable vote totals in the early '08 primaries. "The year ended with George Stephanopoulos' question still hanging," Weigel wrote. What does success look like for someone who isn't actually going to be elected president?

The same query could be posed to former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson, this cycle's Libertarian Party nominee. Polling in the high single digits or very low double digits for much of the year, Johnson is not going to win in November. So is there a lesser outcome the L.P. would find...