The pot president? Meet Gary Johnson, a possible GOP presidential candidate with out-of-the-box ideas on immigration, marijuana and more

On the first Friday morning in August, in the University Club some 38 floors above downtown Tampa, a former Republican governor with presidential aspirations is speaking to a modest group of lawyers and lawmakers, lamenting the Obama administration’s spending and calling for major tax cuts to reboot the economy.

But unlike Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney or Sarah Palin, this possible 2012 candidate isn’t solely focused on such bread-and-butter issues, but also possesses unorthodox positions on drugs, illegal immigration and the war on terror.

Meet Gary Johnson, who served as New Mexico’s governor from 1994 to 2002, and became known nationally a decade ago as an iconoclastic Republican for his outspoken criticism on the war on drugs, and in particular, marijuana.

This article appears in Sep 9-15, 2010.