I actually had a lot of respect for the former governor of Minnesota and former Navy SEAL Jesse Ventura when he spoke out as he did back in 2009 against torture and waterboarding, and let Dick Cheney have it during an interview with Larry King. I was also glad to see him give Hannity's pal, Elisabeth Hasselbeck the grief she deserved when she was defending waterboarding on The View later that same week.

Since that time, Ventura has spent a lot of time peddling conspiracy theories on truTV, and apparently spending a little too much time palling around with the likes of Alex Jones, as he was doing here when he floated the notion that he might run for president in 2016 as an independent:

Former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura told conspiracy theorist Alex Jones this week that he was considering running for president with help from the Libertarian Party — but wouldn’t be joining the Libertarian Party if he did.

“The libertarians have put out a gesture to me to come to their convention and that I would have a very good chance of getting their nomination for president,” Ventura explained. “But one thing will have to be clear on: I do not want to join them as a party.”

He said he wanted to be the first president since George Washington who didn’t belong to a political party. “I need that from them, that they won’t require me to be in their party to receive their nomination, because that’s firepower I think you can win the election with. That simple thing.”

“Look at the last national election, 64 percent of the people failed to turn out to vote,” he added. “Well, those are all my potential customers. Those are my potential voters. If I can rejuvenate them to come back and watch their vote count, you win.”

Ventura said both Republicans and Democrats had been bought out by corporate special interests. “I want more than two choices. I want more than Coke and Pepsi.”

That may be true, but they want more choices than crazy and craven as well. Sorry Jesse, but if you want to be taken seriously as a candidate for president, you might want to announce it somewhere other than Alex Jones' radio show.

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