Don't Start the Revolution Without Me! - Jesse Ventura [136]
Two months before the election, I spoke at Ron Paul’s Rally for the Republic in Minneapolis. Thousands of people turned out, which tells me there’s an awful lot of folks looking for an alternative to the two parties. I wore my Navy SEAL T-shirt and talked about a whole bunch of things that piss me off—things that I’ve delved into in this book: from the national debt, to the need for opening up the presidential debates, to the cover-up around 9/11, and the travesty of the Patriot Act. “If you want to be patriotic,” I told them, “then stand up for the Bill of Rights!”
“Let’s get the revolution going,” I said. “If I see it start to rise up over the next two to three years, and if this country show me that it’s worth it for me to do it, well then maybe I’ll run for president in 2012.” The crowd went nuts.
Right now I’m working on a few television pilots, returning somewhat to my old job of entertaining. On one of these I’m a judge—which, having named seventy-three judges when I was governor, I guess I could be. The other is on the Tru Network, which used to be Court TV, and it’s a show about conspiracies.
How do I feel today about running for the highest office in the land? I’m not Nostradamus; I can’t predict the future. I don’t know where I’ll be or what will motivate me in 2012. A lot of it will depend on Obama. I mean, I’m not gonna run for president just to run—I don’t want the job that bad. If Obama does a great job and can turn this economy around, get us out of these wars, and bring back our respect among the international community again, there’s no reason for me to run. If Obama can’t do that, then there may be. And I’ll tell you this much: I’d give them a race they’d never forget!