What better topic to introduce my new column in this paper than Trump's visit to Buffalo Monday night?  So there I was, in the press pen, literally walled off from the event with no food, no booze, no nothing.  What a glamorous life the media lead.  Most of the press sat stoically at their laptops, hammering away and rarely even looking up at the speakers.  I had intended to schmooze some of them and get some inside scoops but I wasn't feeling the warmth.

Trump mobbed by autograph-seekers

I did chat with a few local reporters whom I know.  One wanted to know what the libertarians think.  I said some hate him, some support him based largely on his anti-foreign intervention, America First views.  How many illegal foreign wars has Hillary started or supported, I asked rhetorically.  Only professional spooks know for sure.  Keep in mind that the founder of the modern libertarian movement, Murray Rothbard,  supported ("cheered for") LBJ in 1964 because he ran as the peace candidate: "We are not about to send American boys 9 or 10 thousand miles away from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing for themselves."

My own view mirrors that of Antiwar.com editor Justin Raimondo, a libertarian:

"I have never endorsed Trump . . . As I've explained many times, I am rooting for him, which is quite different from giving his candidacy political support. I'm much less interested in him as a candidate than I am in his supporters, many of whom are sympathetic to the anti-interventionist views Antiwar.com is dedicated to advancing."

Raimondo has explained elsewhere that when you endorse a candidate, you are taking upon yourself responsibility for his whole program and its results and consequences.  Libertarians are reluctant or loathe to do that as Trump has taken several positions that are not libertarian.  Full disclosure:  I know several people working for Trump and have occasionally passed along ideas I hope will move Trump in a libertarian direction and I will continue to do so.

Another veteran reporter I talked to estimated that the crowd was as high as 16,000.  Other estimates are about 12,000.  Did the overhyping of the event scare supporters away?  In any event, it was a very large and enthusiastic crowd for a Monday night on short notice.  Comparisons to Bernie Sanders crowds are not apt.  Bernie has attracted large crowds by promising to give away lots of free stuff without ever explaining how to pay for it all.  This is typical of uber-progressives.  As I pointed out in Progressivism:  A Primer on the Idea Destroying America, progressives have no theory of costs, which in the real world, is a bit on the crazy side.  Hillary draws micro-crowds even though most of the people there, as in the case of her recent Buffalo event, are hacks who generally make their living off of politics or government.