Thanks! It did smell like a publicity stunt, but I wasn’t sure what it was trying to promote, since it wasn’t promoting policy changes or some other political goal very well. I’m not sure having a presidential campaign that obviously isn’t trying to get anyone elected is the best way to sell books, though.
Thanks! It did smell like a publicity stunt, but I wasn’t sure what it was trying to promote, since it wasn’t promoting policy changes or some other political goal very well. I’m not sure having a presidential campaign that obviously isn’t trying to get anyone elected is the best way to sell books, though.
I have a gut feeling that a lot of long-shot campaigns are more about publicity/book sales/speaking fees than a genuine desire to be elected.
To be fair to Istvan, I don’t think his motive is primarily financial, since he is giving away a free Kindle version of his book.
In that case, maybe the goal is not to sell books, but rather to publicize them and the ideologies they contain.
Ron Paul and Ralph Nader (many-time presidential candidates with no chance of winning) are concrete examples of this in the US political system.
Both have done decent with respect to speaking fees and personal fame, but of course so do “genuine” candidates!
Istvan doesn’t seem to hurt for money if he can afford to live in the Bay Area, and he has a vineyard in Argentina.