We’ve got two months till that big election. Let’s see what we can look forward to.

Both the Democrats and the Republicans promise they’ll give lots of free stuff to current voters. And both will send the bill to future taxpayers.

Both parties accuse the other of throwing various Mideastern countries under the bus. Neither will tell us just what the heck that bus is doing driving around the Mideast in the first place.

There are some key differences on social issues. But when you sort it all out, you realize we face a choice between big government and bigger government — and good luck figuring out which party offers which.

What’s a small-government, liberty-loving conservative to do?

Well, there’s always the Libertarian Party. Last week, I spoke to Libertarian presidential nominee Gary Johnson. He’s a former two-term Republican governor of New Mexico who moved to the Libertarian ticket after he was frozen out of the GOP primary debates.

My first question concerned a key difference between Johnson and GOP vice-presidential nominee Paul Ryan. Ryan is sometimes labeled libertarian by the media — and a straight-talker as well.

But there’s the little matter of his marathon time. Last week, Ryan became the butt of jokes after he falsely claimed on a talk-radio show to have run a sub-three-hour marathon.

"What’s your best marathon?" I asked Johnson.

"I did a 2:48 in the 1984 Fiesta Bowl Marathon in Tempe, Arizona," Johnson told me. "I have run 20 competitive marathons and I can remember every one."

He can also remember the Ironman Triathlons he ran in Hawaii. Twice, he recalled, he beat Ryan’s real marathon time of 4:01 — after completing a 2.4-mile swim and a 112-mile bike ride. By the way, he’s also climbed Mount Everest

If that makes him sound like a fanatic, he admits to it. As governor, he was a fanatical skinflint. The 750 vetoes he issued exceeded the total for all the other governors in America combined.

Athletics or economics, it’s all a matter of discipline, he said. And from Johnson’s point of view, Ryan and Mitt Romney lack it.

"Ryan’s talking about achieving a balanced budget in 28 years," he said. I think I saw him shaking his head — even though he was in an airport in North Carolina and I was in New Jersey.

To Johnson, extra spending in a budget is like extra body fat on a runner. The bipartisan pandering on Medicare is the best example.

"Both the Republicans and the Democrats are arguing about who’s going to spend more on Medicare," he said. "The debate should be about slashing Medicare."

Johnson proposes slashing Medicaid and the military budget, as well, by 43 percent. That may sound extreme, but it would just bring us back to 2003 levels, he said. And if we don’t go back, we’re going down.

"If we don’t address this, we are going to suffer a monetary collapse," Johnson warns.

Johnson is hoping to capture the votes of the young people who followed Texas Congressman Ron Paul in his failed campaign for the GOP presidential bid. Paul brought out young voters by the thousands at traditionally left-wing bastions such as Berkeley. On Jay Leno’s "Tonight Show" last week, Paul was a big hit with the younger audience. He told Leno he won’t be running as a third-party candidate.

That leaves lot of voters up for grabs. And if Johnson grabs them, he may end up as a spoiler. Some polls show that in a tight race he could ruin Romney’s chances the same way Ralph Nader sunk Al Gore in Florida back in 2000. Johnson doesn’t care.

"I hope I get labeled as a spoiler because that would bring attention to me," he said.

He intends to use that attention to point out that both parties got us into this mess.

"Everyone in the country recognizes we’re in deep doo-doo and if we have Romney or Obama it’s not going to get fixed," he said. "I think what they’re offering up is the notion that Santa Claus is alive and well, the Easter Bunny exists and there is a tooth fairy."

They are indeed. But the tooth fairy’s always going to be more popular than the dentist who tells you that you need a root canal.

That’s the role Johnson’s playing. Nevertheless, as Santa Claus slugs it out with the Easter Bunny, the Libertarian will be fun to watch.