Posted on 01/15/2008 10:37:17 AM PST by DWar
If Fred Thompson or Duncan Hunter don't "make it" and it becomes necessary to vote while holding my nose and puking, I tried to devise a rational way to determine which RINO (Republican In Name Only) would make me the least ill. I identified my top issues and prioritized them based on:
I’ve spent weeks researching and analyzing the candidates’ quotes and votes. I have watched every debate more than once and spent dozens of hours on numerous websites including http://www.ontheissues.org/default.htm, to make some judgments about their level of conservatism.
Taking into consideration the, "If their lips are moving, they're lying" factor, I marked a candidate lower if I thought their stated position was shaded like with Huckabee on Taxes, McCain on Immigration, Romney on Gay Rights or Giuliani on Guns. They were marked down a bit even if their position today sounds rock solid conservative.
Consideration was also given to whom their past constituencies were. They are all politicians and in past statements or votes they sometimes had to speak or vote in a way that is a little less than straight forward than they might have liked. Like every smart husband has to do when his wife asks,”Do these pants make my rear end look fat?” The way he answers depends on who his wife is; Eva Longoria or Rosie O’Donnell.
I included two categories usually not even considered, as the first and second in importance; Stability of Personality and Electability. While excitement, passion and a certain impulsiveness may be desirable in a candidate, stability and deliberativeness are necessary in a president. An unstable personality in a president would be a disaster waiting to happen.
In addition, none of the conservative political agenda has any hope of being followed with Hillary or Obama in the White House. Therefore electablity is not a sacrifice of conservative principle but rather the most important of conservative principles. Winning and getting something, is better than losing and getting nothing. Even Reagan wasn’t “Reagan” (the size of both the government and the budget grew) but it was important for conservatism that he won.
The ranking scale range is:
In the interest of full disclosure I have taken multiple candidate preference quizzes. They always come out with my order of preference being Hunter and Thompson numbers 1 & 2 with the others in various positions depending on the quiz. My desire is for the most conservative candidate who is also electable to win the nomination.
This is a work in progress. Adjustments to the matrix are made regularly as other issues come to my attention, issues rise or fall in importance or candidates appear to change positions.
As of now the order of most conservative to most liberal are:
On the top ten issues:
On the top twenty issues:
On the totality of issues (33):
Feedback is welcome.
Candidates Side by Side Comparison
| Issue | Immediacy | Negativity | Changeability | ||||||
| Giuliani | Huck | Hunter | McCain | Romney | Thompson | ||||
| 1- Stability of Personality | Imminent | Devastating | Unchangeable | 8 | 8 | 10 | 5 | 10 | 10 |
| 2- Electablity | Imminent | Devastating | Unchangeable | 8 | 5 | 2 | 10 | 8 | 5 |
| 3- Illegal Immigration | Imminent | Devastating | Unchangeable | 5 | 2 | 10 | 0 | 10 | 10 |
| 4- War in Iraq | Imminent | Devastating | Unchangeable | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 |
| 5- War on Terror | Imminent | Devastating | Unchangeable | 10 | 5 | 10 | 5 | 10 | 10 |
| 6- SCOTUS appts | Urgent | Devastating | Unchangeable | 10 | 5 | 10 | 2 | 10 | 10 |
| 7- Guns & 2nd Amend | Urgent | Devastating | Unchangeable | 0 | 10 | 10 | 0 | 5 | 10 |
| 8- Business/infl/rec | Imminent | Powerful | Changeable | 10 | 8 | 10 | 5 | 10 | 10 |
| 9- Lower Taxes | Imminent | Powerful | Changeable | 10 | 2 | 10 | 2 | 10 | 10 |
| 10- Iran | Urgent | Devastating | Changeable | 10 | 5 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 |
| Top 10 Total | 81 | 60 | 92 | 49 | 93 | 95 | |||
| 11- Pro-Life | Urgent | Devastating | Changeable | 0 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 8 | 8 |
| 12- Healthcare- gov run | Urgent | Devastating | Unchangeable | 10 | 5 | 10 | 8 | 5 | 10 |
| 13- Soc Sec | Urgent | Devastating | Unchangeable | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 8 |
| 14- Internet Neutrality | Urgent | Devastating | Unchangeable | 10 | 0 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 |
| 15- Internet Tax | Urgent | Devastating | Unchangeable | 10 | 0 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 |
| 16- Kyoto Treaty | Urgent | Devastating | Changeable | 10 | 8 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 |
| 17- Global Warming | Urgent | Devastating | Changeable | 0 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 5 | 8 |
| 18- Energy Indy | Urgent | Powerful | Changeable | 8 | 8 | 10 | 5 | 10 | 10 |
| 19- ANWAR Drilling | Urgent | Powerful | Changeable | 5 | 10 | 10 | 0 | 10 | 10 |
| 20- Globalism & Free Trd | Urgent | Powerful | Changeable | 2 | 8 | 8 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Top 20 Total | 146 | 119 | 190 | 117 | 173 | 181 | |||
| 21- Military Strength | Urgent | Powerful | Changeable | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 |
| 22- Guantanamo | Urgent | Powerful | Changeable | 10 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 10 | 10 |
| 23- Waterboarding | Urgent | Powerful | Changeable | 10 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 10 | 10 |
| 24- Tax Reform | Urgent | Powerful | Changeable | 10 | 10 | 10 | 8 | 10 | 8 |
| 25- Gay Rights | Serious | Powerful | Unchangeable | 0 | 10 | 10 | 5 | 8 | 8 |
| 26- CFR & 1st Amend | Serious | Powerful | Changeable | 0 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 10 | 0 |
| 27- Crime | Serious | Strong | Changeable | 10 | 5 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 |
| 28- Education | Serious | Powerful | Changeable | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| 29- Death Penalty | Serious | Strong | Changeable | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 |
| 30- Tort Reform | Serious | Strong | Changeable | 10 | 8 | 10 | 5 | 10 | 5 |
| 31- School Vouchers | Serious | Strong | Changeable | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 |
| 32- Federalism | Serious | Strong | Changeable | 5 | 8 | 10 | 5 | 8 | 10 |
| 33- Affirmative Action | Serious | Strong | Changeable | 5 | 8 | 10 | 5 | 8 | 2 |
| All Issues Total | 241 | 203 | 315 | 190 | 292 | 279 | |||
| Conservative= 10 | |||||||||
| Conservative tendencies= 8 | |||||||||
| Moderate or Unreliable=5 | |||||||||
| Liberal tendencies= 2 | |||||||||
| Liberal= 0 |
I would write Hunter in and the liberals on both sides of the aisle would win. I don’t accept the failure of the GOP as my own.
One look at the modern American culture would reveal that many have long since strayed.
“Thanks for boring me to death. GO MITT!”
I’m sorry you find the mission statement of FreeRepublic to be boring. Not surprising coming from a RINO.
Originally, I rejected Romney from consideration for the same reasons as you. Then I read http://www.evangelicalsformitt.org/front_page/why_we_dont_not_support_him.php. After that I put him back on my list of possibilities. God bless you as you struggle with this important question.
Thanks for your good wishes. Those types of orgs crop up around candidates that spend tens of millions of dollars.
That’s true but see if you can refute the logic in the article first, then reject the candidacy.
I think the logic is flawed. God judges peoples and nations as well as individuals. This judgement is exercised based upon men’s acts. The control of God over history does not alter this, it is in the space of free will where this sin occurs:
Hosea 9
Punishment for Israel
1 Do not rejoice, O Israel;
do not be jubilant like the other nations.
For you have been unfaithful to your God;
you love the wages of a prostitute
at every threshing floor.
2 Threshing floors and winepresses will not feed the people;
the new wine will fail them.
3 They will not remain in the LORD’s land;
Ephraim will return to Egypt
and eat unclean [a] food in Assyria.
4 They will not pour out wine offerings to the LORD,
nor will their sacrifices please him.
Such sacrifices will be to them like the bread of mourners;
all who eat them will be unclean.
This food will be for themselves;
it will not come into the temple of the LORD.
5 What will you do on the day of your appointed feasts,
on the festival days of the LORD ?
6 Even if they escape from destruction,
Egypt will gather them,
and Memphis will bury them.
Their treasures of silver will be taken over by briers,
and thorns will overrun their tents.
7 The days of punishment are coming,
the days of reckoning are at hand.
Let Israel know this.
Because your sins are so many
and your hostility so great,
the prophet is considered a fool,
the inspired man a maniac.
8 The prophet, along with my God,
is the watchman over Ephraim, [b]
yet snares await him on all his paths,
and hostility in the house of his God.
9 They have sunk deep into corruption,
as in the days of Gibeah.
God will remember their wickedness
and punish them for their sins.
10 “When I found Israel,
it was like finding grapes in the desert;
when I saw your fathers,
it was like seeing the early fruit on the fig tree.
But when they came to Baal Peor,
they consecrated themselves to that shameful idol
and became as vile as the thing they loved.
11 Ephraim’s glory will fly away like a bird—
no birth, no pregnancy, no conception.
12 Even if they rear children,
I will bereave them of every one.
Woe to them
when I turn away from them!
13 I have seen Ephraim, like Tyre,
planted in a pleasant place.
But Ephraim will bring out
their children to the slayer.”
14 Give them, O LORD—
what will you give them?
Give them wombs that miscarry
and breasts that are dry.
15 “Because of all their wickedness in Gilgal,
I hated them there.
Because of their sinful deeds,
I will drive them out of my house.
I will no longer love them;
all their leaders are rebellious.
16 Ephraim is blighted,
their root is withered,
they yield no fruit.
Even if they bear children,
I will slay their cherished offspring.”
17 My God will reject them
because they have not obeyed him;
they will be wanderers among the nations.
Where are instructed on how to approach leadership as a Christian:
Acts 17:28 Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. 29I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. 30Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. 31So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears.
Titus 1:5 The reason I left you in Crete was that you might straighten out what was left unfinished and appoint elders in every town, as I directed you. 6An elder must be blameless, the husband of but one wife, a man whose children believe and are not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient. 7Since an overseer is entrusted with God’s work, he must be blameless—not overbearing, not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing dishonest gain. 8Rather he must be hospitable, one who loves what is good, who is self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined. 9He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it.
10For there are many rebellious people, mere talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision group. 11They must be silenced, because they are ruining whole households by teaching things they ought not to teach—and that for the sake of dishonest gain. 12Even one of their own prophets has said, “Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons.” 13This testimony is true. Therefore, rebuke them sharply, so that they will be sound in the faith 14and will pay no attention to Jewish myths or to the commands of those who reject the truth. 15To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted. 16They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good.
1 Peter 5:1 To the elders among you, I appeal as a fellow elder, a witness of Christ’s sufferings and one who also will share in the glory to be revealed: 2Be shepherds of God’s flock that is under your care, serving as overseers—not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not greedy for money, but eager to serve; 3not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. 4And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away.
5Young men, in the same way be submissive to those who are older. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because,
“God opposes the proud
but gives grace to the humble.” 6Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. 7Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
8Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 9Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.
If I withhold my political support from anyone who is sinful I could never support anyone's candidacy. My only choice would be to withdraw from the political process. Every candidate is sinful and has supported positions that were ungodly.
God judges nations. God also judges individuals for both what they have done and for what they haven't. Thank God for the sacrifice of Christ and His forgiveness.
As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord AND we will support the best choice available for the leadership of the people. May the Lord have mercy on us all.
The big difference I see is that we the people are part of the sovereign in the U.S. — in a sense we are the government and the leadership. In Daniel’s case and in Joseph’s case they had absolutely no say in who led Persia or Egypt. We don’t have the answer to the question of who they would have voted for! I think we should, as voters, be discriminating in our choice.
The biggest error for my candidate, Romney, is his score for GW. Read the info in the link below and I think you will agree he deserves a higher score in that cateogry. He has flatly rejected Al Gore's solutions to the GW hysteria saying:
"...Kyoto-style sweeping mandates, imposed unilaterally in the United States, would kill jobs, depress growth and shift manufacturing to the dirtiest developing nations.... Republicans should never abandon pro-growth conservative principles in an effort to embrace the ideas of Al Gore."
In 2005, Governor Romney pulled Massachusetts out of a compact of Northeastern states requiring a reduction in power plant emissions of carbon dioxide because it would have caused continued economic decline in the state. (Robert Novak, "Romney gains by shunning CO2 caps," Chicago Sun-Times, 1/02/2006)
See more here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/~unmarkedpackage/#environmental
Additionally, his grade on healthcare could be higher. He got a proposal passed which was co-written and supported by the very conservative Heritage Foundation. It is a huge issue for Americans and it will be front and center when we try to fight it out with the dems. Mitt is the only GOPer with any viable plan or relevant experience on this issue. When compared to the dems, it will be a huge plus that he has a free-market based plan, not a negative.
http://www.freerepublic.com/~unmarkedpackage/#healthcare
Also, his gun number is too low. He received a B from the NRA and, somehow, he was able to loosen gun restrictions in one of the bluest states in the nation.
http://www.freerepublic.com/~unmarkedpackage/#guns
Also, I think some people received grades that were too high given some bills they have supported, but I won't go there.
And a lot has stayed the same too.
He now seems to say he will appoint strict constructionists.
Thanks for your thoughtful input. I will consider it when I revise the matrix.
I agree with your post in general, but for now would like to briefly comment on the above.
In the end, private health care accounts are the way to go. They are the goal to strive for. Romney's market place health care plan takes us several steps away from government sponsored insurance and toward the ultimate goal of private health care accounts.
I agree. It puts personal responsibility in the forefront. It is step 3 in the plan.
The Romney Plan: Six Action Steps
• Step 1: Establish Federal Incentives To Deregulate And Reform State Health Insurance Markets So Market Forces Can Work.
• Step 2: Redirect Federal Spending On "Free Care" To Help The Low-Income Uninsured Purchase Private Insurance.
• Step 3: Institute Health Savings Account (HSA) Enhancements And The Full Deductibility Of Qualified Medical Expenses.
• Step 4: Promote Innovation In Medicaid.
• Step 5: Implement Medical Liability Reform.
• Step 6: Bring Market Dynamics And Modern Technology To Health Care.
Thorough plan, RG. Thank you for posting it.
1. I don't think that Rudy Giuliani will be a 10 on SCOTUS. I think he's parsing his words in a way that will allow him to nominate people who will preserve Roe versus Wade and not see the Second Amendment as protecting an individual right. If I believed that he'd be a 10 on SCOTUS, I'd be much less afraid of him.
2. I'd rate John McCain a little lower on the pro-life issue. He flirted with favoring legalized abortion when he ran in 2000. Rick Santorum has said that McCain hated any pro-life bill in the senate. He may have voted pro-life, but he worked to keep those bills from coming to the floor where he'd have to vote on them. At best, I'd give him a 5 on that issue. An 8 would be extremely generous.
3. I'd also rate John McCain a little lower on Kyoto. Whether he voted against it, his sympathy for global warming makes me distrust him too much for a 10.
If you were interested in adding one more issue to your table, you might consider "coat tails" - what effect would each candidate have on our chances of retaking Congress. I'd rate Rudy Giuliani as a 0. His being on the ballot would draw voters who would vote for Democrats in those races. I think Mike Huckabee would be neutral. He'd draw some extra religious conservatives who would vote for Republicans, but he'd also draw more anti-Christians who'd vote for the rest of the Democrat slate. John McCain might be neutral as well, but I just can't tell about him. I think Mitt Romney would be neutral. We'd lose a few evangelical Christian votes who would otherwise have voted for Republicans down the ballot, but we might gain some others who have started to think of the GOP as a regional party. I'd probably give Fred Thompson an 8 because he'd draw most regular Republicans without offending anyone too much. His only problem would be the regional candidate thing. Duncan Hunter would also get an 8. He's right on almost everything, but he doesn't have much charisma.
Bill
Good point, WFTR. Also, McCain still supports federal funding for ESCR.
Good Input.
Thank you.
The best part is you don’t know how conservative Romney will be because up to this point, it would have been counterproductive in his political career to have been. That’s the best part about him. Huckabee, I mean come on, he’s in the south already. To me, he leans liberal if freed of his prior need to be a southern conservative. When I say leans liberal, it’s in a Catholic Priest sort of way. Not sure we need that right now re immigration.
bump for later
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