RINO or Conservative: Who Scores Best?

1/15/08 | Dwar

[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:

• How immediately an issue could impact the nation- Immediate, Urgent, Serious
• The power of an issue’s negative impact on the nation- Devastating, Powerful, Strong and
• Once implemented the likelihood an issue could ever be changed- Unchangeable, Changeable.

It seemed rational that issues like being conquered by illegal immigrants or losing the war, being more immediate, potentially negative and unchangeable, were more critical than even important issues like Gay Rights or Healthcare. Therefore issues that are more immediate, more negative and that were relatively unchangeable were more highly prioritized.

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:

• Conservative = 10
• Conservative tendencies = 8
• Moderate or Unreliable = 5
• Liberal tendencies = 2
• Liberal = 0

I separated and subtotaled the top 10 and the top 20 from the total to see how the candidates compare on the most important issues as opposed to the total. If a candidate scored in the middle on the total of issues but the highest on the top 10, I might want to support him.

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:

• Thompson- 95/100
• Hunter- 93/100
• Romney-92/100
• Giuliani- 81/100
• Huckabee- 60/100
• McCain- 49/100

On the top twenty issues:

• Hunter- 190/200
• Thompson- 181/200
• Romney- 173/200
• Giuliani- 146/200
• Huckabee- 119/200
• McCain- 117/200

On the totality of issues (33):

• Hunter- 315/330
• Romney- 292/330
• Thompson- 279/330
• Giuliani- 241/330
• Huckabee- 203/330
• McCain- 190/330

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

[DWar]

Thank you for the input. I’ll do more research and adjust the matrix as necessary.

[arturo]

Yes, thank you for this objective, completely unbiased, factual report! Although, other than fueling bitterness for all the Thompson/Hunter supporters while they scarf down their sour grapes I am not sure what good it does.

[svcw]

And its voters like you that allowed the dems to retake congress.

[GEC]

Thanks for your work on this. It saves me from having to do one of those online analyses from ABC etc.

[UpInArms]

Nice job.

But why work so hard? It would be so much easier for you if you had just the conflict in decision making of the black woman voter who was shown last night on FNC. It was hard for her to decide if she should vote for a black or a woman. HELLO! How about qualifications?! God save us from these Opra frothed ninnies!

[Miss Didi]

However, I will NOT vote for Huck or McCain, period.

Rush just reminded his audience that if Huck & McCain are the nominees, people will sit home and we will lose the election and the party.

[DWar]

Either, really. For example if Gay marriage is enacted what is the liklihood tht it would ever be repealed by any president?

[stuartcr]

Yes it would.

[unspun]

Pretty warped against Mike Huckabee -- in numerous categories.

[Designer]

O.K., you have piqued my interest. So I read your table.

Couldn't help but notice you did not include all of the Republican candidates.

Why not?

In checking your "about" page, I found this; "..conservative (with a libertarian streak),"

Shall we presume you have already "decided" for us?

With credentials such as yours, you could qualilfy for a job in the MSM.

[Designer]

pinging Revelation 911

[GOP Poet]

EXCELLENT! Thanks DWar! Very cool. I have not had a chance to read all the way through, but it looks like just the thing that is needed right now and I love, love, love your break out of priorities ratings. Very nice indeed.Now off to read it from start to finish :-). Thanks!

[penowa]

I don’t know that I agree with how you scored each candidate, but I do agree with you that if we are forced to choose one of the RINOs because Hunter and Thompson are gone, I would be able to hold my nose and vote for Romney. There is NO WAY I would vote for Giuliani or McCain. Makes no difference to me if one of the Democrats is elected, even Hillary, if I would have to vote for Rudy or McCain in the general. That’s not gonna happen.

[rightinthemiddle]

Pretty good.

I would add consistency to the mix and make it worth 20 points.

[DWar]

I understand you passion. I tend to feel the same way. Personally I am extremely pro-life and the idea that a Republican candidate would ever be agains life is totally abhorant. But I’d still vote for Giuliani if he is the GOP candidate over Obama or Hillary for a lot of other reasons. To support a sure loser third party candidate or to not vote just gives the Democrats the presidency and all of the rest of the liberal agenda.

[Ultra Sonic 007]

Onerom99: Do you have an anti-Hunter fetish or something?

[MarkDel]

This is extremely well done. Congrats!

The abuse you are taking for Romney being so high is a bit unfair. Scoring Romney is difficult because he comes across as so darn insincere and he doesn’t SEEM like a Conservative because he parses his positions like a Liberal.

Personally, I think you did a great service for the Posters of the Free Republic with this “rating system” of the candidates.

[Bear_Slayer]

Bullsh!t

My vote is mine to cast for the most responsible politician. One that represents, and works diligently to institute conservative government.

I didn't elect a DEM congres; the liberal, watered-downed, republicans in congress failed to get re-elected.

If conservatives would act like conservatives, they might get my vote and the many others that went elsewhere.

[AuntB]

Hunter: Top 20 Total 190 TOP SCORE

Yeah, let’s throw this guy to the curb.

[Designer]

"On second thought, forget it, Santa. A candidate like that would never be elected. A Democrat who fit the bill doesn't exist any more than you do, and a Republican who met those requirements would get opposed by a partywide full-court press, and wouldn't get nominated."

Bump!