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

[Designer]

"..if we are forced to choose one of the RINOs.."

The really GOOD news is that we don't have to nominate a RINO.

[Doe Eyes]

It would be nice if Cutting Government Spending and Balancing the Federal Budget were included in the issues conservatives were evaluated on.

[teenyelliott]

And it’s voters like you who gave us the Clintons in the first place.

[Emperor Palpatine]

Huck is aptly named for huckster, and the only difference between McCain and Hillary is that Hillary has bigger cajones.

[Antoninus]

Trouble with this post is that you don't rate Honesty or Believability. In these areas, Flip Romney scores a 0 or a 1 at best.

And your rankings of Flip on the Pro-Life and homo issues are WAY too high. He should get no better than a 5 on Life (who knows if his conversion is real), and a 1 on the homo question.

[Dixie Yooper]

You have helped me with my decision if it were today. On My two BIGGEST ISSUES, Electability and The War On Terror, Romney looks pretty good considering that I have never really thought much about him until this thread. I Don’t care how you dress up McCain, he’s not electable, mainly because he is too much like the Democrats he would be running against. Like Huck, McCain is being pushed on us by the media because they know that neither of them can win the election.

[DWar]

One has the option in politics of working within a party that has a reasonable chance of success and attempting to change it. Or of standing on the outside of the entire process and screaming about the lack of purity therein.

[Oberon]

I think Fred Thompson more than exceeds your criteria.

Does he match up with all four of those points? Abortion, Constitutional freedoms (especially the 2nd Amendment), smaller government, and secure borders?

If so, I'll vote for him.

[DWar]

Makes you fearful for the future of the nation, doesn’t it.

[jellybean]

I have to ask what your rating on Social Security is based on? Everyone gets a 10 except Fred who is the only one with a plan to save social security.

13- Soc Sec 	Urgent 	Devastating 	Unchangeable 	10 	10 	10 	10 	10 	8

[Bear_Slayer]

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.

Respect is earned. So are votes

As conservatives we should all understand basic economics.

Economics is not about balancing your checkbook or managing the financials of a business.

Economics is about supply and demand.

The GOP supplies what republicans are willing to buy, because republicans are afraid to shop somewhere else. The GOP has a monopoly on the conservative market.

However, if conservatives were willing to hold-out or shop elsewhere, the GOP would be forced to change their product to regain that market share.

Nothing exists now to force that market change and until conservatives get over their fear of DEMs in charge, nothing will ever change.

WIll the DEMS ruin the country?

SHORT TERM? The answer is yes. However, people will only bear so much tyrrany and eventually shuck off (shuck? can I use that word w/o being racist?) their yokes and re-institute real liberty.

Stop being afraid. Our country was formed by men, such as us, in times less drastic. Surely we are qualified to regain it if we simply quit ourselves like men!

[AuntB]

“No, lets put him in the coming GOP cabinet instead.”

Well, Badeye, if you have your way it most certainly will not be a ‘conservative’ cabinet, will it? Go GOP!

INSULT POLITICS THE MAINSTAY OF THE KENNEDY WING OF THE GOP.

[ArrogantBustard]

Unfortunately, the elected candidate will never get to know that you held your nose and puked while voting...

I got called all manner of nasty names for saying that.

[DWar]

If so it wasn’t intentional. As an evangelical Chrisian, I truly appreciated Huckabee’s social conservatism.

Please let me know about specific issues where you think I’ve misjudged him and I’ll revisit the research ad make adjustments to the matrix if I agree with you.

[jellybean]

Have you looked at his White Papers?

[penowa]

"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."

That's the premise set forth by the poster, not me.

[umgud]

I’m still torn..........

Romney, having been guv of MA, cetainly endorsed left leaning issues. He’s promised to stop.

McCain makes no oppologies for his past actions including his convoluted definition of amnesty, which he says he will carry forward after securing the border. Rudy also would like a legaliztion for a large number of illegals.

Rudy may be harder on the terrorists than McCain who won’t waterboard them. Rudy admits to being a gun grabber, but swears he’ll stop if we just elect him.

Huckabee denies his unconservative positions while guv of AR and still has sympathies toward illegals.

All these fellers are flawed, some admit it and promise to change. Some are either unoppologetic, won’t admit their flaws or just plain plan to go forward with things that we conservatives don’t like.

Based on this, I’d rather have a flawed candidate who promises to change his ways.

I haven’t made my mind up yet on Romney, but he seems the least offensive based on what he promises.

McCain or Rudy will give us millions of new dem voters formerly from Mexico.

[Badeye]

‘Well, Badeye, if you have your way it most certainly will not be a ‘conservative’ cabinet, will it? ‘

Huh? I thought Duncan Hunter was a Conservatives Conservative.

How did I get that wrong?

[stuartcr]

Readers must like DWar better than you, I guess.

[Mogollon]

Excellent! Agree 100%.