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]

I just read your profile page and found out you’re a pastor.

Former pastor. Current business man. Still a Jesus loving Evangelical Christian.

No offense taken. ;^}

[DWar]

You’ve gotta point.

[DocRock]

"I was surprise, too. Look at the individual issues and tell me where I should adjust."

Duncan Hunter on Globalism and Free Trd should be a 10

[DWar]

And most of them aren’t even “good”.

Excellent or even good can be comparative adjectives.

When compared to Hillary in the White House and Bill in the Lincoln bedroom doing who knows what (perhaps we do know what), how do the Republicans look compared to that?

I think any of them would be excellent by that comparison.

[jwalsh07]

Man you got a lot of time on your hands...:-}

But I'll say this for ya, you made good use of it. Nice job.

[DWar]

Thanks for the input. I’ll take some of your suggestios under advisement for the revision. See the next post after yours, #186, for Giuliani and SCOTUS appointments.

[xjcsa]

How?

Import tariffs are a tax that is paid by the consumer. Export subsidies are a benefit paid to the consumer in the importing country.

[DWar]

You make a good point.

But as you said Romney, today says he has "come around on many of his formerly liberal positions. His statement you quote was made 8 years ago when he was fighting for influence in the most liberal state in the union. A lot can happen in 8 years.

He now seems to say he will appoint strict constructionists. Nevertheless I think anyone would have a tough time bucking the NRA, the conservtive American heartland and 140 million Ameican gun owners (I own 7).

At some point we've gotta trust one of these guys.

[calcowgirl]

I did. (You said "Giuliani is on the record committing to appointing "Strict Constructionist judges" in the model of Scalia and Roberts.") I still take strong objection. His actual record does not support it. You are relying on Giuliani's utterances of strict constructionist. Blackmun was just that--and terrible. Remember, this is the man who thinks women have a right to abortion, and the funding thereof. This is the man that joined with Bill Clinton and Janet Reno in their efforts to institute federal gun licensing. This is the man that has sued to take away our 2nd amendment rights.

Giuliani himself said:

"a strict constructionist judge can come to either conclusion about Roe against Wade. They can look at it and say, 'Wrongly decided. ... We will overturn it.' They can look at it and say, 'It has been the law for this period of time, therefore we are going to respect the precedent.'

"I would leave it up to them. I would not have a litmus test on that."

In retrospect, I'd give Giuliani a 2, no--make that a zero, on the SCOTUS line.

[DWar]

"Man you got a lot of time on your hands...:-}"

That's about to change, sigh.

[DWar]

You make some good points. I’ll take them under advisement.

[Kevmo]

If there’s no FRed and no Hunter and we’re left with the four headless RINOs, then what?
January 10, 2008 | Jim Robinson
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1951714/posts

[DWar]

I’m aware of that thread and have posted to it. Thanks though.

[dmw]

I’m so sick of these RINO’s here masquerading as conservatives while pimping their RINO candidates. Maybe it’s time for JR to dust off the bug zapper and start zapping those who are here working against what this forum stands for.

[RetiredArmy]

Aye, you are correct re Jefferson I believe. Basically, I just cannot believe that Americans have become what they have become. I guess the old crap saying that we have got to fat, to lazy, and to rich may actually be true. Americans are arrogant. They have got to the point that they believe that everything is OWED to them and that everything is a RIGHT, that you don’t have to earn anything any more, because the government and the MSM has pounded it into their heads that they are ENTITLED to all this free stuff, and that the only reason that they don’t have anything is because, rich, fat, white men have kept them down and are keeping them down through racism, and such crap. We are in a sorry state. I just don’t see it getting any better. As much as I like Thompson and Hunter, they cannot do it alone. Even if elected, they are still up against the total Marxist Dimocrat Party and all the RINOs in the RINOcrat Socialist Party. So, they will not be able to change anything. Washington, D.C. is the present day Sodom. It all comes from there. All the garbage, trash, junk, lies, porno, abortion, homos, it all comes from there.

[penowa]

"Giuliani is on the record committing to appointing 'Strict Constructionist judges' in the model of Scalia and Roberts."

If you believe that, I have more than one bridge to sell you! We will get ONLY liberal appointees because a Democrat Senate, most probably a fillibuster-proof one, will NOT allow anyone else to be appointed. Rudy would get a pass for following his liberal agenda and putting another generation of progressive Justices on the court without having to answer to those who believed his "promise." Lucky for us, Giuliani has about as much chance of being elected as Kucinich does.

As you've acknowledged, the war in Iraq is a no-go. The next president, as I said, will leave troops there only to back-up the Iraqi troops.

[pay dirt]

Very interesting analysis, DWar. I took a “test” online and was shocked that the candidate who was more akin to my opinions on a variety of issues and sub-issues was Mitt Romney. Thompson would have been a close second. When comparing the two, the differences shown were more a difference of importance on the few issues. One must take these online tests with a grain of salt, of course, but I was left thinking that perhaps I should give Romney a second glance.

[pay dirt]

The rest are RINOs at their core. Based on their past, McCain is more conservative than Romney. That should tell you alot.

Your comment is one I just have to include in the, "say what???" segment of my notebook. LOL I know that Romney has shown some flip-floppin' tendencies, but I also know that McCain has stood strong on some issues that are totally against what a Republican/Conservative believes in. On tax cuts alone, McCain is still as clueless as ever.

[Kevmo]

Same here.

Here’s one suggestion that I’ve floated:

When all the smoke clears, if Hunter doesn’t get the nomination, I have one more suggestion for all of us remaining conservative freepers. It would make sense for us to have an idealogy score, a set of questions with rankings of how important the issue is and how strongly a freeper agrees/disagrees with it. We could all put these results on our home pages, so that when another freeper is debating with us (or us with them) we could just go to their home page, check their score on that issue & others, and realize “Ohhh, this is a Ron Paul supporter” or “ohh, this guy is a small l libertarian” or “ohh, this guy is a Big F FISCAL Conservative and a small l social liberal.”

It’s okay for FR to be inundated with RINOs or have a bunch of liberals posting here, as long as they’re up front about it.

[DWar]

Would appreciate your input on this thread. Thanks.