RINO or Conservative: Who Scores Best?

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.

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.

You misunderstood.

I do think electability is an important criteria for selecting which candidate to support.

It is just not part of what makes someone conservative.

At this point in time I am unelectable and could not support my own candidacy.

If it were me picking the ONE candidate who would be POTUS, it would be myself.

Back in the real world... I would pick Hunter over Keyes not because he is more conservative or even just because he is more electable, but also because he has much more practical experience and due to his superior leadership skills among other things.

You are right that electability plays a role.

But you must define electability. Good looks and charm will not overcome being exposed as a fraud.

Electability is whatever the voters say.

By supporting Hunter we make him electable.

He will not appeal to a hard-core liberal.

He may loose a few moderates. But he will pick up some moderate Democrats who are conservative on one or two issues such as abortion.

All things being equal, we need a solid conservative to counter an extreme left wing Democrat, which all of the front runners of that party are.

I trust that there are enough Americans who have a true sense of right and wrong who will strongly support a genuine, across-the-board conservative enough to overcome those whose minds are corrupted by the disease of liberalism, those who are willing to sellout this nation to politicians who buy votes with tax dollars that do not belong to them, and voter fraud, and media bias, and all other unjust reasons why a conservative might fail.

In fact, I will go so far as to say that if conservatives stick to their core values we will win against all odds. We must have faith that our conservatism is right. Obviously we do not. We either don't believe it fully, or we are cowards that do not deserve to be represented by a conservative president. We have lost on the battleground of ideas, not because conservatism is wrong, but because we failed to fight for it on the this basis. We cannot win by playing the liberals' games. Look at Nixon. Nixon could have been a great president. He was so afraid of being cheated, that he cheated. That's not conservatism. Liberals believe in winning at all cost. We do not, nor should we. We must win on the basis of principle. If we reject our core principles we have nothing. That is all we have. Marketing, advertising, slick slogans may have a place; but most voters want substance and hate phoniness. After losing Congress I really thought Republicans had learned their lesson. But no, we seem to love making the same mistakes.

God will bless truth, righteousness and justice. Not the phony-baloney televangelist (who proclaim that God’s gifts are for sale) self-aggrandizing kind. (And I am not calling Huckabee these things. I am pointing out how Christians' eagerness to trust is easy to exploit.) Duncan Hunter is the real deal.

It is a crying shame that he is not THE candidate under consideration by everyone who claims to be conservative.

If Fred Thompson was 100% conservative, I would back him because of where he is in the polls.

Right now there is a strong chance that the Republican nomination will be determined late, and big conservative states like Texas will have a say.

Right now, I will stick with Hunter.

He needs to make the call as to how long to stay in the race if he does not experience a surge. If he pulls out and endorses Thompson, I will too.

However, if Evangelicals wake up to the error and risks of backing Huckabee, they will need to find a new home. Hunter is the only candidate that could be supported as much by this cross section of the party.

By the way, I love your tagline.

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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