“In short, what is not to like about the man?”
He isn’t perfect but he’s great and he’s the ONLY shot we’ve got!!
But you must understand - a lot of FReepers drank the Hunter kool-aid early on - and are scared that FDT might be a *gasp* free-trader and we can’t have that!!!!!
“he is not perfect.”
That is true. But he is, as you point out, pretty darned good, and he is the only Republican who can win next year. His devotion to federalism is IMHO second to none, including Reagan. And, if a President is really committed to reducing the power of the federal leviathan (which means all three branches), returning power to the states is the necessary precondition.
It must be a coordinated approach, where the judiciary restricts congressional and other federal involvement in areas not enumerated in the Constitution, the President vetoes excessive spending and abstains from inserting the Executive Branch into areas reserved to the states and to the people, and mobilizes his party in Congress to use legislative tools (e.g.filibusters) to kill federal legislation that infringes on the prerogatives of the states. The Bully pulpit is the key, and I believe Fred will use it to great effect.
It is the ancient principle of subsidiarity (matters are best handled by the smallest organizational unit practicable), and it will work again if we get a President willing to try it and to persevere with it.