Posted on 01/31/2008 2:09:25 PM PST by Jim Robinson
My friends, I have to admit that I've been in a bit of a quandary since the Real Conservatives ® Thompson and Hunter dropped out of the race leaving us to to place our bets on one the four headless horsemen. But after having a day or three to sort it all out, I'm beginning to see a ray of hope.
Number one, my worst fear that the pro-abortion, pro-gay, anti-gun social liberal Rudy Giuliani might be nominated, and thereby bring an abrupt and unholy end to the pro-life conservative movement within the GOP has been allayed. His evil culture of death platform has been soundly rejected by the Republican voters. Thank God! If nothing else is gained, that alone is a huge victory for us!
And that leaves us with the unwelcome slippery task of having to determine and select the least evil of the three remaining RINOs. But wait! When choosing between evils, why not choose the good?
McCain is insane and there are many good reasons not to choose him, but I'll list just five: McCain-Feingold, McCain-Kennedy, McCain-Lieberman, the Keating 5, and the Gang of 14. No thanks. McCain is out!
Romney ran on a pro-abortion platform, is pro gay rights, is prone to BIG government solutions, promises anything to anyone for a vote, and flip-flops on important issues. Can't trust him.
Now Governor Huckabee. Could this be the good vs evil? He's a Baptist minister. A genuine 100% pro-God, pro-life, pro-family, pro-gun, Southron Christian social conservative!
And that would be my reason no. 1 to support Huckabee. He has the trust and backing of the Christian evangelicals and the support of the Bible Belt. You cannot win the presidency without the South, and I believe the pro-God, pro-life, pro-family, pro-gun, pro-America Mike Huckabee is the most likely of the three GOP hopefuls to carry the South. And that's a pretty darn good reason!
My number two reason is that he is NOT McCain (and that's a pretty darn good reason too).
Number three (and this will be a tough one for a lot of my FReeper Friends) is that he is NOT Romney.
Numbers four and five are he's NOT Hillary and NOT Obama. Oohrah!
Number six, he plays a mean bass and he's a traditional favorite at Free Republic's infamous quadrennial Inaugural Balls in Washington, DC. Perhaps we could persuade President Huckabee to drop by our ball and perform his rocking rendition of "Sweet Home Alabama!" Now, wouldn't that be a hoot!
Number seven, if we can keep Huckabee in the race all the way through, thus preventing McCain or Romney from gaining enough delegates to win the nomination, then maybe, just maybe a deadlocked convention might seek out another candidate. One who can re-unite the Reagan Coalition, save the GOP, and put us back on the conservative track. Of course, my personal favorite to be that man would be FRed Thompson.
Woo hoo!!
Let it ring out through grassroots America and on to the convention! Support life! Support the GOP! Support Huckabee! And re-draft FRed Thompson!!
Never give in, never give up, and never lose hope.
Long live the Reagan Revolution!
That is for sure!
FLIPFLOPPER - flip-flopper on immigration and other issues ...
POWERS: And another issue thats come up is that you had previously been lobbying President Bush to lift the embargo on Cuba. And then in a recent debate said the opposite. What changed?
HUCKABEE: What changed was Im running for president.
Huckabee does a flipflop
http://www.latimes.com/news/la-na-huckabee11dec11,0,7354822.story?coll=la-tot-topstories&track=ntothtml
it is a pipedream. There will NOT be a deadlocked or brokered convention.
WILL. NOT. HAPPEN.
“In a race with no unarguable conservatives left in the race, we should be kinder to each other.”
I agree, good to keep in mind, but your bashing and attacks on Romney were anything *but* that.
“only hope for a unifying conservative nominee is an incredible long shot of a contested convention “
Sorry wont happen, and chasing that dream via Huck will only make McCain more inevitable. If there is not a single consensus conservative candidate alternative to John proamnesty McCain, McCain wins. Period.
McCain has rolled enough of the endorsement, mo’ and money to stay on top. Romney would have a tough row to hoe even if Huck dropped out. With Huck in, McCain is 100% assured of nomination.
Huck’s uses the nasty robocalls to do his dirty work, like his anti-Thompson smears in SC done via the 527 set up by a supporter of his.
I’m certainly willing to wait for Tuesday’s election results before declaring McCain our nominee for certain. It pretty much looks that way, though.
My vote won’t be cast for more than a month, and might well be moot. There will be many names on the ballot, but mostly of candidates who have withdrawn or will withdraw next week.
But I’ll still vote because I have the opportunity to vote against Ron Paul in his congressional re-election race. That will feel good.
Fellow Texan, I’ll be voting for Romney. I was peeved in 96 when ‘my guy’ pulled out too early (Gramm).
But I calls ‘em as I sees ‘em.
McCain - frontrunner.
Romney - slim chance.
Anything else (Huck, brokered, etc.) - no chance.
What do Huck’s people say ???
I havent had any
I have had several nasty calls fm Romney’s camp
Drive by recordings left on my voice mail
He spent a ton of money on the Super Tuesday states
Enough already
Havent heard from anyone else yet..
Usually when our area is blanketing with GOP calls for Nov
I answer sweetly and assure the caller that I will be voting for the party fav
This year ?????????????
Nana may not be so nice
Oh Nooooooooooooooo
Wrong!
The only person who can marginalize me is me, and that ain't gonna happen.
Just like .... the only person who can be victimized is someone who thinks of themselves as a victim.
I ain't one of them either.
Getting back to my original point, you demand that Romney get down and beg forgiveness for any abortion that was performed on "his watch" yet you don't demand the same behavior of other good conservatives who had abortions performed on THEIR watch.
Sort of smacks of inconsistency, dontcha think?
Wow, you must be desperate to try such a hamhanded attempt at putting words in my post I have not offered! I don't demand anything from Mitt Romney. His past and very recent words betray his sleaziness and deceit. He is no pro-life conservative and frankly, neither are you if he's your knight in shinning armor for conservatism. [Here's a clue: I could have played your foolish game of fabricating words for you by stating the last as 'when you claim he is your knight in shinning armor for conservatism', but instead made a statement that I did not place as 'from your mouth.']
I’ll vote for Romney when we get to vote in March, but only if he’s still in the race. Otherwise, I’ll leave it blank as it’s a done deal.
To vote for McCain in November would be tough. It would be a choice between two candidates, both of whom hate me, and both whom will make my life and situation worse.
Not good.
No chance of a brokered convention. McCain will see to that, and Huckabee, if it hasn’t been made absolutely clear at this point - will say or do anything to win.
Bottom line - Write in Fred, and let the party die the death it so richly deserves. You aren’t going to get another conservative coalition until we get another 9/11 anyway, or the economy tanks so bad that they give up on the moonbats.
You might as well stick to your principles, even as everyone is losing there’s.
Seriously?
WOSG,
since we’re on opposite sides when it comes to
Romney, I was glad to see you are a Texan. I lived
there for 13 years and still have a company headquartered
there that employs your fellow Texans. Also that you
favored Gramm, as I did too. I think he was done in
by his radio face ultimately...
ampu
“Many Romney supporters are saying that Mitt, as a Republican in a liberal state, had to misrepresent himself in order to attain the Governorship.
That in itself shows me that if he is willing to lie to the liberals to become Governor of Massachusetts, he is willing to lie to me become President of the United States.”
Worth repeating.
When I began my research I personally preferred first Hunter and then Thompson but it looked like neither was going to be able to get the nomination. Creating the first chart was for me an honest attempt to find out who was the next most conservative candidate who was also electable.
I searched numerous websites to come up with a list of issues most Conservatives generally found to be important. I then spent days and dozens of hours researching each candidate's current positions, ratings by watchdog groups, voting record and past positions.
If their position on an issue seemed to be within the accepted bounds of Conservatism I rated them a 10. If their watchdog rating, voting record or past position seemed less conservative than their currently held position I down graded them to an 8 or even a 5.
For example Romney's current position is strongly pro-life, normally a 10. But because his watchdog rating, record as a governor and past positions were much less than conservative he went first to an 8 and the to a 5. Even though he proclaimed a change of heart on the issue and I think it would be political suicide to change back, his past makes him much less reliable, in my view and the 5 is justified.
Another example would be McCain on Illegal Immigration. As the cosponsor of McCain-Kennedy amnesty for Illegals he started with a 0 on this issue. He now says he has heard the voice of the people and will "fix" the borders FIRST. It's what comes after the FIRST that worries me. So because he says his position is a strong one now I upgraded him higher than a 0. Because it seems to not be a heartfelt change but rather a reluctant one I upgraded him to only a 2. The link to the Original Thread which details the methodology I used is here:
I received literally scores of responses from FReepers with complaints and suggestions. I spent an additional 5 or 6 days researching their concerns and created a Revised RINO Chart also linked here:
Revised RINO Chart. It also is preceded by some explanation.
After Hunter and Thompson withdrew I added Hillary and Obama for comparison. That revision is posted below.
Keep in mind there is no way to "scientifically" determine who is the more conservative. That decision is always subjective. Who is or is not a Conservative depends on two things. One, each individual's idea of what a true Conservative believes. Two, It also depends on what the candidate ACTUALLY believes and of course that's the most difficult thing to determine and the purpose of these charts.
Lastly, some have looked at these charts without reading any of the background and concluded that I am a Romney supporter because he came out quite conservative on the total and subtotals. That is simply not the case. I worked as diligently and as unbiasedly as I was trained to do in graduate school. (I have 2 masters and 2 doctoral degrees.) I researched each one issue at a time and didn't know how things would add up until I actually did the addition.
I do NOW tend to favor Romney but only because he DID come out more conservative than the remaining candidates. I did not begin this exercise as his supporter. In addition I did these charts to prove nothing to you. I did them for my own benefit and have posted them only because I thought others might like to see them.
Most Recent RINO Chart ( Including Democrats )
Conservative= 10 | ||||||
Conservative tendencies= 8 | ||||||
Moderate or Unreliable=5 | ||||||
Liberal tendencies= 2 | ||||||
Liberal= 0 | ||||||
. | ||||||
Issue by Category | Giuliani | Huck | McCain | Romney | Hillary | Obama |
SECURITY & DEFENSE | ||||||
- Illegal Immigration | 2 | 5 | 2 | 8 | 2 | 2 |
- War in Iraq | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 2 | 0 |
- War on Terror | 10 | 5 | 5 | 10 | 5 | 0 |
- Iran | 10 | 5 | 10 | 10 | 5 | 2 |
- Border Fence | 10 | 5 | 5 | 10 | 5 | 5 |
- ANWR Drilling | 5 | 10 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 0 |
- US Sovereignty (LOST) | 5 | 10 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 |
- Military Strength | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 2 | 0 |
- Guantanamo | 10 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 0 |
- Waterboarding | 10 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 0 |
- Energy Indy | 8 | 8 | 5 | 10 | 5 | 5 |
. | ||||||
SECURITY & DEFENSE TOTALS | 90 | 68 | 52 | 103 | 26 | 14 |
. | ||||||
. | ||||||
FISCAL ISSUES | ||||||
- Business/infl/rec | 10 | 5 | 5 | 10 | 2 | 2 |
- Lower Taxes | 10 | 2 | 2 | 10 | 0 | 0 |
- Spending Cuts | 8 | 5 | 10 | 8 | 0 | 0 |
- Healthcare- gov run | 10 | 5 | 8 | 8 | 0 | 0 |
- Soc Sec | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 0 | 0 |
- Internet Neutrality | 10 | 0 | 10 | 10 | 0 | 0 |
- Internet Tax | 10 | 0 | 10 | 10 | 0 | 0 |
- Kyoto Treaty | 10 | 8 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 0 |
- Global Warming | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 0 |
- Tax Reform | 10 | 10 | 8 | 10 | 0 | 0 |
- Tort Reform | 10 | 8 | 5 | 10 | 0 | 0 |
. | ||||||
FISCAL ISSUES TOTALS | 98 | 53 | 68 | 106 | 28 | 29 |
. | ||||||
. | ||||||
VALUES ISSUES | ||||||
- SCOTUS appts | 8 | 8 | 2 | 8 | 0 | 0 |
- Guns & 2nd Amend | 0 | 10 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 0 |
- Pro-Life | 0 | 10 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 |
- Gay Rights | 0 | 10 | 5 | 8 | 0 | 0 |
- CFR & 1st Amend | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 0 |
- Crime | 10 | 5 | 10 | 10 | 2 | 2 |
- Education | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
- Death Penalty | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 |
- School Vouchers | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 0 | 0 |
- Federalism | 5 | 8 | 5 | 8 | 0 | 0 |
- Affirmative Action | 5 | 8 | 5 | 8 | 0 | 0 |
- Property Rights | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 0 | 0 |
. | ||||||
VALUES ISSUES TOTALS | 63 | 92 | 69 | 97 | 17 | 18 |
. | ||||||
. | ||||||
PERSONAL QUALITIES | ||||||
- Stability of Personality | 8 | 8 | 5 | 10 | 10 | 10 |
- Electablity | 8 | 5 | 10 | 8 | 8 | 8 |
- Consistency | 8 | 5 | 8 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
- Leadership | 10 | 5 | 8 | 10 | 10 | 10 |
. | ||||||
PERSONAL QUALITIES TOTAL | 34 | 23 | 31 | 33 | 34 | 35 |
|
“since were on opposite sides when it comes to
Romney, I was glad to see you are a Texan.”
You mean because the race will be over before I get to vote like it always is?
LOL.
Thanks for kind words. :-)
How conservative of you to want me to pay for your healthcare so you can retire early.
Do you want to vote to have me buy you a car, also?
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