How conservative are these candidates, really?

Looking at the original field of candidates, how conservative are these folks, really?

Well, it's hard to measure governors -- Huntsman, Perry and Romney -- since they faced different legislatures.

For example, even though Romney vetoed hundreds of Massachusetts Democrat run Legislature's bills, he signed others, most famously, Romney-care, which neither Perry's nor Huntsman's legislatures ever passed.

But members of Congress can be measured statistically and compared, so here it is:

Of course, these are based on statistical measures, and might be disputed on a case-by-case basis.

So, who really are the most conservative Senators and Congressmen -- as of the 111th Congress?

As of the 111th Congress there were no -- zero -- Republican Senators or Congressmen less conservative than the most "moderate" of Democrats.

Marguerite: "During World War II, General Dwight Eisenhower had an extra-marital relationship with Kate Summersby..."

So far as I know, though often alleged and repeated as if true, this is not proved -- except if you count the word "relationship" to mean he was friendly with her.

"But significantly, even she said the "love affair" was "unconsummated" and made no mention of any plan for Ike to divorce. "

You didn't mention Ronald and Nancy Reagan -- by the time he ran for President in 1980, they had been married 28 years.

The rest on your list are all Democrats, and what else do you expect from Democrats?
Yes, we do expect better from Republicans.

As for Newt, I am not overly critical of him, will happily support him if he's the nominee -- he is 1000% better than our incumbent President.

I am simply pointing out that Newt and most other front-runners have not historically been as consistent in their conservatism as they now pretend.
They are more-or-less John McCain / Bob Dole type moderates.

The exceptions include Ron Paul, who is impossible to support.
In Michelle Bachmann's first two terms she voted slightly more conservatively than Newt did in his first two terms.
But Bachmann is still very new to Congress.
Newt did begin (1979) as a very strong conservative, but ended his last term (1997 - 1998) well into the "moderate" Republican ranks.

And that's my only point here: I'm not anti-Newt.
I'm simply pointing out that most of these guys are not really as conservative as they now want us to believe.

Marguerite: "At one point Eisenhower discussed divorcing Maime and marrying Kay with General George C Marshall.
He was advised that it would probably cost him any chance of a political career, and gave up the thought."

"To counter these claims and perceptions, Ike's son John Eisenhower published his father's wartime letters to his mother.
Ike's son acknowledged that "no one alive can say that isolated incidents as described by Mrs. Morgan did not happen."
Still, he considered Summersby's stories exaggerated.
He told his daughter Susan that he compared his father's relation ship with Summersby to Lou Grant's relationship with Mary Richards on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show."
"Most historians, myself included, tend to agree with John Eisenhower.
The available evidence makes it hard to believe that a man with Ike's sense of honor and concern about public appearances would court disaster with a wartime romance.
He constantly worried about what he called, in his diary entries, "the danger of misapprehension or misunderstanding" of his actions.
It is even harder to believe that he would be so cruel as to send his son John (then 22) to be his mistress's escort during Kay's visit to the United States and meeting with Mamie later in the war.
"Men in positions of power like Eisenhower often had "surrogate" wives such as Summersby.
In the White House, Ike's secretary Ann Whitman also triggered Mamie's jealously.
For years, Whitman worked closely with "the boss" at great personal sacrifice, and ended up feeling abandoned by Eisenhower."
"One can fault Eisenhower for being insensitive to appearances and for committing a kind of psychological adultery -- that is, for developing a relationship with Summersby that was certainly intense, even if it wasn't sexual."

My point is: there is no comparison between Eisenhower's behavior in this matter and those others you listed.

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