What IS This Site?

This blog started as a way to inform myself and others about the candidates running for U.S. President next fall. I’d hoped to present clear, concise information about the candidates’ positions, while also reporting on current and relevant stories. Having spent the last several months working on this project, I had completed about half of the foundation I would have liked when I discovered that someone else had beaten me to the idea.

Sometimes it’s better to let other people do work for you (especially when they do it better). So rather than repeating for no reason, I’ll just say — go to Politifact.com and read up. They are doing basically what I wanted to do, even if their graphic design is a little* more terrible.

 

<—- “PF” stands for Politi Fact! Get it?

 

*Okay a lot more terrible, but the information is good.

As for this site, I don’t intend to abandon it. I am currently in the process of changing it. If it’s ever actually worth reading, I’ll make a small and unassuming announcement over on BR. Until then, don’t be like me (I’m feeling a strong wave of apathy at the moment towards ALL of the awful candidates). At first glance they all look the same, so you just have to keep glancing.

Keep glancing,

Jason

Bill Richardson

Bill Richardson’s profile coming soon.

Tom Tancredo

SHORT BIO

Tom Tancredo has been a member of the U.S. House of Representatives since 1999. In 1976, while teaching high school history, he ran for and won a seat in the Colorado House of Representatives, serving two terms from 1977 to 1981. He then moved to a position in the Department of Education until 1993, when Tancredo became president of the Independence Institute, a conservative think tank. In 1998, he ran for and won a seat in the House, where he has served four terms (despite promising to serve no more than 3).

(Interesting note: Both sets of Tancredo’s parents immigrated from Italy.)

ISSUE SUMMARY

Tancredo is often described as the most classically conservative candidate in the race. His current stances include:

• Strongly opposes abortion and stem cell research
• Strongly opposes illegal immigration (his most important issue)
• Blames Bush administration and Congress for not being tougher on immigration
• Supports a Constitutional Amendment to ban same-sex marriage
• Supports a Constitutional Amendment to define marriage as between one man and one woman
• Supports requiring schools to allow prayer
• Supports a Constitutional Amendment to allow school prayer
• High rating from the Christian Coalition, the National Taxpayers’ Union, and the NRA
• Low rating from the League of Conservationist Voters
• Consistently voted to lower taxes, and to make Bush’s tax cuts permanent
• Believes Iraq invasion was correct, but that we should begin to pull out so that we can focus more broadly on radical Islam
• Supports the PATRIOT Act
• Supports FBI wiretapping and other controversial surveillance, in the interest of safety

Barack Obama

Barack Obama’s profile coming soon.

Mitt Romney

SHORT BIO

Most recently, Romney served as the Governor of Massachusetts from 2003 to 2007. During his term, Governor Romney was successful in closing a nearly $3 billion budget gap inherited when he took office. Before his governorship, Romney was a Harvard-trained business executive known for his ability to help businesses grow and improve their operations. In 1999, after over 20 years of leading various private investment firms, Romney left behind his career as an entrepreneur to take over as President and CEO of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee, where he helped to turn around the 2002 Winter Olympic Games.

Romney is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, but has emphatically stated that he is not a spokesman for his church.

ISSUE SUMMARY

Romney is running as a conservative candidate, though some accuse him of trying to reinvent himself as such for his run at the Presidency. His current stances include:

• Unclear on abortion, currently pro-life
• Supports tough crime policies, with strong regulation
• Supports Bush education policies, mostly
• Moderately strong environmental record, supporting emissions standards
• Opposes same-sex marriage, unclear about civil unions
• Supports non-governmental universal health care without taxation
• Against tax increases, except for gas taxes and business taxes
• Supports extreme measures such as wiretapping and other controversial surveillance
• Strongly supports continued use of Guantanamo Bay facility
• Favors moderate, predictable change in minimum wage

Dennis Kucinich

Dennis Kucinich’s profile coming soon.

Ron Paul

Ron Paul’s profile coming soon.

Mike Gravel

Mike Gravel’s profile coming soon.

John McCain

SHORT BIO

McCain followed in family footsteps by enrolling in the Naval Academy immediately after high school, leading to his deployment to Vietnam. In October of 1967 his plane was shot down and he was taken prisoner, where he was interrogated daily but did not give up any information. He was finally released in 1973, five and a half years later. After retiring from the Navy in 1981, McCain went to work for his second wife’s father at Anheuser-Busch in Phoenix.

In 1982, McCain decided to run for one of the Arizona House seats and won. Four years later, Barry Goldwater retired from his Senate seat and McCain was elected to replace him. In 2000, he was George W. Bush’s most formidable opponent in the Republican primaries, though his decision to speak out against conservative Christian leaders may have cost him the race. Since that time he has generally supported Bush’s administration, though many say he has been posturing himself as a moderate yet conservative candidate for his run in 2008.

ISSUE SUMMARY

Though McCain’s votes are typically some of the most conservative in the Senate, his reputation is often more of a “maverick” or wild card. His current stances include:

• Supports the war in Iraq, advocates more troops to guarantee victory
• Opposed to all torture
• Opposed to abortion (supports overturning Roe v. Wade)
• Moderately positive voting record on environmental issues
• Personally opposed to same-sex marriage but supports letting states decide
• Supports loose immigration policies, typically involving amnesty
• Worked towards reforming campaign finance policies
• Ranked 83% by the Christian Coalition, indicating a moderate conservative voting record

John Edwards

John Edwards’ profile coming soon.

Duncan Hunter

SHORT BIO

A member of the House of Representatives since 1981, he became the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee in 2005. He will retire at the end of the current session of Congress. Before joining the House, he served in the Vietnam War as a soldier in the United States Army, going on to practice law from 1976 to 1983. He is sometimes regarded as a “true Reagan conservative” and one of the more traditionally conservative candidates in the Republican primary.

ISSUE SUMMARY

Hunter is a traditionally conservative member of the Grand Ole Party. His stances include:

• Voted consistently for abortion restrictions
• Against gay marriage and gay adoption
• Supports Bush’s PATRIOT Act and other controversial security tactics
• Tough on crime
• Strongly supports prayer in public schools
• Strongly advocates building a border wall to curb illegal immigration
• Against amnesty for current illegal aliens
• Supports broad tax cuts, tax relief, and tax reform
• Against increasing the minimum wage to $7.25
• Believes the Iraq war has been worth it, and supported Bush’s troop surge
• Supports fair trade, speaks out against China’s unfair trade strategies

For more detailed information, see Duncan Hunter at OnTheIssues.org .

Christopher Dodd

Chris Dodd’s profile coming soon.

Mike Huckabee

SHORT BIO

Mike Huckabee served as governor of Arkansas from 1996 to 2007. As a Baptist minister he is seen as a strong social conservative. He was pastor of several Southern Baptist churches, as well as president of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention from 1989 to 1991. When Jim Guy Tucker became governor of Arkansas due to Bill Clinton’s election as president, Huckabee was specially elected as lieutenant governor. Tucker was forced to resign due to a felony conviction in the Whitewater scandal, and Huckabee was sworn in as governor. He was then elected to two more full terms.

ISSUE SUMMARY

Huckabee is conservative on most issues, though he breaks rank on several major topics. His current stances include:

• Opposes all forms of abortion and stem cell research
• Opposes same-sex marriage and same-sex couple adoptions
• Supports extremely tough education reform
• Believes character education is necessary in public school curriculums
• Believes drug education fails but drug punishment works
• Does not believe in evolution
• Supports the boy scout rule of environmentalism: “Leave the earth better than we found it.”
• Does not strongly oppose illegal immigration (often encourages it, in some respects)
• Opposes most gun-control
• Supports most tax cuts, and the elimination of the IRS
• Pro-business record, lauding Wal-Mart as the genius of the American marketplace
• Supports continued involvement in Iraq, believing it is wrong to judge the war while we still fight

Hillary Clinton

Hillary Clinton’s profile coming soon.

Rudy Giuliani

SHORT BIO

Rudy Giuliani is a lawyer and politician from New York. A Democrat in the 1970s, he worked as a law clerk for the United States Attorney’s Office. He then spent 1975 through 1989 working various positions under Ford and Reagan, eventually becoming U.S. Attorney. During this time, Guiliani switched his party affiliation first to Independent, and then to Republican. He gained a reputation for using extremely intense prosecution techniques, sometimes faulted by coworkers as being “overzealous”.

Giuliani lost the race for mayor of New York City in 1989, but ran again and won in 1993. He served two terms and is broadly credited with cutting NY crime in half (though accused of downplaying Commissioner Bill Bratton’s role in this success). He is most widely known for his leadership and prominence during the 9/11 crisis.

ISSUE SUMMARY

Giuliani is one of the most moderate Republican candidates, though his recent campaign has leaned toward the conservative side. His current stances include:

• Unclear on taxes, supporting Bush’s tax cuts but refusing to sign the common pledge to not raise taxes while in office
• Supported women’s “right to choose” an abortion for most of his political career but now wishes to leave it up to the states to decide
• Supports embryonic stem cell research
• Decisively opposes universal health care
• Supports public financing of sports arenas and stadiums
• Supports continuing our efforts in the Iraq War
• Supports the use of some torture methods in the most extreme situations
• Supports extreme measures like the ones laid out by the Bush administration to combat terrorism, including wiretapping and other controversial domestic surveillance
• Supports expanding presidential powers to combat terrorism
• Supports same-sex civil unions but opposes same-sex marriage
• Unclear on his position on gun-control, supported many gun regulations while mayor of New York, now draws distinction between urban and rural
• Publicly claims to believe Darwin’s theory of evolution
• Supports a border fence, opposes deportation of illegal immigrants
• Unclear on his position on school prayer, condemned it while mayor of New York, then supported it later

Joe Biden

Joe Biden’s profile coming soon.

Sam Brownback

SHORT BIO

Sam Brownback is the senior senator from the state of Kansas. Before running for Senate, Brownback worked as a broadcaster, an attorney, and as the Kansas secretary of agriculture. He was first elected to the House of Representatives in 1994, only to run for and win the Senate seat that Bob Dole left behind in 1996. As a Senator, Brownback has served on the Judiciary Committee, the Senate Appropriations Committee, and others. Raised as a Methodist, Brownback spent some time attending a nondenominational evangelical church before converting to Catholicism in 2002.

ISSUE SUMMARY

Brownback could be referred to as a “compassionate conservative” in some senses of the phrase. His current stances include:

• Opposes a federally run universal health care system
• Has been called “an extreme opponent of getting tough on illegal immigration”
• Pro-business voting record
• Advocate for more involvement in Darfur, Sudan
• Favors finding an Iraq solution that both parties can support
• Believes both evolution and intelligent design theories should be taught in schools
• Opposes all forms of abortion, even if a woman has been raped
• Opposes federal funding for stem cell research
• Opposes same-sex marriage
• Generally opposes gun control

Fred Thompson

Fred Thompson’s profile coming soon.

Tommy Thompson, Withdrawn

SHORT BIO

Served four terms as Governor of Wisconsin from 1987 to 2001. Recently served as the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services under President George W. Bush.

Thompson vowed on his website that if he did not come in at least 3rd place in the Iowa Straw Poll, he would withdraw from the race. Held on August 11, 2007, Thompson came in 6th place, despite the fact that Rudy Giuliani and John McCain did not participate.

On August 12, 2007, Thompson formally withdrew from the race.