What Republican candidate would you most like to see as President (read details)

[RIP Robert H Bork]

Now, just to remind you, I am asking who would you prefer to become President out of the currently mentioned Republican candidates. The reason why I am asking about the presidency, as opposed to the Republican nominee, is because I am not interested in partisan support (for example, "I want candidate X to be the nominee because he would lose). As you may understand, I am primarily targeting the Democrats here. In other words: if the Republican nominee is bound to win the presidency in 2012, who would you rather it be? That is, what Republican is most preferable as President?

[Obnoxiously Slutty Girly Girl]

Ron Paul

[ARescan]

Tim Pawlenty.

Although I do also like Thune.

[Swing low, sweet chariot. Comin' for to carry me home.]

"if the Republican nominee is bound to win the presidency in 2012, who would you rather it be? That is, what Republican is most preferable as President?"

I know the perfect candidate:  Me

Energy Policy: we would commit to building dozens of new nuke plants over the next 10 years, phasing out natural gas power plants so that our natural gas could be used for transportation, ramping up drilling for natural gas and oil, mandating all new cars by the year 2015 run on natural gas and/or electricity...thus keeping $100's of billions of the $700B in country that we send each and every year on foreign oil consumption.  While at the same time opening federal land to wind and solar power, but allowing private sector to determine when it is economically feasible.  THAT is a national energy plan, something we currently don't have.  

Immigration:  we would close the U.S./Mexican boarder.  As much as I hate to discriminate against children who are born on the wrong side of the boarder, we simply cannot afford the burden on our social services.  we would impose $10k fine per worker on individuals/companies who hire undocumented workers.  This would cause some inflation but would raise income on the lower end and spawn small business creation in areas like lawn care and construction.  Laser brand illegals before deportation so that they can be quickly identified upon attempted re-entry to U.S. (for those who legally immigrate, provide federally funded removal of branding)

Social Security:  Raise the retirement age to 67 for 46-55 year old’s, 70 for 36-45 year olds, and 75 for anyone under 35.

Health care:  Raise the age of Medicare as we raise the age of Social Security.  open the boarder to prescription drugs, limit liability suits, spend money to immunize every child in the country, spend money to set up bare bone government run clinics for routine doctor visits (colds, flu, etc), tax the crap out of health insurance for unhealthy lifestyles (smoking, obesity, etc), tax tobacco products so that cigarettes are $10/pack, tax non whole grain products so that whole grain products are half the price of non whole grain products. (we basically have to undo the western diet and its contribution to diabetes), provide tax credits so that every household can own an American made treadmill.

Foreign Policy/Defense:  take out Iran’s and Pakistan’s nuke capability, even if that means using nuclear bunker busters.  Strike to coincide with taking out Iran’s naval and air forces and land-sea missiles.  Withdraw from Afghanistan and probably Iraq and leave the Muslims to their own problems.  Publically hang all captured high-ranking terrorist leaders and leave their bodies hanging until they fall from the noose.  Withdraw all U.S. ground troops from Western Europe, which has the manpower and means to protect itself.  Foster closer ties to India.  Withdraw all U.S. ground forces from Japan.  Use savings to secure U.S. boarder and increase spending on Air Force, Navy, and cyber defences.

Economic:  continue to nurse the banks back to health and THEN AND ONLY THEN start to dismember the large banks (2015-2016 timeframe).  Pass a federal law ASAP that no FDIC institution can write a mortgage to anyone having a debt to income ratio over 40%.   Regulate and treat CDSs as insurance policies.  Limit every financial company's individual counterparty exposure to 5%.  Forbid individual financial institutions from controlling over 5% of the any slice of the financial or insurance markets.  This would effectively end too big to fail and protect against future housing bubbles.

Budget:  Suspend all federal mandates to states not involving national security and/or unemployment insurance and/or health services.  Probably need to scrap the tax code and move to a flat tax or a consumption tax or a value added tax and provide a standard refund for each dependent so that the tax doesn’t apply to a minimum standard for food/clothing/housing/transportation.   This would eliminate the majority of tax cheating.

Education:  Federally funded scholarships (of a predetermined amount indexed for inflation, and not including room and board) to every student in the top 10% of their class.  (program applies only to American citizens)

Who wants to be my campaign manager?!

[jimsnaza]

Social Security:  Raise the retirement age to 67 for 46-55 year old’s, 70 for 36-45 year olds, and 75 for anyone under 35.



If you raise my retirement age to 75, I'll start a revolution with the rest of the people under 35. 

[Swing low, sweet chariot. Comin' for to carry me home.]

Social Security:  Raise the retirement age to 67 for 46-55 year old’s, 70 for 36-45 year olds, and 75 for anyone under 35.



If you raise my retirement age to 75, I'll start a revolution with the rest of the people under 35. 

well, it doesn't keep you from retiring if you've saved up for yourself, it just keeps you from receiving Social Security to support retirement prior to the age of 75.  it will need to be explained to the American people that when Social Security was instituted, the retirement age was greater than the age of life expectancy.  It will also have to be explained how much of a pyramid scheme it is and how the demographics can not support it.   We have to be honest about our limitations.

[perdedor]

Giuliani would be closest to my leanings, which hurts to say.

[California8429]

Withdraw all U.S. ground forces from Japan.

And leave North Korea free to whatever? We need the bases in Japan and South Korea

[Anthony]

I wouldn't mind if Jon Huntsman or Charlie Crist became president. Unfortunately, it seems unlikely either of these two candidates will win the Republican nomination anytime soon...

[Electric Feel]

Chris Shays, but that would never happen. The Republican Party is way too far right these days.

[RIP Robert H Bork]

Has anyone read my first post? People like Chris Shays aren't "currently mentioned Republican candidates"--I'm thinking people who are actually mentioned in political circles today as potential Republican candidates.

[Electric Feel]

Ugh, I guess Giuliani then. It's not like any of them are actually worth voting for, though.

[Swing low, sweet chariot. Comin' for to carry me home.]

Has anyone read my first post? People like Chris Shays aren't "currently mentioned Republican candidates"--I'm thinking people who are actually mentioned in political circles today as potential Republican candidates.

it's too early for me to tell, I want to hear from each one of them....though right now I favor Thune

[California8429]

Has anyone read my first post? People like Chris Shays aren't "currently mentioned Republican candidates"--I'm thinking people who are actually mentioned in political circles today as potential Republican candidates.

it's too early for me to tell, I want to hear from each one of them....though right now I favor Thune

same but Gingrich

[KeeptheChange]

Any of them would be preferable to Obama, of course. 

Thune or Pence would be the best, because both seem to have the strongest commitment to changing taxation as we know it.  And both have even strongly credentials on family values than Mike Huckabee or Sarah Palin.

Unfortunately, no Republican seems to have the will to put most of government in mothballs, where it belongs.  (By this, I mean shutting down or privatizing most government agencies.)

I am not sure Gary Johnson is sufficiently pro-life. But he seems to be very much opposed to the welfare state, which has crippled our nation's poor.

Romney impresses me as a very serious man, but we conservatives need to be very cautious about flip-floppers.  Bush 41 and McCain both flirted with social and economic liberalism after claiming conservative credentials.  So while I am willing to give Romney the benefit of the doubt as to his conversion from liberal to conservative, I am going to reserve any support for him until I hear some ironclad, down-the-line conservative policy ideas.

I really like Palin's moxie, and I want to support her because the liberal media hate her so much.  But there's really not much going on upstairs.

The rest?  Who knows?  For now, it's Thune or Pence.

[Bo]

I think John Hoeven might be a good President if he runs (and wins).

[Хahar 🤔]

Bob Kelleher (normal)