How would you have voted?: 2008 Republican Presidential Primaries

[Rat]

I'm pretty open to most of the major contenders in this field. I respected McCain, though I did feel like his time was in 2000. Rudy and Fred Thompson both were appealing to me, as was Ron Paul (I would eventually take a libertarian turn after this election). At the time, I supported Mitt Romney, and would do so again.

Not particularly interested in Mike Huckabee (though he was far better in 2008 than he was post-2008). The others aren't serious or appealing at all to me.

Voted Romney.

[OSR stands with Israel]

Romney

[Goldwater]

McCain, easily.

[President Johnson]

Fred Thompson

[Goldwater]

Fred Thompson

Huh, interesting choice. I did not expect that.

[Del Tachi]

The conservative option:  Mitt Romney.

[Sprouts Farmers Market ✘]

At the time Mike Huckabee. With hindsight, Rudy Giuliani.

[TDAS04]

John McCain or Ron Paul. Yes, I’m aware that those two were almost polar opposites, but they still managed to be the two least bad (in very different ways) of that rotten bunch.

[Mr. Smith]

Huckabee.

[Don't Blame Me, I'm from Massachusetts]

Huckabee

[TheTide]

The first and second tier candidates were a complete mish-mash in terms of ideology and their positioning in the race. McCain and Giuliani ran as the most 'moderate' candidates whilst also being the most neocon (which mattered greatly given the salience of Iraq in this election). Romney was probably the most privately.and historically liberal but ran as effectively a Reaganite conservative. Huckabee ran as the candidate of the Religious Right but was probably the most left-wing economically. Thompson ran as a True Conservative but was really not that different from McCain in reality.

Things were more straightforward four years later. It was consistently a choice between Romney and a candidate clearly further to the right.

[The '90s' Last Champion]

McCain

[Averroës]

Ron Paul. The party was too far gone on the Iraq War to vote for anyone else.

[OSR stands with Israel]

The first and second tier candidates were a complete mish-mash in terms of ideology and their positioning in the race. McCain and Giuliani ran as the most 'moderate' candidates whilst also being the most neocon (which mattered greatly given the salience of Iraq in this election). Romney was probably the most privately.and historically liberal but ran as effectively a Reaganite conservative. Huckabee ran as the candidate of the Religious Right but was probably the most left-wing economically. Thompson ran as a True Conservative but was really not that different from McCain in reality.

Things were more straightforward four years later. It was consistently a choice between Romney and a candidate clearly further to the right.

Giuliani was definitely had a more liberal record than Romney as well though . He was openly pro choice , very pro gun control , liberal on immigration issues and sued to strike down the line item veto . He even endorsed Cuomo over Pataki and was the nominee of the NY liberal party so I would definitely say Giuliani was more liberal than Romney .

Romney on the other hand has always been consistently pretty right wing on immigration