The Republican Candidates

I agree with Tom Sowell that there is no Democrat worth considering, but let me tell you what I think of those running for President on the Republican side.

Mike Huckabee: Sincere Evangelical Christian - social democrat. Not a combination I care for. I want Freedom of Choice in Religion, social relations and commerce.

Rudy Giuliani: Strong leader, saved New York City from going the way of Detroit - authoritarian. He's sure he knows what's best for you.

John McCain: A real hero, a real Christian - a real [chicken-in-every-pot] economic populist - Welfare/Warfare statist extraordinaire.

Ron Paul: near perfect Constitutionalist in his voting record - has taken some odd fliers in his career, and listened to some bad advice on how to advance his libertarian message. And he's raked in a hefty pile appealing to fringies.

Mitt Romney: Professional (and successful) business restructurer, sincere Mormon (not a bad thing at all, in my opinion) - statist. Too willing to leave Constitutional interpretation to the judges, and where he's willing to try to lead them isn't anywhere The Founder's wanted America to go.

Fred Thompson: the truest Reagan conservative in this campaign - I heard tonight that he was endorsing Bush's "stimulus package." That makes him an economic moron.

That ain't what Reagan did. Reagan didn't dodge the recession, he faced it like a man: he gave the whiners a steely glare and rode the Keynesian dragon of stagflation of the Nixon, Ford and Carter years into the ground.

The work of the Reagan Revolution wasn't done when his time was up. I wish I could say - because it would be so much more poetic - when the Constitution mustered him out, but the fact is that I don't think he could have handled another year of the presidency, let alone a full term.

I acknowledge my personal debt to Ronald Reagan, and the debt the world owes him -whether humanity acknowledges it or not - and I'd like to see this current crop of candidates aim for that level of leadership. Giuliani and Romney can lead, but they have no principles - or, rather, that have insufficient principles of the sort I want to follow. If McCain or Huckabee were placed at the head of my column, I think I'd head for the hills.

I like Thompson. I wish he'd lead.

Ron Paul... I think he's trying to decentralize leadership. And I absolutely agree with that.

You want leadership? Get your ass in gear!