My Pick for the 2008 Presidential Nomination

Taking some time out from my intense medical school studies, I recently took the online quiz referenced just below this post and narrowed down the list of virtual unknown people and a few celebrity politicians to Fred Thompson and Duncan Hunter. Not knowing much about them, I decided to thoroughly peruse their web sites. I knew I wouldn't be for candidates like McCain and Giuliani. With his far left positions on virtually everything but terror, Giuliani might as well be a Democrat. McCain, although likeable is not much better than Giuliani. Apparently, according to the quiz anyway, Mit Romney and Ron Paul are not too far behind Giuliani and McCain on taking up anti American left wing extremist positions of the left. Although my score was quite high for McCain, it left out facts such as his support for the unConstitutional campaign finance reforms. So, that leaves me back at Duncan Hunter and Fred Thompson. Both seem to be sharp, likeable guys. Thompson has a Reaganesque flair (obviously since both are actors and can turn on that sort of charm for the camera), and I sorta hope he wins the nomination in a pragmatic sense because he could stomp the Democrats in televised events such as a debate. All in all it is a hard choice, but I am going with Duncan Hunter because he supports the Fair Tax, while Thompson won't commit and seems to favor the unworkable "flat tax." In fact, Hunter is a cosponsor of the Fair Tax bill in Congress right now.

Interestingly, the quiz seems to think I disagree with them on immigration and energy policy. I am pretty much in agreement with their take on immigration. We only slightly disagree in minor details. They almost totally oppose "amnesty," whereas I oppose it with the caveat that once we seal the borders for real, there is then the problem of what to do with those that got in. I think it is unrealistic and prohibitively expensive to deport everyone, and also potentially cruel. As far as energy goes, the only place that they both disagree with me is that they would both subsidize ethanol production. I am all for government supporting infrastructure (I think government should be doing more of that and less of everything else), but I wouldn't go so far as to subsidize something that is already quite well subsidized and very hypothetical at this point as a solution to any energy problems. The only workable solutions right now are more domestic oil exploration, more oil refineries, less enviroblend regulation on gasoline, and more nuclear energy. Investing in research, however, is always a good thing.

So, it comes back down to the Fair Tax. Vote for Hunter!

	Fred Thompson Score: 49	Agree Iraq Taxes Stem-Cell Research Health Care Abortion Social Security Line-Item Veto Marriage Death Penalty	Disagree Immigration Energy
	Duncan Hunter Score: 49	Agree Iraq Taxes Stem-Cell Research Health Care Abortion Social Security Line-Item Veto Marriage Death Penalty	Disagree Immigration Energy
-- Take the Quiz! --