Conclusion:

So there you have it, the official positions of the nine Republican presidential candidates. Now that you’ve read them, I can come clean as to another reason I wrote this paper: I am extremely sick of hearing the continuous whining coming from conservatives, particularly from “Values voters” it seems, about how there is not a real conservative in the race. Don’t be fooled by these pessimists: I’m convinced that any one of the men I listed above would make a conservative president running a conservative government.

What these whiners are really saying, though, is that there’s not a real conservative in the frontrunners, those assumed frontrunners being Thompson, Giuliani, Romney, and McCain. I always wonder, every time I hear this complaint, why these people are too uninformed, too close-minded, or too scared of being in the minority to examine the other five candidates in the race. I wonder what they’d say if they would actually take the time to find out that a former Baptist preacher that stands strongly for the sanctity of life, strongly for the foundation of the family, and strongly against gun control is in the race (and, as you know from reading the summarization, Mike Huckabee is far from alone on those positions).

Which brings me back to the entire point of this paper: to get you, the voter, to examine each one of the individual candidates for what they believe, and to vote with whomever you agree. This isn’t about saying, “Hey, look, Mitt Romney has a bunch of folks holding signs! I’ll vote for him,” as you drive up to the polls. This is about independently analyzing each candidate and voting for who you think is best for the country at this time. If you think it’s Mitt Romney, that’s great. Voting is too important, however, to leave your vote up to whoever has the most signs out, runs the most commercials, or gets the most TV screen time. Think about it: how great would it be if the best man for the country won instead of the best fundraiser?

I hope that this summarization of the Republican presidential primaries has helped you form your opinion on the candidates accurately. If you have any questions, critiques, or comments on this work, I would love to hear them (my email address is uberdawg@grandecom.net).

I’d like to leave you with a list of websites that I recommend not only for accurate political information (though the last four are not known for shying away from partisanship, I will warn you) about the upcoming election, but politics in general as well:

http://www.ontheissues.org/default.htm: a site dedicated to looking at candidates for many federal and state government positions and where they stand/have stood on issues.

http://www.nationalreview.com/: the online home of the weekly magazine National Review (a magazine I recommend strongly).

http://www.weeklystandard.com/: the online home of The Weekly Standard, another magazine I recommend strongly.

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/today.guest.html: the website of talk radio broadcaster Rush Limbaugh, whose show runs from 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM Central time.

http://www.glennbeck.com/home/index.shtml: the website of talk radio broadcaster and TV personality Glenn Beck, whose radio show runs from 8:00 AM to 11:00 AM Central time and TV show airs at both 6:00 PM Central and 8:00 PM Central on CNN Headline News.

And finally, the list of the candidate’s own websites, where I got most of my information:

http://www.brownback.com/s/, Sam Brownback.

http://www.joinrudy2008.com/, Rudy Giuliani.

http://www.mikehuckabee.com/, Mike Huckabee.

http://www.gohunter08.com/, Duncan Hunter.

http://www.johnmccain.com/, John McCain.

http://www.ronpaul2008.com/, Ron Paul.

http://www.mittromney.com/, Mitt Romney.

http://www.teamtancredo.com/, Tom Tancredo.

http://fred08.com/, Fred Thompson.