Categories
National politics

Rick Santorum

8568110312_614795b69a_k
Photo by Gage Skidmore

In studying Rick Santorum I remembered that he had run for President in 2012 but had forgotten how well he did in that race and how much of a political track record he had before then. One thing that really stuck out to me about him is his commitment to his principles and values. Rick knows what he believes and isn’t afraid to defend what he believes even where it runs counter to popular opinions. His priorities include fighting for mainstream Americans, espousing conservative social values, and promoting a limited view of government.

He doesn’t generate the kind of excitement and headlines that other candidates consistently deliver but I suspect if I were to meet him on the campaign trail I would see a candidate with a firm grasp of the issues he was addressing based on putting in the work to study the issues and wrestle with some of the complexities.

Rick appears to be better prepared and more experienced personally and politically than many candidates who run for President and I find it very easy to endorse Rick Santorum for President.

Categories
National politics

Donald Trump

5440390625_feab8a9520_z

Photo by Gage Skidmore

It would have been so easy to not give The Donald a fair shake in my candidate evaluations and simply say that his arrogance and tone automatically disqualified him as a candidate. Considering how much support he has even as his sophomoric personality has been on public display I think it is important to treat him as a serious candidate and study his campaign itself rather than the media coverage of his campaign.

Categories
National politics

Evaluating Presidential Candidates

16572095095_52ba79bf7e_z
Image by Donkey Hotey

Eight years ago with two crowded presidential primaries I did a long series evaluating each presidential candidate. I evaluated every candidate I could find, not just those in the two major parties. It was an interesting exercise although I opted not to do it again in 2012. I wasn’t planning to do it for 2016 either because I had expected Hillary Clinton and the following GOP candidates (in no particular order) to be the focus of the race: Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, Chris Christie, Rand Paul, Scott Walker, Ted Cruz, Rick Perry, Mike Huckabee, and possibly Bobby Jindal. With the way the race has been shaped by other candidates I’ve decided to do it again – specifically, I decided to do this after watching both Scott Walker and Rick Perry have the life sucked from their campaigns by Donald Trump who is a vastly inferior candidate to either of them (having tipped my hand on Trump I should probably do my write-up of him first). Last time I evaluated 38 candidates, this time I will only do candidates from the major parties.