GOP Primary Debate Scorecard

I’ve looked around the web, and although there are many articles entitled “GOP Debate Scorecard”, none are actually what I would consider a scorecard, that is, a card with the names going across one way, various categories going across the other way, and marks where the rows and columns intersect.

Like so:

Romney Brownback Gilmore Huckabee Hunter Thompson McCain Paul Giuliani Tancredo
Repeal Roe v. Wade •/-
Disbelieve evolution
Ban stem cell research
intervene in schiavo case ND ND ND ND
slag Mrs. Clinton
pardon Libby ND ND ND ND
cut taxes without mentioning reducing spending
support flat tax/"Fair" tax or repeal AMT
talk about iraq in terms of winning instead of leaving ND ND
slag Bush
namecheck Reagan
set up a national ID system ND ND ND
start WWIII ND ND ND
admit to beliefs dictating lawmaking ND ND ND ND ND ND
believe there is no consensus on global warming ND ND ND ND ND ND ND ND
wall off Mexico ND ND ND ND ND ND ND
said
"they do it too" in response to ethics questions
ND ND ND ND ND ND ND ND
Have Charisma ND ND ND

Key:
• Candidate made statements to that effect
-Candidate disagreed with statement
ND Candidate didn’t take a position

You can visit their website to get their supposed platform and stand on common issues; what is represented here is only what they actually said during the debate itself.

Caveats: I’ve used my own glib shorthand to refer to some issues. I’ve selected all the issues they all took a position on, but selected others according to my interests. The last row is my opinion only. Giuliani expressly said he was pro-choice, and only that it would be “OK” if it were overturned.

“It’s an issue for the states” was a common phrase, and it seems to have been used most commonly to try to hide lack of support for a mainstream position. For example, saying “It’s an issue for the states” in regards to abortion, means “Overturn Roe v. Wade” whereas “”issue for the states” in regards to the Schiavo case meant “I personally would have intervened”.

As you can see now that it’s all laid out, the only candidate remotely mainstream is Giuliani. The Right is pushing Romney, but it’s clear from his statements regarding the Schiavo case and the role of his faith in lawmaking that he’s just a puppet to steal get “compassion conservative” votes from Giuliani. McCain is close to mainstream, but way too hawkish to be trusted. Likewise, Ron Paul is close to mainstream, but extremely libertarian with regard to governmental services such as healthcare, welfare, and so on. The rest of the lot are absolutely off-the scale radicals. Brownback, Tancredo, and Huckabee make Pat Buchanan look like a centrist.

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