Republicans Enter the Third Period

by Jim, a Republican blogger

BUSH/WHAT HAPPENED TO THE GOP.

Huckabee and Tancredo admit that the current administration has lost the small-government principal pioneered by Republicans.   I completely agree!  It's a shame they didn't ask Dr Paul this one.

PART II - voters

The heart-wrenching story of a family loosing a son in Iraq brings tears to my eyes, as I have served for 17 years with some great folks in the Military who have answered the call to serve.  But I feel that their service has been abused by politicians who have sent us to war needlessly over the past century, with few exceptions.  All the candidtes answers seem to be, that by doing it differently, they will somehow succeed while Bush has failed.   Paul does a great job on calling out the others as neocons and trying to promote democracy at the point of a gun.  Giuliani winds up getting called a neocon by Wolf Blitzer (appropriately), and he walks right into it, saying we need to "nation build" in Iraq.  

Health Insurance - wow, I actually agree with Giuliani on this one!  He talks about how we need to get medicine back to a free market, essentially laying out the plan that was previously suggested by Bush (tax credits for individuals).  He also pointed out that the Democrats were proposing a Socialist system of health care.  Tommy Thompson then proceeds to outline a top-down system of reforms, which would be very anti-free market.  Romney gets called on increasing the involvement of Government in Massachussets, through having the state pay for insurance.  His was not a purely socialist system, but more of a hybrid.  

Top moral issue?  Ron Paul hits it out of the park with this one, talking about how we have accepted the notion of pre-emptive war against countries that have not done anything to us.  Again, it's the pink elephant in the room that everyone else is ignoring.