The superstars of the 2008 presidential race are undoubtedly the Democrats.
The Republicans, however, have some powerhouses as well.
Many of these candidates do not adhere to the contemporarily conventional idea of the evangelical, warmongering, feed-the-rich conservative that is the currently traded standard.
I chose my top four from those candidates who have declared an intent to run. Although I am not a Republican, I admire the classic Republican values. I also admire candidates who make personal decisions and implement them into their platforms, which is why current frontrunner Mitt Romney is absent from my list.
My picks are mostly fiscally conservative, and while they may not all be considered exactly socially progressive, they are at least open-minded.
Ron Paul
Ron Paul, M.D. is a U.S. representative from Texas.
First and foremost, Paul rejects “the notion that we need a president to run our lives, play in the economy, or police the world.” He is a strong constitutionalist and has a steady libertarian voting record.
Paul is really into the old-school Republican values of states’ rights and constitutional sovereignty. Paul feels that the job of the president is to protect liberty, not “When government uses force, liberty is sacrificed.” Paul opposed the initial Iraq invasion, and opposes the overall interventionalist foreign policy of modern American government.
This commitment to limiting the government’s power to interfere in affairs both domestic and abroad is what attracts me the most to this candidate.
John McCain
John McCain’s name has been connected to the presidency ever since his failed primary run in 2000.
Many consider that he was robbed of that election due to political maneuvering by Karl Rove, myself included.
My only beef with the senator from Arizona is that he supported the initial Iraq invasion. Making up for this has been his commitment to completing the operations over there, while not bowing to the administration’s view of how the war should be fought.
It takes character and confidence to support a persons decision, but confront them on how they carry it out.
He also shows very good judgment on bipartisan issues, and thinks with his head out from under his party’s hat.
John Cox
Veteran, while relatively weak in political experience compared to the others, John Cox, a CPA from Chicago, is the most fiscally conservative candidate.
He has been involved with the Republican Party for a long time, but has failed in both his 2000 run for the House of Representatives and his 2002 run for Senate.
He has revolutionary ideas, like requiring Iraq to pay for war expenses through oil profits after they have a stable economy (which requires a solid plan for wrapping the war up) and doing away with income tax and the IRS attract notice and made me scoff initially.
However, after reading more about his actual plans for accomplishing these goals, he becomes an attractive candidate.
However, he lost points with me by succumbing to the pressures of the social conservative sect of the right wing, by making political commercials supporting their agendas.
Rudy Giuliani
I admire essentially two things about Rudy Giuliani.
The first is his leadership ability. He literally wrote the book on the subject. Anyone who has been in a work setting where something as trivial as a copy machine has broken down knows how hard it is to lead people through a crisis.
Giuliani has led New York City through the greatest modern crisis in the past century, and he has every right to brag and bask in this accomplishment.
The second thing I admire, though I admit it confuses me, is his progressive platform. He is pro-choice, supports rights for same-sex relationships equal to marriage, and supports strong gun control. These three platform items are the textbook Democratic issues, and it is a bold move for Giuliani to make, but it begs the question: Why not just run as a Democrat?
But this confusion is not why Giuliani is not my first pick for Republican nominee. It is because he has shown himself to be far too temperamentally volatile for the honor of my first place Republican pick. That and his rocky personal life are indicators that while he may know how to handle a crisis, he might run into problems working his way through the day to day grind.