Jon Huntsman: I admire his patriotism in accepting the position of Ambassador to China in a Democratic administration even though he is a Republican. He was splendidly qualified to be the ambassador to this strategic country right down to his speaking the language - Mandarin. By all accounts, he was a successful fiscally-conservative twice-elected governor of Utah and cut the state budget by $400 million while maintaining a budget surplus. As a result, the Pew Research Center named Utah "The Best managed State in America." He was a White House staff assistant to Ronald Reagan, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce to George H.W. Bush, and was Ambassador to Singapore. Interesting fact: Jon Huntsman nominated Sarah Palin at the 2008 Republican convention (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAc1I--I8Os). I view John Huntsman to be by far the most qualified Republican to run for President, though he may be hurt by his Mormon religion and, shortsightedly, by his accepting the Ambassadorship in a Democratic administration.
Mitt Romney: After earning a BA from Brigham Young University, Mitt Romney received a joint JD/BBA from Harvard. He has considerable business experience in which he was remarkably successful, having worked for Boston consulting Group and Bain & Company. He is credited to helping such companies as Monsanto and Corning to become profitable again. He progressed to doing venture capital operations, one of which was Staples as head of Bain Capital. He became CEO of Bain & Company in 1991 and is credited with saving the company. He is credited with saving the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics and leading it to success. Romney became a one-term governor of Massachusetts in 2003 where through a series of spending cuts, increased fees, and fixing tax loophole, he turned the state from a deficit to a large surplus. All was not well, however, as there were silent increases elsewhere. His cutting of state aid to higher education resulted in large tuition increases (63%) in the following years. Because of his cuts in the state budget, town and city property taxes also had had to be raised. And his raising of fees for drivers and marriage licenses and a two cent retailer fee on gasoline was a hardship on the poor and lower classes. But the total tax burden in Massachusetts remained below the national average. Interesting fact: Romney did do his Mormon missionary work and tithes to his church.
He then championed near-universal health care funded by a payroll tax for Massachusetts on the basis that the uninsured still received expensive health care anyway, and there was a threat of a cut in Federal Medicaid aid if the state did not decrease the number of uninsured. He has been roundly criticized for this by many out-of-state Republicans, but he has said that what he did was appropriate for the state but not for the Federal government. Among the many things many Republicans don't like in the healthcare bill is the individual mandate that Romany pushed through for Massachusetts. As of mid-year in 2011, Romney has raised the most money by far of any Republican candidate. All in all, Romney might make a good president and probably would largely decrease the Federal deficit (but with quiet increases elsewhere); however his waffling on many issues such as abortion (http://www.ontheissues.org/governor/Mitt_Romney_Abortion.htm) in trying to get support from his fellow Republicans make in doubt his success in getting the Republican nomination for president.
Michelle Bachman: Michelle Bachman is prone to making outrageous comments,*** that I call her evil twin. She has hired some top level handlers for her campaign, and, if she can keep her evil twin at bay, she could be dangerous. She is a former state Senator, a three-time elected Representative from Minnesota, a member of the Religious Right and the Tea Party, has five children, and took care of 23 foster girls up to three at a time. She has not only a JD from Oral Roberts University, but also has a LLM (Master of Law) from William & Mary Law School and has worked as a tax attorney for the IRS. She and her husband did receive daily reimbursement for the foster children from the state of Minnesota. They also run a Christian counseling practice and receive money from the Federal government for this. Originally a Democrat, she worked for the first Carter election though she switched to Ronald Reagan for Carter's reelection bid. She is a very active opponent to Gay Marriage. She opposed the College Cost Reduction Act and Access Act signed into law by President Bush. Curious fact: she once worked on a Kibbutz (http://www.worthychristianforums.com/index.php?/topic/140802-michelle-bachman-once-lived-on-a-kibbutz-in-israel/).
Perhaps Bachman's most famous bill was to oppose a law to eliminate incandescent light bulbs unless they could be made as efficient as a compact florescent lights (CFL), which Bachman interpreted as outlawing incandescent lights (http://stopcontinentaldrift.blogspot.com/2011/05/will-incandescent-light-bulbs-be-banned.html). A complex matter involves mercury contained in CFLs; however, " Bob Collins of Minnesota Public Radio commented on the debate, noting a Popular Mechanics article which concluded that over the average life span of a CFL, an incandescent bulb could result in the emission of more mercury than an equivalent CFL, even if the CFL was broken, assuming power was generated by "a coal-fired power plant" (which produce about half the electricity the US consumes)." (See Wikipedia article below). Actually, incandescent lights will probably be improved to compete with CFLs.
Note added 07-11): Michelle Bachman signed a pledge that included a clause that black children were better off under slavery (http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/07/11/bachmann-denies-marriage-pledge-was-about-slavery/). She says she did not read the pledge carefully enough though this suggests she is careless.
Tim Pawlenty: Pawlenty started politics early having been elected to the Eagan city council at he age of 28. Served in the Minnesota House of Representative where he was majority leader for two terms. He served as the two term governor of Minnesota from 2003-2011, winning by narrow margins. He has a BA in political science and a JD from the University of Minnesota. He solved Minnesota's deficit problem through spending cuts (including on health care) and borrowing heavily from earmarked funds (e.g. the tobacco settle supposed to be for health care and the K-12 education, and the Health Care fund for low income families). He did support raising of fees (like Romney) and government reorganization to cut the deficit. His anti-healthcare leanings cause him to reject Federal funds from the Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act. He has served as president of the National Governor's Association. He did promote pubic works projects that included the North Star Commuter rail line and, also, a major league baseball field (which included an increase in the county sales tax). He did support the scandalous corn-based ethanol subsidy for farmers by mandated gasoline in the state carry 20% ethanol, in spite of ethanol having little benefit to carbon dioxide reduction. When there was a budget surplus he favored tax reduction over education funding.
He has made much of his humble beginnings as his father was a milk truck driver. He is of Polish (father) and German (mother) heritage. His wife is a judge and they have two daughters. He converted from Roman Catholicism to evangelicalism, his wife's faith. He first worked as a labor lawyer and later a s vice president of Wizmo, Inc. He is a social conservative and a member of the Christian Right and opposed to both gay marriage and civil unions. Although he surprisingly is for private sector unions (perhaps from his humble origins), he is opposed to public sector unions. He is leaving behind a huge budget deficit as a result of his short-term solutions. Former Republican Governor Anne Carlson is reported to have said that she thinks that no governor has left behind a worse financial mess than Pawlenty. He has not been a popular governor of Minnesota and in spite of all his campaigning, has low name recognition.
I feel Pawlenty has no chance of being nominated, but, because there are better informed people than I who think differently, I include him in the list. His poor record in balancing the state budget, and short-term solutions of using borrowing from designated funds was sure to come back to haunt him and he has left the state with a $5 billion deficit. I feel that his record is undeserving of being President. His opposition to any government run health care may appeal to some Republicans but not to me. I don't know the Republican view of raising fees, but they could view them as increased taxes (If so, Romney has the same problem.) He has campaigned a long time in Iowa and doesn't seem to have gotten any traction. Michelle Bachman will probably take the religious right vote in Iowa and is currently thought to be the leading candidate to win in Iowa.
At least right now, the above seem to be the most viable candidates. Newt Gringrich has been caught telling the truth which is always dangerous for a politician (http://stopcontinentaldrift.blogspot.com/2011/05/truth-is-dangerous-for-politicians.html). There are two currently undeclared politicians , however, that need to be considered:
James (Rick) Perry: Parry apparently is seriously considering entering the Republican presidential race at the urgings of his wife and other supporters after repeatedly saying he was not interested. He attended college at Texas A&M. He served in the air force, retired as a Captain, and returned to helping his father grow cotton. As lieutenant governor, he became governor of Texas when George W. Bush resigned to become president, but, since then, he has been reelected three times.# He is the longest serving governor of Texas and is currently Chairman of the Republican Governor's Association. His wife Anita is a nurse who has been active in a number health issues and has formed the Anita Thigpen Endowment at the U. Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio. Originally, Perry was elected to the state house as a fiscally conservative Democrat and was Chairman of the Al Gore campaign in Texas. Interesting fact: he worked for awhile as a book salesman.
Perry joined the Republican party in 1989. He was Agricultural commissioner for two terms. He narrowly was elected Lieutenant Governor in 1998, the first Republican to hold the position since Reconstruction, and he became governor in 2000. He was reelected by a plurality of less than 40%. In a campaign financing scandal, Perry ended up paying Chris Bell, a competitor $426,000 to settle the suit. Though he was initially a strong proponent of health care, he has subsequently tapered back his interest resulting in refusal of Federal government matching funds. Like Romney and Pawlenty, Perry raised fees. He also borrowed from the Federal Unemployment Trust Fund to help balance the budget. He was reelected on a promise to reduce property taxes, which he did. He has also set the Texas record in use of his veto authority. He has opposed gambling and increasing cigarette taxes. He has made 23 foreign trips with the state covering only 1% of his costs, but the security detail costs have totaled more than a million dollars. Perry strongly opposed the 16th amendment that authorizes Federal income tax. He subscribes as nearly as I can tell to all the tenants of the religious right: he supports the death penalty and is pro-life, opposes all legal recognition of same sex marriages, restricts abortions, doesn't believe in anthropogenic caused global warming, and supports the teaching of Intelligent Design along side of Evolution. He promoted a Day of Prayer and Fasting and more recently Days of Prayer for Rain in Texas. Parry has been a strong advocate of education, refusing to cut teachers salaries, text books, etc. He did break with the Christian Right by mandating Texas girls receive HPV vaccine for papilloma virus. He has strongly promoted improved transportation in Texas through use of management and partial funding by private industry. Texas is considered to have maybe the best transportation system.
Though he never actually said that Texas should secede from the Union, he did mention (falsely) that Texas has the right to secede if she wants to. Though I grant him his right of free speech to say such things, I view it as un-patriotic and unworthy of a President of the United States. His biggest support for a nomination run comes from the extraordinary jobs increase in Texas during his reign. Unfortunately, the Texas tax base is so low, that the state faces a very large deficit problem (with estimates as high as $27 billion) that could hurt him if he were to run for the Republican nomination.#
Sarah Palin: The mother of five children (including one that she knew had Downs syndrome), was the youngest and first woman governor of Alaska when she was chosen by John McCain to be his vice-presidential running mate. Barack Obama won the election, however, and Palin resigned the governorship under a cloud of ethics violations and law suits.## This allowed her to cash in on her celebrity or "higher calling." She has a large and worshipful following and is said to "take the air out of the room" from anyone else present. She is a member of the Religious Right and even led the Fellowship of Christian Athletes in high school where she played basketball and ran cross-country. She was co-captain of her high school basketball team that won the state championship in 1982. Her family moved often, and she attended various colleges, eventually graduating from the Univ. of Idaho with a BA in communications with an emphasis on journalism. Interesting fact: She worked for awhile as a sportscaster and sports reporter. Her political career started in 1992 when she was elected to be a member of the City Council of Wasilla, a position she held for two years. Then she was elected Mayor of Wasilla where she served for the limit of two three-year terms.
She used the income from a 2% sales tax to cut personal property taxes by 75% and eliminate personal property and business inventory taxes that is credited to bringing big-box stores to Wasilla. She raised the sales tax by half a percent and floated a bond issue to build a municipal sports center. She increased the cities debt from $1 million to $25 million because of bond issues for the sports complex, street improvements and water improvements. She joined other communities to hire a lobbyist which resulted in earmarks for her city government, youth shelter, a transportation hub, and sewer repairs. She became the chair of the Alaska Oil and Gas commission and began her ethics attacks against fellow Republicans that resulted in two resignations (The head of the Alaska Republican Party and the Attorney General). Palin was elected governor in 2006, promoted oil and gas development and continued her ethics emphasis. By all accounts she was a popular governor. She has been criticized for taking per diem of $58/day and reimbursement for family traveling with her on trips while she was governor. She did try to decrease Alaska's dependence on Federal funding, the largest per capita in the nation. In the famous "Bridge To Nowhere" debacle, though initially she was in favor of the bridge (that was to the airport), Pain cancelled the bridge project but did not return the $442 million of Federal funding. Her awarding a large contract to TransCanada Pipelines to study a natural gas pipeline to bring natural gas from the north slopes to the lower 48 is may be her biggest achievement. Like Michelle Bachman, Sarah Palin has been the source of much unintended humor.##
Palin is a member of the religious right and opposes same sex marriage, abortion (including cases of rape and incest), embryonic stem cell research, Obamacare, bans on semi-automatic assault weapons, cap and trade for carbon dioxide (cap and trade for sulfur emissions has been in effect since 1990). She does support sex education involving abstinence and contraception, parental consent in cases of abortion for teen aged girls, teaching of creationism alongside evolution, gun safety training of youth, and capital punishment. She also supports off-shore drilling and exploration in the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).## She supported the Iraq military adventure (with some reservations) and the surge. Her putting Rep. "Gabby" Giffords in her crosshairs prior to Gifford's attempted assassination has been roundly criticized.
In addition to the increases in sales taxes mentioned above, Palin put through a major tax increase on oil companies in Alaska that raised $6 billion the first year (http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008103325_alaskatax07.html); however, Palin followers seem to forgive her for anything including a charge of poor parenting because of one daughter's out of wedlock baby. Though Palin has not declared to run for the Republican nomination she has not shut the door to it either. It seems to me, however, that her time to have declared has passed with Michelle Backman officially in the race as they appeal to the same people, but Palin's outstanding celebrity might put her in good stead. If Palin were to run, her increasing sales taxes and a major increase in tax on the oil companies in Alaska might come back to hurt her. So far as I know, the take by Palin handicappers is that she will not run.
*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Huntsman,_Jr.
** http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitt_Romney
In turning around companies, usually lots of people get laid off; however, if the company isn't turned around and the company fails, everybody gets laid off. So turnarounds are the better of the two choices.
*** http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/the-10-craziest-michele-bachmann-quotes; http://www.alternet.org/story/151439/psycho_talk%3A_the_32_craziest_things_gop_presidential_contender_michele_bachmann_has_said?akid=7203.290103.OJPh0B&rd=1&t=3
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michele_Bachmann
**** http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Pawlenty
# http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Perry
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/04/us-usa-deficits-states-idUSTRE71314420110204
##http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Palin
http://www.sodahead.com/united-states/why-sarah-palin-resigned---the-real-story/question-1845233/
Note: I also support oil exploration in ANWR.
http://politicalhumor.about.com/od/sarahpalin/a/palinisms.htm
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