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Analysis of the Final New Hampshire Republican Forum ala Fox        -By: Michael A. Minton   http://mrrightopinion.blogstream.com/.

The only way I can even start to describe this forum is to simply say…WOW! I wish we could roll them all up into one “Super Candidate” and put “Superpub” out there in November to take on whomever the Democrats choose. I have to admit, I cannot remember when we had a field of Republicans who looked and sounded this confident and this competent.

However, as in all things in life, there can only be one winner. And tonight, that winner has got to be Mitt Romney. He showed that he is a class act, and that he has the life experience to be the best possible selection for the next Commander-in-Chief.

All of the other candidates up there left me with question marks about them. With McCain, he emerged as a one-trick pony; he knows how to fight a war and Islamo-facism, but that’s it. Outside of national security (which is obviously extremely important, but by far not the only important issue of the day) he gave me nothing. No real, do-able plan on immigration, no plan to save Social Security, no plan on education, no plan on competing with outside influences (particularly China), just no plan…period. He’s a one-trick pony, and there are too many tricks in this world for that kind of candidate to get elected.

Additionally, in my “Profile: John McCain” article, I informed you that the senator was in favor of federal funding for embryonic stem cell research; basically the sacrificing of one life in the hopes of improving another. To me, and to millions of conservatives, that is just wrong. Also in that article, I apprised you that McCain has changed his position on overturning Roe v. Wade.

The final death nail for McCain, in my opinion, from the previous article I mentioned, was his comparison of Louis Farrakhan to Rev. Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson. That was just too much. In that article, Mccain said that, “pro-lifers are the outer reaches of American politics and the agents of intolerance.”

Next we have Giuliani, a man who would stand a better chance winning the primary if he had run on the Democrat ticket. I see him as kind of a one-trick pony, too, although tonight he did speak a little more to the economic situation in America. His mainstay, however, has always been, and will always be, that he was “America’s Mayor” on September 11, 2001. He has chosen to make that the cornerstone of his campaign, and it just simply will not win an election for him.

Do we need a president who will confront terrorism head-on? You bet we do. Do we need a president who will be calm and rational in the event of a national crisis? Absolutely. But we also need a president who can deal with the intricacies of trade with foreign countries, who has a proven track record of being not just a crisis manager, but a leader.

I also wrote an article profiling the Mayor, and what I revealed in it shows that, while he may be a fiscal conservative, he is about as socially liberal as one can get. In the 2007 GOP Iowa Straw Poll debate Aug 5, 2007, concerning abortion, Giuliani concluded that, “Ultimately, a woman should make that [decision] with her conscience and ultimately with her doctor.” I don’t know a whole lot of Conservatives who see it quite that way.

Also in that profile, I gave you some insight into Giuliani’s position on illegal immigrants. His quote in 1994 was, "If you come here and you work hard and you happen to be in an undocumented status, you're one of the people who we want in this city. You're somebody that we want to protect, and we want you to get out from under what is often a life of being a fugitive." In other words, if you’re an illegal, we will provide you safe harbor. I think the only thing that would change about that statement were he president is that instead of saying “you're one of the people who we want in this city,” he would be saying, “you're one of the people who we want in this country.”

One other issue with Rudy that I raised in my profile on him that stuck in my crawl was his stance on gun control. He said he believed that stronger gun control laws made his city safer. Yet, at the same time, he said that his “sanctuary policy” for illegals, which made them more likely to report crime, was the reason his city became more secure. Rudy is pro gun-control, and that just is not a winner among conservatives.

I know that I am feeding you more than just the information that was disclosed and discussed during the Fox Republican Forum, but I feel that you deserve to know not just what’s being said, but what’s actually “in the pudding.” The old adage “Actions speak louder than words” should help you vet out the talkers from the walkers.

Next let us turn our attention to the Iowa champ, Mike Huckabee. Now, I like Mike, I really do. He is a personable fellow, which I respect. He is a man of God, which I respect even more. And, yes, he does kind of tend to remind me of “one of the guys” at work. However, no matter how much I like “the guy at my construction site,” and no matter how much I respect the fact that that guy is a good, Godly, Christian man, I don’t want the crane operator at work to be the President of the United States of America..

I’m not saying that Chuck Norris’ buddy comes without any qualifications. I mean, you can’t be governor of a state for some 10 years and not gain SOME level of experience. However, what I am saying is that Gov. Huckabee is not what America needs in a president.

During his tenure as governor, he handed out more pardons and commutations than his three predecessors combined. The most infamous pardon for which he pushed, as I told about in my article “Huckabee Comes Under Fire for Pardons as Governor,” was that of a man by the name of Wayne DuMond. DuMond had been sentenced to life in prison for raping a teenager in 1984.

While he denies any role in the rapist’s release, the Arkansas Times quotes Ermer Pondexter, ex-member of the board of pardons and paroles, as saying that, “I signed the [parole] papers because the governor wanted Dumond paroled. I was thinking the governor was working for the best interests of the state.”

In addition to his liberal pardons and commutations, while Mr. Huckabee would like you to think he will be tough on immigration, he pushed for in-state college tuition for the illegal children of illegal adult immigrants.

What’s more, Huckabee is in favor of the so-called “touchback immigration” plan. Here is a quote from the December 13, 2007 issue of The Washington Post, in an article by Jerry Seper, “Minuteman co-founder James Gilchrist's endorsement of presidential candidate Mike Huckabee has spurred a backlash among illegal-immigration opponents who say the former Arkansas governor is soft on immigration enforcement.

"Mike Huckabee is pro-amnesty and favors a path to citizenship for illegal aliens currently in the U.S. that would require a lifting of current penalties," said William Gheen, whose 25,000-member Americans for Legal Immigration sent mass mailings yesterday to more than 300 pro-enforcement groups.

"Huckabee has released an immigration plan that contains the deceptive 'touch back' provision that the pushers of amnesty tried on us in Washington this year," he said. "He wants to trick the nation by having illegal aliens leave for a day to pick up new papers at an office set up across the border and then walk right back."

There are not a whole lot of true conservatives who want to see this nation overrun by illegals, and that is just what will happen if Huckabee wins it all. Ronald Reagan was a great man and a wise leader. He was also an excellent teacher, and one thing he taught us is that amnesty does nothing more than increase the flow of illegals into our country.

Other than Mitt Romney, the only Republican candidate I would stand behind four square is Fred Thompson. I genuinely like the Tennessee Senator, and, as I have said in the past, if he were not so lackadaisical about running for the office, I would back him for president 100%. Unfortunately, through his remarks and lack of action, he has let me (and the rest of CONCIOUS America) know that he is just not enthusiastically pursuing the position.

All of this leads us back to where this article started: Mitt Romney won this “Forum,” and the former Mass. Governor is the right choice for the Republican nomination for the next President of the United States of America.

Romney has proven time and again that he is more than qualified to run not only a state with a huge budget, but huge corporations with huge budgets as well. As he himself said, his experience has taught him what creates jobs and what loses jobs.

Romney pointed out that his experiences in the private sector, mixed with his dealings in public life, make him uniquely qualified to deal with countries like China on trade issues. He knows how to create budgets and stick with them. He also gave us a plan to deal with the impending Social Security crisis which is looming large.

He openly admitted that he had changed his mind on a couple of issues such as abortion, but he came across as genuine in the convictions he now espouses.

To me, he was the ONLY Republican candidate on last night’s panel who came off as a sincere social and economic conservative; something that this country desperately needs at this point in history. Romney was calm, poised, and looked very presidential. You can bet that I am behind HIM four square. Not only does he have the attributes, but I am convinced that he actually WANTS the job for which he is applying.

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