Candidate Positions

This is the latest scorecard for the political positions of various candidates. If you think that any of the positions are incorrect on this scorecard, please register your opinion via the comments below. Your opinions will be read by the editor and corrections (if appropriate) will be made in the next scorecard.

The Political Positions of Each Candidate

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2007-12-28-huckabee_N.htm

Huckabee opposes embryonic stem cell research, emergency contraception and stricter gun laws — all of which rank high on the list of deal-breakers for many of the religious conservatives whose support he’s ridden to the top of the Republican presidential field.

Original source: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1052/is_n9_v112/ai_10737686/pg_5

As the 21st century dawns, change has become a way of life. Coping with change has become part of the definition of our jobs as governors. We have many tools at our disposal. Through promoting trade and investment, improving America’s education system, enhancing the nation’s basic infrastructure, encouraging innovation, and taking advantage of specific opportunities around the world, governors can shape an effective state response to changes in the state, national, and global economies.

Original source: http://brownback.senate.gov/pressapp/record.cfm?id=175794

Original source: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/politics/20061226-9999-1n26hunter.html

Hunter’s skepticism about trade and his aggressive stance on immigration could be a building block for a candidacy that exploits simmering anxieties about globalization among some conservatives.

In his early outings since announcing his interest in a presidential candidacy, Hunter has blasted China for cheating the United States on trade deals to use American dollars to finance a threatening military buildup.

Original source: http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Articles7/Frank_Kucinich.htm

His progressive vision may well resonate with many young activists. He says if elected he will repeal NAFTA and exit the United States from the World Trade Organization. Kucinich says, “NAFTA has spurred a $360 billion trade deficit, costing 363,000 high-paying jobs, most in manufacturing. This is called free trade. Where is freedom when jobs are lost? Where is freedom when industries threaten to move out of the country unless wages are cut? Where is freedom when the right to bargain collectively is crushed? Where is freedom when a union is broken?”

Perhaps just as George McGovern was the anti-war’s elected voice during the late Vietnam era - Kucinich hopes he can become the delegate of globalization’s combatants. He certainly is the only Democrat running for President that has lashed free trade with such a savory eloquence.

Original source: http://www.speculativebubble.com/politics/bill-richardson.php

GOV. RICHARDSON: Outsourcing is a problem. Most outsourcing jobs are technical. We need to upgrade our science and math standards in our school. It’s education. And I would create 250 science and math academies to deal with that gap.

In addition to that, what we need is trade agreements, fair trade agreements where we say, no slave labor, no child labor; we’re not going to have — we’re going to have environmental protection; we’re going to have to deal with wage disparity. And also, I would have a different attitude toward the private sector. I would say to the private sector, what is it going to take to keep you here?

I would have an industrial policy where we invest in high-growth industries, in health industries, in high-tech, in renewable energy, to keep those jobs here.

Original source: http://ronpaul.org/

So called free trade deals and world governmental organizations like the International Criminal Court (ICC), NAFTA, GATT, WTO, and CAFTA are a threat to our independence as a nation. They transfer power from our government to unelected foreign elites.

The ICC wants to try our soldiers as war criminals. Both the WTO and CAFTA could force Americans to get a doctor’s prescription to take herbs and vitamins. Alternative treatments could be banned.

The WTO has forced Congress to change our laws, yet we still face trade wars. Today, France is threatening to have U.S. goods taxed throughout Europe. If anything, the WTO makes trade relations worse by giving foreign competitors a new way to attack U.S. jobs.

NAFTA’s superhighway is just one part of a plan to erase the borders between the U.S. and Mexico, called the North American Union. This spawn of powerful special interests, would create a single nation out of Canada, the U.S. and Mexico, with a new unelected bureaucracy and money system. Forget about controlling immigration under this scheme.

And a free America, with limited, constitutional government, would be gone forever.

Let’s not forget the UN. It wants to impose a direct tax on us. I successfully fought this move in Congress last year, but if we are going to stop ongoing attempts of this world government body to tax us, we will need leadership from the White House.

We must withdraw from any organizations and trade deals that infringe upon the freedom and independence of the United States of America.

Original source: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=50657

Responding to a WorldNetDaily report, Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., is demanding the Bush administration fully disclose the activities of an office implementing a trilateral agreement with Mexico and Canada that apparently could lead to a North American union, despite having no authorization from Congress.

Original source: http://www.mittromney.com/Issue-Watch/Competing_with_Asia

“We have to keep our markets open or we go the way of Russia and the Soviet Union, which is a collapse. And I recognize there are some people who will argue for protectionism because the short-term benefits sound pretty good, but long term you kill your economy, you kill the future. What you have to do in order to compete on a global basis long term is invest in education, invest in technology, reform our immigration laws to bring in more of the brains from around the world, eliminate the waste in our government. We have to use a lot less oil. These are the kinds of features you have to invest in, you have to change in order to make ourselves competitive long term.”
- Governor Romney, Kudlow and Company, March 22, 2006