The 2012 decision

If you’ve been reading monoblogue a long time – I know a lot of you haven’t, although a surprising number are longtime fans – you may recall that I determined who I’d support as my 2008 nominee in the summer of 2007 after a series of posts which covered candidate positions issue-by-issue on items important to me. They, in turn, were one extension of an early project of monoblogue called the 50 year plan. There I discussed my ideas on a whole range of issues which face our nation, and a second extension of these has been a book project I’ve worked with off and on over the last three years. (So maybe now I should call it a 47 year plan.)

Anyway, having been again exhorted to figure out which candidate I would like to see secure our Presidential bid, this post will serve as the announcement that the process will begin again later this summer. While I put my sidebar on the candidates up yesterday, I’m going to wait for a month or two to start the scoring process again in order to devote enough time to research positions and determine how I’ll grade each candidate. (And this includes Democrats, too – I can’t vote for them but I can compare their stances for my TEA Party friends who haven’t abandoned the Democratic Party yet.)

To give you an idea how the point system worked, these were the criteria I used in 2008:

  • Property rights (5 points)
  • Second Amendment (7 points)
  • Election/Campaign Finance Reform (9 points)
  • Trade/job creation (11 points)
  • Education (13 points)
  • Veterans affairs (15 points)
  • Energy independence (17 points)
  • Health care/Social Security (19 points)
  • Taxation (21 points)
  • Fiscal conservatism (23 points)
  • Immigration (25 points)
  • The Long War (27 points)

The total also included single-point intangibles on various issues, with my 2008 winner being former Rep. Duncan Hunter and his 82 points. By comparison, eventual nominee John McCain was last among Republicans with 18 points.

Undoubtedly, as a nation, our priorities have changed – and so will my list. I’m going to combine a couple areas and streamline this process to 10 different subjects. Also, the point totals will change so that the perfect candidate will have 100 points, with a maximum of three given for intangibles.

So the 2012 monoblogue endorsement will be based on the following formula:

  • Election/campaign finance reform (3 points)
  • Property Rights (5 points)
  • Second Amendment (7 points)
  • Education (8 points)
  • Long War/veterans affairs (9 points)
  • Immigration (11 points)
  • Energy independence (12 points)
  • Entitlements (13 points)
  • Trade/job creation (14 points)
  • Fiscal conservatism/taxation (15 points)

Add in the possible three points for intangibles, and a ‘perfect’ score is 100. On the other hand, deducting points is also possible so the ultimate in bad candidates would rank at minus-100.

Since I already have a project to do over the next few weeks (the monoblogue Accountability Project) I’ll likely get started on this after Memorial Day – this will also give the campaigns some chance to put out their issue positions. (Thus far, Herman Cain and Gary Johnson seem to have the most comprehensive positions listed on their respective sites.) But today serves as a good heads-up for summer reading.

And, by the way, I’m going to make a little time over the summer for updating my maunuscript too. Anyone know a good publisher out there looking for a surefire best seller? Okay, how about a tome from a first-time author?

Maybe someday you’ll see it on Amazon.com or at your local bookstore, but in the meantime it’s a diamond in the rough which needs polishing. That’s what I’ll devote some time to doing.

Author: Michael

It's me from my laptop computer.

4 thoughts on “The 2012 decision”

  1. I’ve been reading for a while– long enough to remember that Duncan Hunter was your first choice, and my candidate, um, wasn’t, but apparently not long enough to remember how you got there. It’s an interesting approach. Let me start by asking the obvious question– how did you arrive at the original breakdown in terms of the relative weight to give to the various issues in 2008, and why the various shifts in priority now?

  2. It’s like any set of political issues – what may be important in one cycle isn’t so much the next time.

    If you remember 2008, the conventional wisdom is that the key issue would be Iraq. But then the surge brought about its desired results so that faded from prominence, only to be replaced by high oil prices and the ‘drill, baby, drill’ question. However, once summer rolled around and prices retreated the public’s concern shifted to the economy at large – remember McCain suspending his campaign?

    This time I think particular issues could be consolidated and others diminished in importance to me. Our economy and government spending and philosophy need to be key issues while foreign affairs may be taking a back seat. I know Heather Olsen would have a different order than I would, so you can create your own point system based on those items you hold dear.

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