If You Were Participating in the Iowa Caucuses
 

What are your thoughts on your favorite candidate? Why does s/he merit your vote?

Can your candidate win the national election? If not, will you vote your conscience at that time? Or do you think voting your conscience would be "throwing your vote away" and help the other candidate?

I can tell you about the actual Iowans in my husband's family. SIL and nephew like Dodd. MIL and FIL like Hilary.

If I could vote in the Iowa caucuses, I would kill myself because I lived in Iowa. However, that isn't the point of the thread.

I'm enthralled with no one at this point. Of course, I could never be enthralled with a dem, so I won't bother even mentioning any.

McCain? Not a conservative. Huckabee? Not a conservative. I think Thompson is a conservative, but I really haven't heard enough from him. Romney? Perhaps he is a conservative....but there are many things he did in Mass that I don't like. Guiliani? I guess he'd be my choice by default.

Haha! That was exactly what I thought when I read the thread title

I'm interested in why you don't think these people are conservatives.

Huckabee, from what I've read, is a social conservative (obviously), but is a tax and spender. I don't believe he is fiscally responsible and seems to be of the opinion that more money in the hands of the government is the best way to solve a problem.

McCain has two major strikes against him with me - the first being campaign finance reform, and the second being his lack of support for border enforcement. He is a senator of a border state that is literally being invaded but only saw the light when his campaign was virtually dead. I don't trust him on this issue in the least despite what he is saying now.

Being that my two of my biggest issues are fiscal responsibility and border control, those two guys just don't do it for me.

Edited to add: I also think Huckabee has been somewhat classless in his attacks on Romney's Mormon faith.

Ok, I see why you don't like them, but those issues don't disqualify them as conservatives, IMHO.

As for the OP, if I were in Iowa, I'd be grumbling the same as I am now about how the two party system has crippled us. The party I am a member of isn't even worth bothering with due to their limited fanbase. I'd also be sort of rooting for Obama, though I'm undereducated on all the candidates, due to crushing depression regarding politics and the futility of human history/future.

To me, tax and spend big government is not conservatism. This is how I see Huckabee. Failing to put one of the only constitutionally mandated requirements of the federal government, to protect and defend the the borders of the US, also disqualifies one from being a conservative. Limiting free speech (which is how I view campaign finance reform) disqualifies one as a conservative.

I'd vote for Richardson because I've got money on him.

I would like to hear the names of all these conservatives who do not "tax and spend" on programs of their own choosing. Did all the conservatives who were involved in congress over the years but did not build walls on our borders disqualify themselves? As for free speech....man, I don't even know where to start with that one.

Me too.....I've 350 to 1 odds and $20 that could turn into $7,000 if he wins the whole thing:D

Yeah, I know.....I threw $20 away:blush: