On November 28th 2007, Ron Paul, Mike Huckabee, John McCain, Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani, Tom Tancredo, and Fred Thompson were all invited to the Republican debate in St. Petersburg Florida, also known as the CNN/YouTube debate--moderated by the great Anderson Cooper. Though the debate was very insightful, I want to discuss my opinions on the “top four” Republican candidates, Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, and John McCain.
Since birth i have been raised by republicans, at first rebelliously seeking different points of view. Eventually i found the world through the eyes of an elephant to be intriguing. Now you will know exactly how i feel about the republican candidates. I hope I don’t let my Republican family down.
Mike Huckabee:

This former Arkansas Governor, and a man that’s jumping ahead in the polls in Iowa, plans to solve America’s energy crisis. He preaches every energy source you can think of - clean coal, bio diesel, nuclear, wind, solar power, hydrogen, biomass, corn-based ethanol, cellulostic ethanol, the highly controversial drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and even conservation. But he doesn’t tap in on any specific plan or even lay out the steps for us to see.
Wildly enough, he believes he has a responsibility to God to protect the planet. “This world doesn't belong to me. I'm a guest here. I don't have a right to abuse it, any more than I have a right to abuse someone else's property if they were to let me stay in their apartment for a weekend." (Hmm, I guess drilling for oil in the Refuge isn't abusing any homes for living beings...) "It's a sin against future generations for me to act as if there are no future generations that should enjoy the world as I do.” And though this isn’t a bad thing at all, he shouldn’t feel like God told him to save the planet, I think he should - we all should - have an un-divine calling to take care of planet Earth.
Something that really bothers me about him, and other republican candidates, is that he doesn’t believe that climate change is related to human activity, which is something I find to be pretty "obvious". He should take a look at the scene in "An Inconvenient Truth" where Al Gore shows the graph comparing CO2 emissions since the first Ice Age. That should change everyone’s mind.
Even if he isn’t my first choice for a Republican President, it’s pretty cool that he doesn’t think we need to increase our fuel-economy standards to become energy independent- I am extremely sick of forking out forty dollars to fill my tank!
Official website
Mitt Romney:

Mitt Romney supports contraceptives in schools, and has actually experimented with this in Massachusetts. Considering my previous blog on this subject, I first believed that I might actually like this Romney fellow. I was wrong. He has a great idea (as well as the other candidates) to fix America’s dependence on oil and energy efficiency, but he supports some terrible subjects to go along with it. He supports drilling off of US waters and also drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (he opposes oil drilling in the Florida Everglades), and nuclear power.
I probably wouldn’t vote for this guy either. But, at least he has a 54 page PLAN to fight climate change, even if he doesn’t believe in "global warming."
Official website
John McCain:

John McCain was the first high-profile Republican to begin talking seriously about climate change, and has even called Bush’s approach on the issue “disgraceful.” In fact, he is very outspoken about Bush’s lack of action on several topics. In lieu of sponsoring the first Senate bill to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, as well as similar bills since then, he has earned the endorsement of the League of Conservation Voters in his 2004 Senate campaign.
He is known as the strongest candidate for Republicans that want to “vote green.” He also wants to use the cap-and-trade proposal that Obama is also planning on using if he becomes President. In an interview with Amanda Griscom Little of "grist.org" he quotes Tony Blair for his reason for believing that global warming is important “Suppose we're wrong, and there's no such thing as greenhouse-gas emissions, and we adopt green technologies. All we've done is give our kids a better planet. But suppose we're right, and do nothing? Then what kind of a legacy are we handing on to future generations of Americans?”
McCain also has a strong reason for keeping troops in Iraq, not exactly a war for oil or nuclear weapons, but a war for national security. He was also a war hero, which I think would be good for our country because a) he has had great training and could run this country with responsibility, discipline, and a charge to get things done and b) when was the last time we had a kick-butt war hero president!? John F. Kennedy? Mayyyybe George Bush senior? The only thing more powerful is if California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was our President.(Can you say "Terminator?") These points really almost won me over for him, though I am a bit mystified by his views on war.
Overall, I think I would most likely vote for him, because while looking at his platform I found almost nothing that I disagreed with (the two exceptions being that he is Pro-Life and supports protection of the "Second Amendment":http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution) and through performing extra research I believe he is the most responsible Republican candidate and I personally would most likely vote for him.
Official website
Rudy Giuliani

Giuliani has had perhaps the most impressive gain of support than any other candidate in this election.
Just as every other candidate, he believes in strong energy independence and that climate change is a problem, but doesn’t recognize it as a major issue. "I do believe there's global warming, yes. The big question has always been how much of it is happening because of natural climate changes and how much of it is happening because of human intervention."
He supports several things that I am strongly against, like offshore drilling (including the Everglades) and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. He also has tried to sell hundreds of community gardens in New York City.
Giuliani also believes that freedom is going to win this war of ideas. America will win the war on terror. He also has several points that I support on the “war on terror.” He prays for the war to be over and the troops to return home, but he thinks a timeline planning their return would be ridiculous, and will encourage our enemies. And when it comes to abortion he is pro-choice, supporting reasonable reasons for abortion while increasing adoptions.
He used to be my first choice for a republican candidate because of the impressive amount of support he's getting-so something must've been great about him. So i talked to my friend about it and heard all of these great things! But then i remembered how super republican/pro-bush she was, and realized how pro-bush Giuliani is. Oof.
He isn’t my first choice for the Presidency, but if he did win, I think he would take great charge of issues that need it because he did take great charge when he took care of New York City.
Official website
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