Huckabee's Candidate Forum

I just watched the re-run of the forum and I enjoyed it.  States rights is a big issue for me, so the answers that they gave were of great interest to me.  


Rick Santorum stuck up of for the Patriot Act.  He says that it doesn't affect our civil rights.  Huh?  Ok, I don't make many oversees calls and when I do the people I speak to are not well known terrorists.  But to say that the federal government should have this type of power is scary to me.  


Rick Perry is a 10th amendment purist.  I really appreciate that and that makes me want to vote for him.  That is until he opens his mouth about executive orders.  Very troubling.  He seems to think he can solve problems in this fashion.  Does he really believe that he should be outlawing legally passed laws by executive orders?  If so, I find that very troubling.  How is that different than what Obama is doing with the EPA?  This is no different than Romney saying he would give waivers to Obamacare.  Obamacare will not go away unless it is repealed.  That is the only answer.  Is he willing to sign a repeal?  If not, I don't know why any conservative would vote for him.  


Michele Bachmann dodged questions and is championing a national solution to tort reform.  I want tort reform. But she is willing to bypass the states in order to do it.  Uh, no.  Tort reform is a state issue and the federal government has no role in it at all.  It is hypocrisy for her talk about the constitution then make a statement like that.  Her answer on the EPA was confusing.  She seems to be championing legislation for individual instances of issues between the states.  Huh?  How would that work?  She isn't going to win any fans with her performance last night.  


Mitt Romney did his usual by standing by Romneycare.  He didn't mention the facts that insurance premiums have risen for them.  He didn't mention that hospitals in the state are going broke because of the mandates.  He didn't mention that half of the uninsured are still uninsured.  He also talked about NCLB.  Huh?  No Child Left Behind is yet another federal boondoggle.  Just because it was done by a republican president doesn't make it right.  


Newt Gingrich handled it well.  I think he got some of the toughest questions.  Which, as one of the front runners, that was fair.  I really liked his point of the how the president can lead without passing legislation that forces states to do things.  Wouldn't that be refreshing?  


Ron Paul seems to believe that terrorism needs to be handled as criminal matter.  I suppose there is an argument for that, but I am not fully on board with it.  I did really like his answer on getting rid of unconstitutional mandates, such as medicare and social security.  He is 100% correct, it cannot be done in one fell swoop.  It has be done in steps to make it easier for the people who have become far too dependent on them.  We can't just get rid of things quickly.  This is going to be a process that is going to take time.  


I enjoyed the format.  I think we learned a few things about the world views of the candidates when it comes to the constitution and the rights of the states.  If you are looking purely on the issues of states rights, Rick Perry came out on top with the big exception of the executive orders.