Some folks, particularly many of my readers, are quick to throw the label RINO (Republican in Name Only) at any Republican not sufficiently conservative in their view. I don’t object to the practice one bit if the shoe fits. George W. Bush was a RINO. He spent the country into bankruptcy. Lately, however, folks are confusing sensible with RINO.
Early on in the GOP primary season I expressed interest in Jon Huntsman. Just on paper, he looked like the strongest contender having both executive (Governor of Utah) experience and foreign policy (Ambassador to China) experience. I also liked the fact that he didn’t run away from climate change and evolution as scientific lines of inquiry worth exploring. Since I’m not a Republican, my analysis stopped there. I was quickly informed by several of my readers that Huntsman is a RINO and has no business anywhere near the Oval Office. Hence I was pleased to stumble upon a quiz posted by MSNBC host Joe Scarborough in Politico magazine. The quiz, copied below in its entirety compares Huntsman to the current leading contenders Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich. (YIKES I feel like I’m living in an alternate universe putting Newt Gingrich and “leading contender” in the same sentence!)
1. Who said, “I will preserve and protect a woman’s right to choose. I am not going to change pro-choice laws in any way”?
A. Mitt Romney
B. Newt Gingrich
C. Jon Huntsman
2. Who bragged about being a moderate with this comment, “There is a new synthesis evolving with the classic moderate wing of the party, where as a former Rockefeller state chairman, I’ve spent most of my life”?
A. Mitt Romney
B. Newt Gingrich
C. Jon Huntsman
3. Who starred in a 2007 global warming commercial with Nancy Pelosi that was sponsored by Al Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection?
A. Mitt Romney
B. Newt Gingrich
C. Jon Huntsman
4. Who once famously said, “I don’t line up with the NRA”?
A. Mitt Romney
B. Newt Gingrich
C. Jon Huntsman
5. Who was paid $312,000 by ethanol interests and then said ethanol is good for national security and for the economy?
A. Mitt Romney
B. Newt Gingrich
C. Jon Huntsman
6. Which candidate bragged about not being a Republican during the Reagan presidency and promised that if elected he would not “return to Reagan-Bush policies”?
A. Mitt Romney
B. Newt Gingrich
C. Jon Huntsman
7. Which candidate told Planned Parenthood that he supported state funding of abortion?
A. Mitt Romney
B. Newt Gingrich
C. Jon Huntsman
8. Which candidate has consistently supported the type of individual mandates for health insurance that conservatives are trying to overturn through court challenges to Obamacare? (Trick question: Two of three are correct answers.)
A. Mitt Romney
B. Newt Gingrich
C. Jon Huntsman
9. Which candidate went on NBC’s “Meet the Press” and called Paul Ryan’s Medicare plan “radical” and “right-wing social engineering”?
A. Mitt Romney
B. Newt Gingrich
C. Jon Huntsman
10. Which candidate is the only GOP presidential contender to come out in full support of the Ryan plan?
A. Mitt Romney
B. Newt Gingrich
C. Jon Huntsman
11. Which candidate bragged to CNN that he’s “the most seriously professorial politician since Woodrow Wilson”?
A. Mitt Romney
B. Newt Gingrich
C. Jon Huntsman
12. Which candidate told Planned Parenthood that he supported the “substance” of the Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade?
A. Mitt Romney
B. Newt Gingrich
C. Jon Huntsman
13. Which candidate said of the Medicare prescription drug plan that was the largest expansion of entitlements since the Great Society, “Every conservative member of Congress should vote for this Medicare bill. Obstructionist conservatives can always find reasons to vote no”?
A. Mitt Romney
B. Newt Gingrich
C. Jon Huntsman
14. Which candidate attacked Steve Largent, Tom Coburn and other conservatives as “the Perfectionist Caucus,” while giving his last speech as speaker in support of Dick Gephardt and Dave Obey’s colossal Omnibus Bill of 1998?
A. Mitt Romney
B. Newt Gingrich
C. Jon Huntsman
15. Which candidate was ranked by Cato Institute in 2008 one of the most fiscally conservative governors in America?
A. Mitt Romney
B. Newt Gingrich
C. Jon Huntsman
16. Which candidate was cited by the Pew Center for running the “best-managed” state, hailed by Forbes magazine as the “most fiscally fit” and ranked first in the country for job creation?
A. Mitt Romney
B. Newt Gingrich
C. Jon Huntsman
17. Whose economic plan does The Wall Street Journal consider the most impressive and conservative of the Republican presidential field?
A. Mitt Romney
B. Newt Gingrich
C. Jon Huntsman
18. The American Conservative wrote this about which GOP candidate, “For the past two decades a ‘moderate’ Republican was one who didn’t generally side with his party on three issues: taxes, guns and abortion. [This candidate’s] record on those isn’t just to the right of the moderates. It is to the right of most conservatives”?
A. Mitt Romney
B. Newt Gingrich
C. Jon Huntsman
19. Which candidate was praised in a Club for Growth report for reforming health care with “no individual mandate, no employer mandate and no provision for a massive expansion of subsidized care unlike Obamacare or Romney’s plan”?
A. Mitt Romney
B. Newt Gingrich
C. Jon Huntsman
20. Who are the real RINOs here? (Feel free to circle two.)
A. Mitt Romney
B. Newt Gingrich
C. Jon Huntsman
Answers: 1) A; 2) B; 3) B; 4) A; 5) B; 6) A; 7) A; 8.) A and B; 9) B; 10) C; 11) B; 12) A; 13) B; 14) B; 15) C; 16) C; 17) C; 18) C; 19) C; 20) you decide.
via Opinion: Who is the real RINO? – Joe Scarborough – POLITICO.com.
Clearly, at least from this quiz, the only candidate of the three who is NOT a RINO is Jon Huntsman. So, you have to ask yourself why is Huntsman labeled so by so many? Could it be that unlike Gingrich, Huntsman doesn’t talk about the President’s Kenyan anti-colonialist background? Perhaps it is because Huntsman, unlike Gingrich, doesn’t identify liberalism as the most dangerous phenomenon in America since World War II Nazism? Could it be that unlike Romney, Huntsman has not been anointed by the establishment and certainly no one anointed by the establishment could possibly be a RINO.
The fact that Jon Huntsman has been virtually ignored by his party and the potential primary voters tells me that his party is not really serious about leading us out of this crisis. The GOP electorate have so far only shown interest in opportunists and drama queens. If that trend does not change, the GOP does not deserve your vote in November of 2012.
Respectfully,
Rutherford
Image: Tom Curtis / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
WordPress.com Political Blogger Alliance
November 30, 2011 at 7:05 pm Rutherford
The New RINO: A Conservative Without the Drama
Early on in the GOP primary season I expressed interest in Jon Huntsman. Just on paper, he looked like the strongest contender having both executive (Governor of Utah) experience and foreign policy (Ambassador to China) experience. I also liked the fact that he didn’t run away from climate change and evolution as scientific lines of inquiry worth exploring. Since I’m not a Republican, my analysis stopped there. I was quickly informed by several of my readers that Huntsman is a RINO and has no business anywhere near the Oval Office. Hence I was pleased to stumble upon a quiz posted by MSNBC host Joe Scarborough in Politico magazine. The quiz, copied below in its entirety compares Huntsman to the current leading contenders Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich. (YIKES I feel like I’m living in an alternate universe putting Newt Gingrich and “leading contender” in the same sentence!)
1. Who said, “I will preserve and protect a woman’s right to choose. I am not going to change pro-choice laws in any way”?
A. Mitt Romney
B. Newt Gingrich
C. Jon Huntsman
2. Who bragged about being a moderate with this comment, “There is a new synthesis evolving with the classic moderate wing of the party, where as a former Rockefeller state chairman, I’ve spent most of my life”?
A. Mitt Romney
B. Newt Gingrich
C. Jon Huntsman
3. Who starred in a 2007 global warming commercial with Nancy Pelosi that was sponsored by Al Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection?
A. Mitt Romney
B. Newt Gingrich
C. Jon Huntsman
4. Who once famously said, “I don’t line up with the NRA”?
A. Mitt Romney
B. Newt Gingrich
C. Jon Huntsman
5. Who was paid $312,000 by ethanol interests and then said ethanol is good for national security and for the economy?
A. Mitt Romney
B. Newt Gingrich
C. Jon Huntsman
6. Which candidate bragged about not being a Republican during the Reagan presidency and promised that if elected he would not “return to Reagan-Bush policies”?
A. Mitt Romney
B. Newt Gingrich
C. Jon Huntsman
7. Which candidate told Planned Parenthood that he supported state funding of abortion?
A. Mitt Romney
B. Newt Gingrich
C. Jon Huntsman
8. Which candidate has consistently supported the type of individual mandates for health insurance that conservatives are trying to overturn through court challenges to Obamacare? (Trick question: Two of three are correct answers.)
A. Mitt Romney
B. Newt Gingrich
C. Jon Huntsman
9. Which candidate went on NBC’s “Meet the Press” and called Paul Ryan’s Medicare plan “radical” and “right-wing social engineering”?
A. Mitt Romney
B. Newt Gingrich
C. Jon Huntsman
10. Which candidate is the only GOP presidential contender to come out in full support of the Ryan plan?
A. Mitt Romney
B. Newt Gingrich
C. Jon Huntsman
11. Which candidate bragged to CNN that he’s “the most seriously professorial politician since Woodrow Wilson”?
A. Mitt Romney
B. Newt Gingrich
C. Jon Huntsman
12. Which candidate told Planned Parenthood that he supported the “substance” of the Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade?
A. Mitt Romney
B. Newt Gingrich
C. Jon Huntsman
13. Which candidate said of the Medicare prescription drug plan that was the largest expansion of entitlements since the Great Society, “Every conservative member of Congress should vote for this Medicare bill. Obstructionist conservatives can always find reasons to vote no”?
A. Mitt Romney
B. Newt Gingrich
C. Jon Huntsman
14. Which candidate attacked Steve Largent, Tom Coburn and other conservatives as “the Perfectionist Caucus,” while giving his last speech as speaker in support of Dick Gephardt and Dave Obey’s colossal Omnibus Bill of 1998?
A. Mitt Romney
B. Newt Gingrich
C. Jon Huntsman
15. Which candidate was ranked by Cato Institute in 2008 one of the most fiscally conservative governors in America?
A. Mitt Romney
B. Newt Gingrich
C. Jon Huntsman
16. Which candidate was cited by the Pew Center for running the “best-managed” state, hailed by Forbes magazine as the “most fiscally fit” and ranked first in the country for job creation?
A. Mitt Romney
B. Newt Gingrich
C. Jon Huntsman
17. Whose economic plan does The Wall Street Journal consider the most impressive and conservative of the Republican presidential field?
A. Mitt Romney
B. Newt Gingrich
C. Jon Huntsman
18. The American Conservative wrote this about which GOP candidate, “For the past two decades a ‘moderate’ Republican was one who didn’t generally side with his party on three issues: taxes, guns and abortion. [This candidate’s] record on those isn’t just to the right of the moderates. It is to the right of most conservatives”?
A. Mitt Romney
B. Newt Gingrich
C. Jon Huntsman
19. Which candidate was praised in a Club for Growth report for reforming health care with “no individual mandate, no employer mandate and no provision for a massive expansion of subsidized care unlike Obamacare or Romney’s plan”?
A. Mitt Romney
B. Newt Gingrich
C. Jon Huntsman
20. Who are the real RINOs here? (Feel free to circle two.)
A. Mitt Romney
B. Newt Gingrich
C. Jon Huntsman
Answers: 1) A; 2) B; 3) B; 4) A; 5) B; 6) A; 7) A; 8.) A and B; 9) B; 10) C; 11) B; 12) A; 13) B; 14) B; 15) C; 16) C; 17) C; 18) C; 19) C; 20) you decide.
via Opinion: Who is the real RINO? – Joe Scarborough – POLITICO.com.
Clearly, at least from this quiz, the only candidate of the three who is NOT a RINO is Jon Huntsman. So, you have to ask yourself why is Huntsman labeled so by so many? Could it be that unlike Gingrich, Huntsman doesn’t talk about the President’s Kenyan anti-colonialist background? Perhaps it is because Huntsman, unlike Gingrich, doesn’t identify liberalism as the most dangerous phenomenon in America since World War II Nazism? Could it be that unlike Romney, Huntsman has not been anointed by the establishment and certainly no one anointed by the establishment could possibly be a RINO.
The fact that Jon Huntsman has been virtually ignored by his party and the potential primary voters tells me that his party is not really serious about leading us out of this crisis. The GOP electorate have so far only shown interest in opportunists and drama queens. If that trend does not change, the GOP does not deserve your vote in November of 2012.
Respectfully,
Rutherford
Image: Tom Curtis / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
WordPress.com Political Blogger Alliance
November 30, 2011 at 7:05 pm Rutherford 629 comments