When the June primary rolls around, I'll be going to the polls to vote for myself as a Congressional candidate, but I will also have to make a choice in the GOP Presidential primary.
I started out as a Rick Perry supporter, and I will also end that way. I have no strong feelings of support for any of the 4 candidates left.
Mitt Romney
Romney has a delegate lead and looks like the eventual nominee, but I won't be voting for him in the primary. Romney is a flawed candidate who has held too many liberal positions in the past to be trustworthy. He's also the father of "Romneycare" and mandates in the health services field. Far too "Big Government" for my choosing. I also don't like his flip flops on various subjects and lack of coherent message.
Like I said to a friend, if you can't win your home state, you should not be the nominee. Romney will lose Massachusetts where he was Governor. Winners who become Presidents win their home states or the states that elected them to high office.
Newt Gingrich
Gingrich is a brilliant man, but he won't be getting my vote, either. Gingrich has some Conservative credentials, but he also committed apostasy by hanging around with Nancy Pelosi and talking about Global Warming. He also made the poor decision to appear in public with Al Sharpton, who makes a living out of being a professional victim. Gingrich had some momentum at one time, but it is now gone. He's finished. A man who has so little self-control in his personal life (three marriages, two mistresses) should probably not be our party nominee.
Rick Santorum
Santorum is a tough call for me, because I generally like the guy on a personal level. He has some non-Conservative hiccups in his past -- so he's not perfect -- but he seems more consistent than the others. He has won a lot of primaries, but he is running out of time to break out and start routing Romney. He'll win tonight in Louisiana, and several other states along the way, but it won't be enough to catch Romney. Santorum really offended me when he started talking about "banning pornography". I'm not defending pornography, but people who want to run around and ban things all the time are acting like the totalitarians on the LA City Council. These type of people, when left unchecked, tend to misuse their power. So it would be a little unlikely for me to still support Santorum.
Ron Paul
Finally, we get to the elephant in the room. While all the other 3 have some RINO tendencies, Paul stays pretty true to his hardcore Constitutional views. He doesn't trample on personal freedom, which I really like about him. However, he isn't perfect either. There are accusations that he wrote some racist or anti-semitic articles a decade ago, and I still need to hear more about that from him. And he has a horrific idea about foreign policy that we should bring all our troops home and stop fighting wars. To me, this attitude encourages more Pearl Harbors and more 9-11s.
I don't know if I can support Paul. I'm still about 60-40 with Santorum vs. Paul.
I'm not sure who I will support.
If Rick Perry is still on the ballot, he gets my vote.
