Ratings of Republican Candidates--3rd Debate, 6/5/07

Manchester, NH (TLS). The 3rd major Republican debate is history. Once again, CNN did an admirable job, with the exception of the 'stupid question' we have come to expect from the mainstream media.

The stupid question tonight was, 'If you are elected how will you use former President George W. Bush?'

Other than these types of stupid questions, Wolf Blitzer and the CNN team did a very good job at managing the debate.

All of the candidates were in top form this evening, and we saw no one who appeared to be having a bad night or struggling with answers.

GENERAL EVALUATION OF DEBATE SKILL/PRESENTATION

In terms of overall communication skill, several candidates competed for top honors, including Duncan Hunter, Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, Mike Huckabee, and Ron Paul. Each of these 5 candidates did an exceptional job at presenting their views.

Those who did very well but not quite up to the level of the aforementioned candidates were Tom Tancredo, Jim Gilmore, and Tommy Thompson. However, even these candidates presented themselves very well and showed very few weaknesses.

Perhaps one of the key moments during the debate came during the second half, when Duncan Hunter took on Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, and Mitt Romney for espousing views that are far outside the Republican mainstream. Hunter made a strong case for Reagan ideals being key to reaching out to moderate Republicans and Independents, rather than allowing conservative values to be usurped by the support of more gun control, socialized medicine, and other such dubious positions.

Giuliani's strongest area tonight was his ability to articulate the clear differences between Republicans and Democrats on national security and defense, and the War on Terror. He stated that, 'Not a single Democrat on this stage Sunday night would even utter the words "Islamic Terrorist." He also took direct aim at both Hillary Clinton and John Edwards, particularly Edwards' contention that the War on Terror is merely a bumper sticker slogan.

Thus, in terms of presentation, Duncan Hunter showed the strongest improvement. Rudy Giuliani continued to exhibit a clear penchant for leadership, credibility, and a natural ability to look 'Presidential.'

RATINGS OF CANDIDATES ON THE ISSUES IMPACTING LIBERTY

The Liberty Sphere uses our exclusive 'Liberty Scale' for rating candidates based upon the following key issues: national defense, taxes, abortion, gun rights, the War on Terror, healthcare, immigration, and U.S. foreign policy.

Based upon these 8 key issues that impact human liberty, The Liberty Sphere rates each of the Republican candidates in tonight's debate as follows (10 being the highest score):

Duncan Hunter--10
Mike Huckabee--10
Jim Gilmore--10
Tom Tancredo--8
Ron Paul--7
Rudy Giuliani--7
Tommy Thompson--7
John McCain--5

While John McCain can be given high marks for his stand on the War on Terror and its tributary in Iraq, The Liberty Sphere is still very concerned about his long-standing opposition to gun rights, immigration control and border security, and his assault on First Amendment/free speech through McCain-Feingold.

Frankly, however, we would have no problem supporting McCain if he is chosen to go up against ANY Democratic candidate in the general election. In this contest, even the very weakest Republican candidate is a vast improvement over the outright socialistic, pacifistic anti-freedom exhibited by each of the Democratic candidates.

McCain may well have succeeded in regaining his 'number three' position among the front-runners with tonight's strong performance. While Mike Huckabee came on very strong, we are concerned with the 'ministerial' moniker that is increasingly hanging around his neck.

The Liberty Sphere has no problem with ministers running for office, and we believe that Huckabee is a very good man and a strong candidate. Our concern is that the Baptist Minister tag will hurt him among certain portions of the electorate.

It will be interesting to see how the polling data falls out over the next few days with regard to McCain and Huckabee.

Look for Duncan Hunter to move upward in the polls.