3.  Describe your education and preparation to serve as President.
A) Who and what have informed your intellectual preparation to be President?
B) What has practically prepared and informed you to be President?

 

Mike Huckabee:

Ouachita Baptist University, B. A., 1975

Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, M. A., 1980

A)  Who and what have informed your intellectual preparation to be President?

 

As for the “who,” I was strongly influenced by Phyllis Schlafly, Paul Weyrich,

Howard Phillips, Francis Schaeffer, C. S. Lewis, Thomas Sowell, George Will, and

William F. Buckley, Jr.  As for the “what,” my faith defines me and informs all of my

decision-making.

 

B)  What has practically prepared you and informed you to be President?

Being Governor provides the best preparation for being President because it’s executive experience.  In Congress, you can pass the buck 535 times, no one is really responsible for anything.  As a Governor, you have to lead, you have to balance budgets and provide services to your people.  I led the effort to reform our education, economic, and health systems to gain high-paying jobs, high-achieving schools, and high-quality health care, all with a legislature that was overwhelmingly Democrat. Under my leadership, we had a decade of progress, not polarization.  

I cut taxes 94 times, including the first broad-based tax cuts in Arkansas history.  I eliminated the marriage penalty and capital gains on home sales.  I doubled the standard deduction and the child care tax credit.  I left office with a surplus of almost $850 million, setting the stage for additional tax cuts.  I led the successful effort to amend our state constitution to define marriage as a union between one man and one woman.  I make Arkansas only the third state to adopt “covenant marriage.”  I passed all the pro-life legislation I could – banning partial birth abortion, requiring parental notification, requiring informed consent before an abortion, requiring the option of anesthesia for the baby during an abortion, allowing a woman to give birth and leave her baby safely at a hospital, and making it a crime to injure or murder an unborn baby. 

As Chairman of the National Governors Association, I had the opportunity to change national policy. When I became Chairman, Medicaid spending had passed spending on elementary and secondary education to become the largest single item in state budgets. Through patient but persistent negotiation, I got the governors to agree unanimously on a plan and then got the plan through Congress.  Our plan didn’t just save the taxpayers money, it made basic care available to more people and gave the states more authority to design and administer their programs, since we know the needs of our citizens better than the federal government does.  Also during my chairmanship, the National Governors Association took my Healthy Arkansas Initiative and turned it into the Healthy America Initiative, promoting wellness and health care savings through good nutrition, exercise, avoiding tobacco, and maintaining proper weight. 

Hurricane Katrina prepared me to be President because it gave me experience in crisis management, when I directed the rescue and relief of 75,000 people.  As Governor, I had dealt with severe ice storms, tornadoes, and other emergencies within Arkansas, but Katrina was a major national disaster, one of the worst in our history.  The scale and scope of that undertaking was the type of challenge I will face as President, and I met that challenge.  Even though these people were displaced by a hurricane, the results were the same as if Al Qaeda had blown up the levees, so it was experience relevant to coping with a terrorist attack as well.

We had plenty of state facilities, like armories we could have used – big, cavernous, impersonal places -- but to me that wasn’t housing people, that was warehousing them.  In looking for alternatives, I thought of our church and scout camps, which had just closed for the season, and I invited their leaders to my office to ask if they would re-open for us.  Not a single one said no.  I had a clear vision of how I wanted to welcome and care for these people:  they were beyond hungry, thirsty, dirty, and exhausted, they had been traumatized and dehumanized, and we brought them back to life.  I have been tested, and I have proven my ability to provide creative, decisive, and effective leadership during a major catastrophe.  My crisis management ability is one of the reasons Time magazine named me one of America’s five best governors. 

John McCain:

In 1974, Ronald Reagan gave his famous "Shining City Upon a Hill" speech and concluded by saying: "We cannot escape our destiny, nor should we try to do so. The leadership of the free world was thrust upon us in the little hall of Philadelphia. In the days following World War II, when the economic strength and power of America was all that stood between the world and the return to the dark ages, Pope Pius XII said, ‘The American people have a great genius for splendid and unselfish actions. Into the hands of America, God has placed the destinies of an afflicted mankind.' We are indeed, and we are today, the last best hope of man on earth."

It was my privilege to hear Governor Reagan deliver that speech at the first Conservative Political Action Conference. I had recently been released from my captivity in Hanoi and was seated as Governor Reagan's guest.  His words back then and his resolve as president inform today as it falls to America to lead the world against the global threat of Islamic Extremism.

It’s easy to forget the strong opposition Reagan faced, particularly to his Soviet policy, which was opposed by many Democrats and elites in the media.  Back then, many argued for different course with our global adversary.  But Reagan held firm.  He called for resolve and firmness in dealing with the Soviet Union. He rejected calls for a nuclear freeze and the defunding of weapons systems and freedom fighters.  As a member of Congress at the time, I was proud to stand with him.  Thanks to his leadership, the Soviet Union dissolved and the Cold War was won on our terms.

Today, as politicians seek to undermine the gains we have made in places like Iraq through funding cutoffs and withdrawal timelines, I often recall Reagan's steadfastness.  As president, in the face of a similar defeatist stampede, the lesson of Reagan would be at the forefront of my mind. 

Of course, there’s no one factor that prepares a person for the presidency.  Rather, it is the sum total of one’s life experiences that provide the basis for stepping into the awesome responsibility of president and commander-in-chief.  Successful presidents don’t manage; they lead.  They rally the nation’s citizens behind a cause and get the job done.  As one of our Founding Fathers put it, “Well done is better than well said.”  Today, we face big challenges from defeating our enemies to ending the era of spending profligacy and bigger government.  As president, I will draw on many of the leadership lessons I learned during my time as a midshipman at the Naval Academy, as a prisoner-of-war, as commander of the biggest squadron in the U.S. Navy, and subsequent years of deep involvement with many national issues in the House and Senate to meet America’s biggest challenges.    

Ron Paul:

A)  Who and what have informed your intellectual preparation to be President?

I have long been a follower of the Austrian school of economics, and have done a tremendous amount of studying in the areas of monetary policy and foreign policy.  I have been influenced by people such as Ludwig Von Mises, Murray Rothbard, and Milton Friedman. 

 

B)  What has practically prepared you and informed you to be President?

In addition to my studies on economics and foreign policy, I am currently serving my tenth term in the U.S. House of Representatives.  During this time, I have served on the House Committee on Financial Services, of which I am currently the Ranking Member on the Subcommittee on Domestic and International Monetary Policy, Trade, and Technology.  I also serve on the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and the Joint Economic Committee.

 

Mitt Romney:

My father's experiences in business and government yielded what is easily the most important piece of career advice I have ever received.  He said to make a career in the private sector and achieve success there before getting into public service.  My dad felt it was important to not have to depend on a government salary or pension because it would free you to make the best decisions without worrying about the next election. 

After graduating from college, my heart was set on attending business school, but my father objected and said I should attend law school.  In the end, we compromised and I ended up earning both my J.D. and M.B.A. from Harvard University.  The distinct academic approaches I encountered in law and business school helped shape the decision-making process that has enabled me to lead in the business world, at the Winter Olympics and as Governor of Massachusetts.  I believe it is an approach that would serve the nation well if I am given the chance to lead it.

My background has also shaped my belief that the best results are achieved when leaders bring together parties with differing perspectives to vigorously debate the issue at hand.  I believe in examining data and immersing myself in the merits of each argument before reaching a decision and carrying it out.  Time and time again, I did that in the business world and helped turn around companies.

After spending two decades in the business world, I went on to lead the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics.  While it was a different kind of experience from what I was accustomed to in the private sector, I also encountered many common elements that leaders inherently deal with in any organization – managing a budget, galvanizing support from stakeholders, and selecting and leading people.  When I accepted the job, the Games were in the red and roiled by allegations of bribery.  By the time the Olympic flame was extinguished at the closing ceremonies, America had succeeding in hosting a Games that made us all proud and showed the world America’s resiliency just five months after the 9/11 attacks.

After the Olympics, I returned to Massachusetts where I ran for the governorship and won.  With over two decades of executive experience under my belt, I had faced all kinds of challenges and overcome many unique obstacles.  This time, however, I was a Republican governor in the most liberal state in the Union with a heavily Democrat Legislature.  The state was in desperate need of reform, and yet the odds and political inertia were stacked against that ever happening.  But rather than bow down to the political forces, I got to work and relished the chance to take the skills and experiences I had acquired over the years and put them to use in the public sphere.  Time and time again, we worked together to enact conservative policies that benefited the state. 

As President, I would bring a wealth of experiences leading and achieving results.  Washington is full of talk with very little action.  I come from a background where if you can’t get results, you won’t have a job for very long.  The free enterprise system has produced extraordinary innovation and prosperity for America.  The competitive spirit we see in business has made America’s economy the envy of the world.  It’s time to bring that same type of competition to government.  After decades of competing in the business world, I am ready to compete with the politicians that have brought us the political inertia and paralysis that plagues Washington today.

 

Fred Thompson:

My parents, my family, and my own life’s circumstances have taught me more than anything else.  I am the first person in my family to graduate from high school.  A teen-aged father, I went to work and then went off to college to make something of myself.  After graduating from college, I attended law school.  I was inspired along the way by the conservative principles and philosophy of Senator Barry Goldwater and President Ronald Reagan.  I am an example of what can be achieved in this country with initiative and with the support of a loving family.  I have lived the full range of the American experience, and that is the most important preparation anyone can have to serve as President.

To me, government service should not be a career, but a way of giving back to our country and of serving its people.  The different strands of my career have allowed me to confront many issues.  I have been a federal prosecutor and served as counsel to the Senate Watergate Committee.  I was a lawyer in private practice, representing clients in private suits and in criminal cases.  One of my clients took on a corrupt Governor in Tennessee and won in a law suit.  I appreciate the fundamental importance of the rule of law.  I also know the appropriate role of a judge.  I have appeared before both activist judges and good judges, and I know the difference.  Recently, I had the opportunity to shepherd the nomination of John Roberts to be Chief Justice of the United States through the Senate on behalf of the President.

My eight years in the United States Senate allowed me to focus on critical issues facing our country.  I played a leadership role in examining the failings of the operations of federal government agencies, the wasteful spending of these agencies, their inability to perform the tasks expected by our citizens.  My report on these issues, Government at the Brink, was published in 2001 and has been widely hailed as an accurate and complete catalog of the short-comings of the federal government.  And yet little has been done since the report’s publication to address these issues.  I also fought to keep our taxes low and to promote limited government by trying to limit the role and responsibilities of the federal government.  Too often, we want to impose a national solution, but the closer government is to the governed, the more accountable it is to the people.

During my years in the Senate, I also served on the Intelligence Committee, dealing with national security issues.  I understand the intelligence failures that led to 9/11.  I came to appreciate the nature of the threat from radical Islamic terrorist organizations and the nations that back them.  I know what we need to do to improve our intelligence efforts and to continue to improve the efforts the government has undertaken to share intelligence appropriately.  I also saw the effects of the budget cuts we imposed on our military during the 1990’s.  These cuts resulted in a failure to equip them fully and adequately for the burdens we have asked our brave men and women to undertake.  And we have seen that we have failed our veterans as well.

In the Senate I was also able to travel extensively to meet with world leaders, visit global hotspots, and to get a much better understanding of events on the ground, and how the U.S. should address them.  In just two years alone I traveled to Colombia and Ecuador to assess the U.S. role in curtailing drug trafficking; to Northern Ireland to observe the peace process in action; to Russia to learn more about its struggling democracy; and to China, to express to the leaders in Beijing my concerns about many of their policies.  I have also met with several of our allies in NATO and our friends in the European Union to discuss the major issues facing the U.S. and its allies.  I traveled to Afghanistan to meet with President Karzai just months after 9/11, and then to Pakistan to meet with that country’s leaders and visit the frontier region.  Most rewarding, however, has been the opportunity to spend time with our military forces abroad, whether at an outpost in Kosovo with U.S. Army troops; watching flight operations with the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps aboard an aircraft carrier in the Indian Ocean;  or flying aboard a cargo aircraft with the U.S. Air Force in South America and South Asia. I am always impressed by the courage, competence, and commitment of our men and women in uniform.  They inspire us all.

In the Senate I also had the opportunity to play in a leading role in the largest reorganization of the federal government since the creation of the Defense Department in 1947: the creation of the Department of Homeland Security.  Through that effort, I came to appreciate the challenges facing federal agencies and their state and local partners in law enforcement and other first responders in seeking to address the wide range of threats we face in the modern world.

 

Rudy Giuliani

As a matter of policy, Rudy Giuliani does not respond to questionnaires, but his campaign provided a letter summarizing his positions. Click the above link to read the letter.

 

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All responses are listed in alphabetical order. The American Conservative Union provides these responses for public information only. ACU neither endorses these candidates nor their responses.