The 30 year business man. The fair-minded engineer. The former Marine and minister. The outsider free of political baggage. These were the four candidates on stage as they wished to be seen: David McCormick, Kevin Chisholm, E.W. Jackson, and Tim Donner. Here’s the best and worst of each candidate, in my view.
McCormick was at his best advocating 6 year term limits on Senators and Congressmen and the elimination of the Departments of Education and Energy (a view shared by Jackson and Donner). However, he also wanted tariffs and quotas to balance trade with China and supported state immigration law and nullification.
Chisholm plays the role of calm consensus-builder, which is both his strength and weakness. I liked that he was honest enough to admit a lack of expertise about certain complicated policies and tax codes, and humble enough to seek expert advice or mimic others’ successful policies. However, Chisholm accepts a larger government than the other three candidates, characterizing green energy funding as a “noble struggle” and saying government stimulus can work in some circumstances.
Jackson was the rabble-rouser, advocating the abolition of the IRS, the NLRB, the complete repeal of ObamaCare, the Dodd-Frank bill, and promising to never raise the debt ceiling. However, Jackson supported a moratorium on immigration until the economy improves, and was hostile towards homosexuals in the military and what he perceived as a homosexual agenda in public schools.
Donner talked the most of all the candidates about containing military spending and cutting bureaucracy in the Pentagon, and also argued for U.S. withdrawal from the UN and market-based health care reform. Donner did, however, caution against a complete repeal of the PATRIOT act, and his confrontational “us versus them” mentality and his belief in not only American exceptionalism but also ‘Virginian exceptionalism’ made him tough to warm up to.
Who’s the best? I’ll leave that up to you.
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