GOP Presidential Candidates: The Elimination(ish) Game (Round 3)

Politics & Elections
1

I grow weary of thinking about these people. Let’s finish it off with a round robin. Unless we end up with some weird tie, this will be the last round.

Here are your pairings to vote on. Four men enter, one man leaves!

  1. Kasich vs Pataki

  2. Kasich vs Paul

  3. Rubio vs Kasich

  4. Pataki vs Paul

  5. Pataki vs Rubio

  6. Paul vs Rubio

2

Link to Round 1

Link to Round 2

Final votes Sunday 5pm EDT

3

Pataki

Kasich

Kasich

Pataki

Pataki

Paul

4

  1. Kasich

  2. Kasich

  3. Kasich
    The guy who isn’t running is obviously preferable for that reason. Plus, he’s shown some sense of responsibility toward his constituents.

  4. Pataki

  5. Pataki
    He was at least part of the reality-based community, way back when he had a job.

  6. Paul vs Rubio - Neither, sorry, nothing to be hopeful for in either of them.

5

My selections in bold. To be honest, I know almost nothing about Pataki except that he’s a NY Republican and therefore (presumably) relatively sane.

6

  1. Kasich vs Pataki Pataki got to be Gov of a bluer state than Ohio, that counts for something.

  2. **Kasich **vs Paul

  3. Rubio vs Kasich

  4. **Pataki **vs Paul

  5. **Pataki **vs Rubio

  6. Paul vs Rubio

7

  1. Pataki. I don’t remember much about him, to be honest, so this might be a stupid choice. But I think I remember him being moderate-to-liberal and sane. I think he’s more liberal than Kasich.

  2. Kasich. This one is a no-brainer because libertarianism is ridiculous and Kasich is competent.

  3. Kasich. More moderate, more experienced.

  4. Pataki. Paul is ridiculous.

  5. Pataki.

  6. Rubio. Paul is still ridiculous.

8

  1. Kasich vs Pataki - They’re both moderate, but I think having deal with “hyper blue city vs hyper red upstate” would be good preparation for the polarization seen in DC, so I went Pataki.

  2. Kasich vs Paul - Moderate wins here

  3. Rubio vs Kasich - Moderate wins here

  4. Pataki vs Paul - Moderate wins here

  5. Pataki vs Rubio - Moderate wins here

  6. Paul vs Rubio - oof, this is a harder one. I know a lot of this board hates libertarians, but I like Paul’s views on Foreign Policy and Privacy a lot more than Rubio’s. And his views on social policies like SSM and Abortion are more “keep the government out of it” than the “we should get involved for your own good” of Rubio. But then, the drastic “government shouldn’t do anything” and “tax cuts at all costs!” economic policy is problematic. I ended up going with Paul figuring that keeping us out of foreign wars is good and even a conservative Congress isn’t going to go crazy with his economic policy, keeping that more mainstream.

9

I’m no Rand Paul expert, but I thought he was strongly for things like personhood amendments and the like.

10

  1. Kasich

  2. Kasich

  3. Rubio

  4. Pataki

  5. Rubio

  6. Rubio

11

His views on marriage is that there shouldn’t be a national law on the matter - in fact, he more strongly supports having marriage not be a governmental question (spouses would write their own marriage contracts if they so choose), so it’s a moot point. That’s unrealistic but I can get behind that.

As far as abortion, you are right that he would like a personhood amendment, but other than that thinks the Feds should not be involved, which given the likelihood of an amendment passing and his pro-life views, seems like a better position than Rubio’s.

12

  1. Kasich vs Pataki - Kasich

  2. Kasich vs Paul - Paul

  3. Rubio vs Kasich - Rubio

  4. Pataki vs Paul - Paul

  5. Pataki vs Rubio - Rubio

  6. Paul vs Rubio - Paul

13

  1. Kasich

  2. Kasich

  3. Rubio

  4. Pataki

  5. Rubio

  6. Rubio

14

  1. Pataki

  2. Kasich

  3. Kasich

  4. Pataki

  5. Pataki

  6. Rubio

15
  1. Pataki
  2. Kaisch
  3. Kaisch
  4. Pataki
  5. Pataki
  6. Rubio
16

  1. Pataki

  2. Paul

  3. Kasich

  4. Paul

  5. Pataki

  6. Paul

17

  1. Kasich vs Pataki - Tails… Pataki. I most heavily weight foreign policy issues in selecting a President. I need a lot more in that area as close as they otherwise are in mind. Pataki was picked by the Mark I decision maker.

  2. Kasich

  3. Kasich

  4. Pataki

  5. Pataki

  6. Paul - Snickering to myself about the similarities to Ron Swanson having a government job. Either he focuses on the possible and tries to slightly moderate both parties urge to the authoritarian or he marginalizes himself. A Paul nomination certainly would be a shot across the bow of the current rigid partisanship on a number of issues. That’s worth the vote even if he chooses to stick to his guns and crater his campaign into a Mondale like defeat.

18

Pataki

Kasich

Kasich

Pataki

Pataki

Paul

19

Pataki
Kasich
Kasich
Pataki
Pataki
Paul

20

We’re all going for the guys who do the best imitation of responsible adults, aren’t we?