More Reasonable Republican Positions on Issues

From Instapundit:

Fred Thompson does not support a constitutional amendment to ban gay
marriage." He supports the rights of States to choose their marriage law for
themselves. . . .
Thompson believes that states should be able to adopt
their own laws on marriage consistent with the views of their citizens.

This goes nicely with Rudy Guiliani's position on abortion Although, Rudy's position is stronger and better since Fred says you could ban gay marriage, you know, if your state wanted to (which Hey, I just learned Arkansas under Mike "I want to control your life and your body" Huckabee did).

Both Guiliani and Thompson have basically said that it is up to the individual states to decide and that people should just stay out of other's business. Whee! Too bad neither of them will win the nomination with such middle-of-the-road positions.

You saw the Iowa strall poll results, didn't you? Mike Huckabee (former Arkansas Governor) came in second (to former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney's first place finish). I thought I liked Mike Huckabee until I investigated, but you do know that Arkansas is not a redneck backwater, don't you?

Whoops, I was wrong. I don't like Huckabee and Arkansas is a little redneck for me. I went to Mike Huckabee's Issues page and I am disappointed. Here's a run-down:

Anti-Gun Control, Pro-Gun Rights - OK fine, standard republican position.

"I support and have consistently supported passage of a federal constitutional amendment that defines marriage as a union between one man and one woman. " Oh, please!

"Our true strength comes from our families." I think I threw up a little into my mouth.

On the page labeled Sanctity of Life, I knew I would be disappointed, and I am: "I believe that Roe v. Wade should be over-turned. "

"The surge is a military means to achieve the political end of sectarian reconciliation among the Iraqis"

"I support the FairTax. To control spending, I believe the President should have the line-item veto. I believe in free trade, but it has to be fair trade. " I love him for this. Too bad I hate him for his social views. Maybe his being for this will at least bring it to the national debate and someone better than he can champion it. You know, I should go through all the candidates and see who is good and who sucks. You know who sucks? Mike Huckabee.

Let's have some fun and see if Mitt Romney is any better. Mitt ROmney's issues pages:

"What is the culture of this country, what are our underpinnings? We respect hard work ... We are self reliant, we respect human life, we are a religious people... We are a purpose-driven people founded on the family unit. I think every child deserves to have a mother and a father."

Yes, yes, sure OK fine, but dude, this is real life not some happy land where everything is flowers and angels singing. I am not a religious person, no siree. I'm a scientist (well, by training at least), and all this spiritual stuff sounds a little fuzzy to me and invoking it during a presidential race just pisses me off.

Where is my agnostic/atheist libertarian candidate who wants to keep his god and his family values out of my house? I just want people to leave me (and my money/taxes) alone. Is that so hard? I don't even mind paying some taxes, because I like my roads paved and streetlight on my corner. But, somewhere around agricultural subsidies that reward production of HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP (the poison that it is), I have a problem paying taxes.

Oh, I'm sorry. Did I start to rant there? Oh my. How embarassing.

To reiterate: Politicians, please leave your morals off of my life. And could you cut my taxes?