SECOND OF TWO PARTS
For pundits, analyzing Republican presidential politics in 2007 provided a lesson in humility. Just when the professional political soothsayers had decided that John McCain, or Rudy Giuliani, or Fred Thompson, or Mitt Romney was likely to emerge as the party's standard-bearer, along would come a different name at or near the top of a credible poll. In December in Iowa, along came Mike Huckabee. The emergence of the former governor of Arkansas as the front-runner in the Des Moines Register's Iowa Poll gave the Star Tribune Editorial Board reason to add one more chair at the table we'd set for prominent Minnesota backers of the leading Republican candidates. On Dec. 18, five Minnesota surrogates gathered to share their reasons for backing their candidate of choice. The lineup: former Senate Minority Leader Duane Benson, for Mike Huckabee; former Minneapolis City Council member and retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Denny Schulstad, for John McCain; former gubernatorial candidate and businessman Wheelock Whitney, for Rudy Giuliani; businessman and former state GOP executive director Tony Sutton, for Mitt Romney, and House Minority Leader Marty Seifert, for Fred Thompson. Here are excerpts of their exchange: KEY STRENGTH
Schulstad: One of John McCain's strengths is that he has his very strong beliefs and he sticks to them. He doesn't hold his finger up to the wind to find out how the voters in Minneapolis feel or how the voters feel in Des Moines. He does what he thinks is right.
He's down in Iowa right now telling them that he doesn't support subsidies for ethanol. That's not what you do down in Iowa. His political spinsters would be going nuts right now. But that's what I like about him.
Whitney: Rudy Giuliani is a moderate Repubican [as I am]. I haven't had an opportunity in my life to vote for many, or work for many. He appeals to me on that basis.
I very much like the fact that he is running a national campaign, quite different from other candidates, who are focusing all their efforts on Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. He's a leader, with a proven record, and he's led in the national polls ever since the first poll was taken in 2007.
Sutton: Mitt Romney is the kind of guy who can get things done. He demonstrated the experience in Massachusetts of working across the aisle, in a very Democratic state as a Republican governor. Minnesotans can relate to that and respect that kind of leadership.
I've been looking for a positive leader, like Reagan. Firm on the issues, but positive. I see Romney being that kind of leader. ... Republicans do best when fiscal conservatives and social conservatives pull in the same direction. Romney is the complete package. He can bring us all together as Republicans.
Seifert: Fred Thompson is genuine; he tells it like it is; and he's detail-oriented, which I think Minnesotans respect.
If you go back in time in Minnesota, we've had an independent streak and always respected people who tell it like it is. Teddy Roosevelt -- we were one of the few states he carried as a Bull Mooser [in 1912]. We elected Farmer-Laborite governors; [we elected] Perpich, Wellstone, Ventura -- they were all genuine, all had some details that people agreed with, and they told it like it is.
Thompson is that kind of guy. He's the only guy who's touched the third rail [of U.S. politics] and put a detailed Social Security plan out. Other candidates have been hesitant about that.
Benson: I came to appreciate Mike Huckabee long before he ran for president. I've interacted with people in a number of different arenas, of both parties, who've said after they've come back from Arkansas, "You've got to meet this guy. He's really something."
What I find really attractive about him is his ability to communicate. He's very, very effective. He happens to be a governor, an executive. I think that's a real positive. Governors have to lead, they have to sell, they have to go across the party aisle. ... He's of the same type as a Ronald Reagan and, dare I say, a Bill Clinton. He can really communicate. Now more than ever, we need a very effective communicator.
ON EXPERIENCE
Benson: We overvalue experience and undervalue personal qualities. When you hire someone, if you have a skill set you're looking for, that's important. But if you hire the right person ... it generally gets done. They'll figure out [what they need to do].
That's what I find attractive about Huckabee. I think he's got the right set of qualities and the ability to communicate. When you're president of the United States, you can surround yourself with [people who compensate for] whatever inadequacies you might have.
Seifert: Thompson is an outsider. He doesn't need this for money or attention. He truly believes in the country, and that's why he's doing this.
Some people have been critical because Thompson served a term and a half in the Senate. Well, he has three times more experience in the Senate than Barack Obama, and the same amount as Hillary Clinton. I don't consider her time in the White House as experience. Otherwise, we could say Brett Favre's wife should be a quarterback for an NFL team.
Sutton: What attracted me to Romney was his executive and his business experience. He's a smart guy, a big thinker. Executive experience is important. An executive is somebody who knows where the buck stops, and how to get things done. That skill set is important to being an effective president. Electability is important, but it's also, can you do the job?
Whitney: When you're the mayor of New York City, it's like being a governor of one of the largest states in the United States. ... [Giuliani] turned New York City around and made it a place where people wanted to go and wanted to live in, from a place where they didn't want to go and didn't want to live in. That took executive administrative experience, working with a group of people around you. You can't do those things by yourself.
[Consider] John McCain. He's a wonderful human being, but as for experience, I doubt he's ever had more than 50 people work for him in his life. It's a whole different job when you have hundreds of thousands of people that you're responsible for, and if any one of them screw up, everyone will tell you what a poor choice you made.
Schulstad: We're electing the commander in chief. We're at war. We will be at war for a long time into the future, whether it be with Iraq or just the war on terrorism. I have great admiration for all the Republican candidates. The person I want as my commander in chief is John McCain.
It's not that he was a POW. He was shot down [over North Vietnam, in 1967]. That doesn't make you a hero. What made him a hero is that he was told, "We're going to send you home because your dad is the commanding admiral of the Pacific fleet." And he said, "Screw you. I'm not going to do it. The first person captured is the first person to go home." There are very few people in this world, including myself, who would do that. ...
There are POWs alive today who say, "He was our inspiration. He's the reason that we survived." He was indeed a war hero, not because he was a POW, but because of his moral conviction. He is one bullheaded, stubborn son of a gun, more so than anybody I've ever known in politics.
ON RELIGION'S ROLE
Benson: At the end of the day, both sides have religious beliefs, and they are theirs. We spend far too much time on it.
Huckabee did an ad in Iowa basically wishing everybody a merry Christmas, and it received all sorts of focus. It was a very soft touch, and it's held up to the microscope as some sort of religious reawakening.
Sutton: I think we know what it is. It's an attack on his main opponent, Mitt Romney.
Benson: I think you're reading into it.
Sutton: I don't think I'm reading into it at all. Minnesotans are tolerant people. The religion thing went away [in politics] in '60, with [John F.] Kennedy [a Roman Catholic]. Mitt Romney is a man of faith; he lives his faith; he has a strong moral background.
What Minnesotans might be uncomfortable with is the floating cross in the background of the [Huckabee] ad, and a deliberate attempt to drive a wedge among Republicans and among Americans. That's just not right. This has all come about because there's a Mormon who's a leading candidate for president.
Seifert: Years ago, our country came to a consensus to reject race-baiting. I think we need to reject faith-baiting. At the end of the day, are they going to keep us free and safe, balance the budget, reform health care and lead us into the 21st century? Those are the real questions at the nub of being the leader of the free world.
Schulstad: I agree.
Whitney: I personally am sickened by the emphasis on religion in my party. I go to my precinct caucus, and it is absorbed with religious issues. It's very hard for a moderate Republican.
ON JUDGMENT
Schulstad: The Air Force proposed a lease agreement with Boeing for a whole fleet of tankers, air-to-air refueling planes. The Air Force needs them badly.
McCain said [leasing] "doesn't make sense, and I'm going to fight it. I think that's going to cost us a lot of extra money. ... I'm holding up promotions in the Air Force, to general, because this is the wrong way to go."
To make a long story short, the lady, a civilian, who was in charge of the procurement program is now in jail because she had a cozy relationship with Boeing. McCain, by himself, stopped that program, and now the Air Force will be purchasing these tankers. He saved us billions of dollars. Some of the top generals were just furious with him -- and their names are on this list [of McCain supporters].
Seifert: Thompson is the only one who's given a detailed, gutsy Social Security plan. He's put everything on the table.
His plan creates solvency in the future, by restraining the growth in benefit increases. You're not going to get as much as you originally thought you would. And he wants to give an option to people of having an ownership of their retirement, rather than having the government control your retirement. Let's have families and individuals determine their own future.
Benson: Huckabee hasn't received enough attention yet for his fair-tax plan. Taxing income and savings is generally not a good idea. He has laid out a consumption tax that you can make progressive, you don't need to go through all these deductions, and still generate the revenue you need. And you'd do it in a way that creates incentives for what we hope to accomplish.
He's getting more notice, and he's not backing off, on immigration. In Arkansas, they have a program for the underserved to go to college. The children whose parents are illegal immigrants, in order to be eligible, sign an affidavit saying they are willing to become citizens.
He's been accused of being soft on immigration, and his response has been, "Aren't we a bigger country than that?"
Sutton: Romney, as governor, took on health- care reform head-on. He did it in a way that's frankly not popular within Republican circles, but ultimately does reflect Republican values, in getting people to take more responsibility.
A modified version of that plan is what he's proposing for the United States. It's a plan that maintains our system. It's not going to a socialized system that waters down the care and puts you in a line. But it also makes you take a little more responsibility. Now, a lot of folks grumble when their copays go up $5 a month, but they spend twice as much on their DirecTV bill. It's out of whack, compared to what these costs are for business and for government. ... The next president is going to have to deal with these things.
Whitney: I am very proud of the fact that Rudy Giuliani has stood up for his beliefs in this campaign. I was told he didn't have a prayer to be nominated by the Republican Party because he is prochoice and ... believes gays and lesbians should have equal rights. He'd be booed out of places I've been, Republican Party groups. People said, "You watch. He'll change. He'll have to change his views on abortion and human rights." Well, he hasn't. And he's not going to. I admire him for that. He walked into the lion's den.
On those issues, he's where the American people are. He can win states for the Republican Party that no other candidate can win.
