Super Tuesday Due Diligence

Tigerhawk has a very interesting post describing how he decided to vote for Romney:

I wrote this entire post (except for that last sentence and the title) without knowing how I would come out, so I encourage those of you who are similarly torn to read through it and come to your own conclusions. Regular readers know that as interested as I am in both domestic and foreign policy, I am less attuned to politics than many bloggers, so cut me some slack if I missed some important point that undermines my argument.

The choice

For me, the plausible remaining choice is between John McCain and Mitt Romney. As personally appealing as I find Mike Huckabee, I disagree with him on too many issues. He is a social conservative, populist nanny-stater who does not genuinely support a forward foreign policy against radical Islamism, and I am the opposite. Ron Paul disqualifies himself on foreign policy -- his brand of neoisolationism presupposes a very different world than the one in which we live -- and his domestic policy appeals only to the adolescent libertarian in me.

There are at least three angles from which to consider John McCain and Mitt Romney -- character, temperament, leadership, and executive ability; electability; and positions on the issues. All three perspectives are very much in the eye of the beholder; you and I may very well agree on the facts, more or less, but come to different conclusions about their meaning. These are my conclusions.

Read the whole thing.

I voted for Romney as well, and explained why in my Quibbling With McCain post.

Comments

[PK]

Being against foreign aid and meddling in the affairs of other countries is not isolationism, it's not "neoisolationsim" either. We would never have been attacked on 9/11 if we had stuck to this policy for the last few decades.

I do sincerely wish that we could take our stand on a ground perfectly neutral and independent towards all nations – Thomas Jefferson

The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign nations, is…to have with them as little political connection as possible. –George Washington

Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake; since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican government. –George Washington

America has abstained from interference in the concerns of others, even when the conflict has been for principles to which she clings....She goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own." - John Quincy Adams

Hence, likewise, we will avoid the necessity of those overgrown military establishments, which, under any form of government, are inauspicious to liberty, and which are to be regarded as particularly hostile to Republican Liberty. -- George Washington

We wish not to meddle with the internal affairs of any country, nor with the general affairs of Europe. – Thomas Jefferson