In August I gave my one question for temporary dictator applicants:
What will you do to reduce the power of the presidency?
A candidate survey on executive power recently published by the Boston Globe comes as close to answering my question as I could hope. Each candidate was asked twelve questions. I rated each answer acceptable, marginal, or unacceptable and gave 1, 0.5, or 0 points for each. My ranking:
| Paul (R) | 11.5 |
| Biden (D) | 11.0 |
| Obama (D) | 11.0 |
| Dodd (D) | 10.5 |
| Richardson (D) | 10.0 |
| Clinton (D) | 9.0 |
| Edwards (D) | 7.5 |
| McCain (R) | 6.5 |
| Romney (R) | 1.0 |
Giuliani (R) did not answer any of the questions, but issued a statement that indicates he’d compete with Romney for low score. Thompson (R) and Huckabee (R) did not reply at all.
Based on the above, it seems civil libertarians ought to be rooting for an Obama vs. McCain general election. It’s ok to root for Paul or Biden, but they have near zero chances of winning their parties’ nominations. (My overall preference is for Richardson vs. Paul, but alas, neither willl be nominated. My hope is for Paul to do better than he’s polling — he will never meet the expectations of his supporters, and for Richardson to get the Democrat VP nomination.)
Glenn Greenwald comments on the survey, in particular Romney’s pursuit of tyrannical power.
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