2011 Conservative Leadership Conference and the 2012 GOP Race

Most of you know that I’ve taken some time off from politics for a family emergency. My son was on life support with an extremely dangerous type of pneumonia. Although he has not fully recovered (doctor says about 3 more months) – he is home from the hospital now. Praise the Lord!

When Huckabee dropped out of the 2012 GOP presidential race I became undecided on who to vote for and/or support. I have been trying to keep up on some of the news and watched most of the New Hampshire debate. I missed the Republican Leadership Conference due to other family issues. So, today I started looking for some of the videos. I’ll post a few links here for others that may be interested:

Here’s the C-SPAN link to the evening of Day 1. Newt Gingrich’s speech is around the 48.30 mark.

Here is the link to the C-SPAN video of Day 2 that includes Herman Cain (around the 01:57 mark), Ron Paul (around the 02:22 mark), Michelle Bachmann (around the 03:39 mark), and Rick Santorum (around the 04:28 mark):

Here is the link to the C-SPAN video of Day 3 just in case the direct link to the video of Rick Perry’s speech quits working. Perry’s speech starts around the 3:30 mark.

Rick Perry speech at the RLC

Herman Cain speech at the RLC

It has been reported and/or suspected that Ron Paul and Jon Huntsman bussed in supporters (found in comments under Race42012 article) to help them win the straw poll. If true, it must have worked because Paul won the straw poll and Huntsman came in second – even though Huntsman didn’t even speak at the convention. I’m disappointed that straw poll votes can be bought that way.

My vote is not for sale! I will remain undecided until one of the candidates earns my vote. After watching Rick Perry’s speech at the RLC, I hope he joins the race so there are more conservative candidates to choose from.

H/T: The Right Scoop for posting the Cain and Perry videos so I was able to find them easy and to Right Speak for posting a link for the schedule so I knew which potential candidates to look for in the RLC videos.

Comparing Huckabee, Romney, Pawlenty, and Daniels as FiCons

On one of the blog sites that I frequent a few supporters of other candidates questioned Huckabee’s FiCon credentials. On another site a contributor requested that someone “rank these same 4 as to who would be best for a poor economy?” I decided to give that a try using the data available at USGovernmentSpending.com. I’m hoping their information is accurate and am assuming it is from an unbiased source.

I’ll be posting only the information available during the years 3 of the 4 Governors (Huckabee, Romney, and Pawlenty) were serving together and include Daniels during the last two years of that time-frame so we can do our best to compare apples to apples. I hope I figured this correctly. Please feel free to check all the numbers and my math. (If the link starts working properly. I was having trouble with it most of the day.)

First we’ll compare the Gross State Product growth:

Arkansas GSP grew from $77.8 in 2003 to $97.6 in 2007 at an annual rate of 6.35%
Massachusetts GSP grew from $297.3 in 2003 to $353.8 in 2007 at an annual rate of 4.75%
Minnesota GSP grew from $212.4 in 2003 to $255.3 in 2007 at an annual rate of 5.05%
Indiana GSP grew from $239.6 in 2005 (when Daniels took office) to $263.1 in 2007 at an annual rate during the two years we can use to compare of 4.90%

Next we’ll compare the government spending in the state and local government for the four states:

Arkansas spending grew from $13.8 in 2003 to $19.1 in 2007 at an annual rate of 9.97%
Massachusetts spending grew from $40.7 in 2003 to $64.1 in 2007 at an annual rate of 14.37%
Minnesota spending grew from $37.6 in 2003 to $47.2 in 2007 at an annual rate of 6.38%
Indiana spending grew from $42.2 in 2005 to $46.7 in 2007 at an annual rate of 5.33%

Lastly, we’ll compare the Real State Growth:

Arkansas RSG was 3.0% in 2003, 3.7% in 2004, 2.9% in 2005, 2.7% in 2006 and 1.0% in 2007 with a 2.66% yearly average RSG
Massachusetts RST was 1.5% in 2003, 2.0% in 2004, 1.1% in 2005, 1.5% in 2006 and 2.0% in 2007 with a 1.62% yearly average of RSG
Minnesota 3.4% in 2003, 4.1% in 2004, 1.7% in 2005, 0.2% in 2006, and 0.7% in 2007 with a 2.02% yearly average RSG
Indiana 0.3% in 2005, 1.1% in 2006, and 3.1% in 2007 with a 1.50% yearly average RSG

In summary:
Huckabee saw the best annual rate of growth in Gross State Product. Daniels and Pawlenty saw the least growth in spending. Huckabee did the best in Real State Growth. Romney did the worst in all three categories.

I’ll be voting Huckabee for President 2012!

Note: If there is someone out there with the ability to put this in chart or graph form I would really appreciate it.

Update: I struck out the comment about Romney because it was properly pointed out to be inaccurate. H/T Jeff Fuller

Update 2: I was asked to calculate some information for Utah and Jon Huntsman during this time frame, too:

Utah GSP grew from $90.7 in 2005 to $109.6 in 2007 at an annual rate of 10.42%

Utah spending grew from $17.2 in 2005 to $20.0 in 2007 at an annual rate of 8.14%

Utah RSG was 5.7% in 2005, 6.6% in 2006, and 5.8% in 2007 with a 6.03% yearly average RSG

Note: I’ll be adding more information as I calculate it. I’m not sure if I’ll post the information here or write a new blog.