Liberty Maven

A few days ago we introduced the Ron Paul Paul-O-Meter. For a description and overview of the Paul-O-Meter, please read the article here.

Today we begin rating the Presidential candidates with our rating for Barack Obama. The Paul-O-Meter will give us a total score on 20 criteria. The closer a candidate gets to 100 points the more that candidate is like Ron Paul. For each criteria we will give the score and a short justification for that score. Read the results for Barack Obama below.

1. Liberty Based Voting Record – Obama has a rather leftist voting record yet he votes for unconstitutional Iraq war spending and now says he will vote for the warrant less wiretapping FISA bill. Score: 0
2. The Federal Reserve and Monetary Policy – The Fed is not even mentioned on Obama’s campaign site. The only articles regarding Obama and the Federal Reserve are by people lamenting that he hasn’t said word one about the Federal Reserve. Score: 0
3. Foreign Policy and Iraq – Obama advocates removing our troops from Iraq within 16 months. However he has an exception that makes one wonder if he means “all” the troops. From his issues page on his website: “if al Qaeda attempts to build a base within Iraq, he will keep troops in Iraq or elsewhere in the region to carry out targeted strikes on al Qaeda.” This is far from a non-interventionist foreign policy like Ron Paul. He also will not remove troops from other U.S. occupied countries. Score: 2
4. Taxes – Obama said he would repeal the Bush tax cuts, one of the few good things Bush did in his Presidency. He will raise taxes on the wealthy and lower taxes on middle and lower income families and individuals. He also advocates making the tax system simpler for certain income earners. Score: 1
5. Government Spending – Obama certainly advocates for reducing the national debt and curbing earmarks, but he also advocates creating so many new government programs that his debt and earmark reduction rhetoric is rendered meaningless. Score: 0
6. Privacy and Civil Liberties – He continually speaks out about restoring Habeus Corpus like Ron Paul. Obama voted for reauthorizing the Patriot Act. He supports the REAL ID Act. He plans to vote for the latest FISA bill in the Senate. He stated that he would leave same sex marriage up to the states even though he personally is against it. Score:2
7. Immigration – Obama supports a convoluted version of amnesty for illegal immigrants. He has voted for the creation of a border fence, but also has voted against amendments to extend it. His rhetoric on ending the incentives for illegal immigrants to come here echoes Ron Paul in some ways, although he focuses on making companies accountable for hiring illegal workers. He speaks nothing of ending birthright citizenship like Ron Paul. Score: 2
8. Gun Control and Second Amendment – Obama tries to triangulate around this topic by paying lip service to having a right to own guns, but always with a caveat that the government has a right to restrict them. He supported the DC Gun Ban and was disappointed with the recent Heller Supreme Court ruling overturning the ban. Score: 1
9. Internet Regulation – Obama voted for the SAFE Port act which contained the ban on online gambling. He also strongly advocates for “Net Neutrality” unlike Dr. Paul. Score: 2
10. Adherence To The Constitution - Obama regularly speaks about restoring Habeus Corpus and he has advocated for states rights on certain issues, but the larger part of his platform runs counter to the rule of law in the Constitution as strictly interpreted by Ron Paul. Score: 1
11. Religion vs. Public Policy - Few candidates have been put under religion’s microscope as much as Obama in this election. In just about all cases he has answered the critics by advocating separating his religion and his politics similarly to Ron Paul. He has certainly had to defend his religous beliefs as much, if not more than Mitt Romney. Score: 4
12. Environment - Obama and Ron Paul could not be further apart on environment isssues. They disagree on how to handle global warming. Obama favors more government regulation and Paul wants to leave it up to the market and court system. Score: 0
13. Energy Policy - Obama is against drilling in ANWR and domestic drilling off of our shorelines unlike Paul. He advocates renewable energy but does so by implementing new government programs and regulations whereas Paul would leave it to market competition. Obama and Paul are opposites on energy policy. Score: 0
14. U.S. Sovereignty - Obama was asked specifically about the NAU and it’s threat to U.S. sovereignty, his reply was that he saw no evidence of it even existing and that there was no “conspiracy amongst” the governments of the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. Score: 0
15. War On Drugs – Obama is a bit like a typical politician in speaking about this topic. He never outright advocates for stopping the drug war. Instead he talks about “shifting our focus to prevention.” He is certainly not as forthright about the issue as Ron Paul. Score: 2
16. Education – Obama proposes more than a dozen new programs at the federal level to help fix America’s education problems while Ron Paul advocates obeying the Constitution and abolishing the Department of Education and returning the role of public education back to the states and localities. Score: 0
17. Welfare – Obama and Paul are on opposite ends of welfare reform. Paul advocates a graceful move towards ending welfare programs like Social Security. Obama advocates strengthening Social Security through higher payroll taxes. Score: 0
18. Abortion – Obama is pro-choice and would work to protect a woman’s right to choose to have an abortion at the federal level. This completely contradicts Ron Paul’s position to get the federal government out of the abortion debate and leave the decision to ban or allow abortion to the states. Score: 0
19. Health Care – Obama believes health care is a right to all Americans. Ron Paul does not and questions where such right exists in the Constitution. Obama supports a national health care plan while Dr. Paul supports getting the government completely out of health care so the forces of the free market can help lower costs. Score: 0
    
20. Ability To Spread The Liberty Message - Obama has probably more ability to spread a liberty message than any other candidate in the race, yet his platform runs completely counter to Ron Paul’s message of liberty. Obama advocates raising taxes, futher redistribution of wealth, and countless new federal government programs. There is no Ron Paul-style liberty in that message. Score: 0

Barack Obama’s Final Paul-O-Meter Score: 17 out of 99 possible points

(Remember only Ron Paul can score a 100 on the Paul-O-Meter)

This was a brutal exercise. Obama doesn’t even come close to Ron Paul on the issues. He scored far lower than we expected. We incorrectly assumed he would score much higher on the privacy and civil liberties issue. His highest score was on the Religion vs. Public Policy criteria with a 4. If the results of this Obama Paul-O-Meter reveals anything it is highly unlikely that many Ron Paul supporters will be voting for Obama in the general election.

The next candidate to be dragged through the Paul-O-Meter will be presumptive Republican nominee John “The Chameleon” McCain. Following McCain we will begin tackling the third party/independent candidates.

Soon you will be able to submit your own scores for each of the candidates.  Stay tuned!