Liberty MavenThe Ron Paul Paul-O-Meter: Chuck Baldwin Is Up
July 15th, 2008 12:44 am | by Marc Gallagher | Published in Abortion, Big Government, Civil Liberties, Constitution, Drugs, Economics, Education, Election, energy, Environment, Federal Reserve, fisa, Foreign Policy, Free Market, Gambling, Gun Control, Health Care, Immigration, Internet Regulation, Liberty, Maven Commentary, Media, Philosophy, Politics, REAL ID, Religion, Ron Paul, Social Security, Taxes, War | 10 Responses
UPDATE: Chuck Baldwin’s Communications Director posted a comment clarifying his position on a few of the issues. This has modified Baldwin’s overall score. Read the comments for more details.
It is now Constitution Party candidate Chuck Baldwin’s turn to be spun through the Paul-O-Meter. So far we have rated Barack Obama, John McCain, and Bob Barr. Will Chuck Baldwin beat Bob Barr’s current high score of 88? Read on to find out.
For a detailed description of the Paul-O-Meter look here.
NEW: If you’d like to rate the candidates on the Paul-O-Meter please do so on our Paul-O-Meter user rating application here.
Continue reading to see our ratings for Chuck Baldwin.
- Liberty-based Voting Record – Baldwin does not have a voting record so by default he gets a 3. Score: 3
- The Federal Reserve and Monetary Policy – Baldwin wants to abolish the Federal Reserve and has advocated for a return to the gold standard. Baldwin’s Communications Director states that Chuck supports competing currencies. Score has been modified to a 5 (see comments for details). Score:5
- Foreign Policy and Iraq – Baldwin calls for an immediate return from Iraq and switching to a non-interventionist foreign policy just like Ron Paul. Baldwin’s Communications Director states that Baldwin has advocated for bringing our troops home from military bases stationed overseas. Score has been modified to a 5 (see comments for details). Score:5
- Taxes – Baldwin is perfectly in line with Ron Paul on tax policy. He wants to repeal the 16th amendment and replace it with nothing. No flat tax and no consumption tax. Score: 5
- Government Spending – Baldwin is exactly like Ron Paul on government spending. He mentions specific departments he would abolish and continually advocates returning our government to its Constitutionally limited size. Score: 5
- Privacy and Civil Liberties – Baldwin is identical to Ron Paul here. He is against FISA, Real ID, and the Patriot Act. He would leave the definition of marriage to the states. Score: 5
- Immigration – Baldwin mimics Ron Paul on this issue. He speaks about removing incentives and lashes out against amnesty. He allows for the possibility of a border fence, but isn’t that keen on the idea. Score: 5
- Gun Control and Second Amendment – Baldwin echoes Ron Paul here as well just about perfectly. Score: 5
- Internet Regulation – He is against Net Neutrality and has said he opposes federal regulation of the Internet. However, he was given an ‘F’ by the Poker Player’s Alliance for his stance on online gambling and he was not forthright with his answer in a recent interview about regulating online gambling. Score: 4
- Adherence To The Constitution – Baldwin speaks regularly of restoring the Constitution and obeying the rule of law. Score: 5
- Religion vs. Public Policy – Being a member of the Constitution Party it is difficult for Baldwin to score high here. Baldwin being a pastor also doesn’t help. In most of his writings and speeches he mentions religion or relates policy to it. This is unlike Ron Paul. Ron Paul rarely mentions religion on the campaign trail. Score: 1
- Environment – Baldwin is directly in line with Dr. Paul here. He believes global warming is a cyclical act of nature and he advocates using property rights and the court system to handle environment disputes. Score: 5
- Energy Policy – Baldwin advocates for drilling in ANWR and off our coastlines. He advocates building more Nuclear Power plants. Score: 5
- U.S. Sovereignty – Baldwin regularly speaks out against the North American Union and advocates for strong U.S. Sovereignty. Score: 5
- War On Drugs – Baldwin says we need to “rethink” the war on drugs, but he hasn’t advocated ending it. Instead he suggests sealing the border as the solution to our perceived drug problems. He hasn’t advocated freeing all non-violent drug offenders either. These are not in line with Ron Paul. He has however, suggested that medicinal marijuana use be best regulated by the states. Score: 3
- Education – Baldwin is perfectly in line with Ron Paul here. He advocates abolishing the Department of Education and advocates for school choice and home schooling. Score: 5
- Welfare Programs – Baldwin advocates for phasing out of Social Security just like Ron Paul. Score: 5
- Abortion – Baldwin is a twin of Ron Paul on this issue. Even though he is personally pro-life he would support Ron Paul’s “Sanctity Of LIfe” act which would overturn Roe vs. Wade and leave all abortion regulation to the states. Score: 5
- Health Care – Baldwin is exactly like Ron Paul here. Wants to leave medical decisions to doctor’s and patients. He does not support any kind of government run national health care system. He wants to restore free market competition to health care. Score: 5
- Ability To Spread The Liberty Message – Baldwin certainly has a liberty message; however, his ability to spread it by getting coverage on main stream media outlets is severely lacking. Score: 2
Chuck Baldwin’s final Paul-O-Meter Score: 88 out of 99 possible points
It was extremely difficult to find Baldwin’s positions on some of the issues. His new web site doesn’t have an “issues” page and many of his columns do not outline his positions in detail. We were surprised to learn he has not come out as a strong advocate for ending the “war on drugs” like Ron Paul has done. We could have easily given him a 2 on that issue. He has criticized the drug war so that earned him some points there. Likewise, we could have given him a ’0′ or a ’1′ on his ability to spread the liberty message, but he has such a strong message that earned him some points there.
If our readers can point us to direct quotes that refute some of the things we were able to find through our research we will happily adjust the score accordingly. For instance, with monetary policy we could find nothing about Baldwin advocating for competing currencies like Ron Paul. Also, on the foreign policy issue we could not find any direct quotes from Baldwin on removing our troops from our bases stationed overseas. (NOTE: Baldwin’s Communication Director responds to these questions in the comments. We have adjusted his score accordingly.)
Stay tuned for next time when we measure stalwart independent Presidential candidate Ralph Nader.
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July 15th, 2008 at 3:18 am (#)
I like Chuck Baldwin a lot better than Bob Barr,
so I disagree with your rating him below Barr on the Paul-o-meter.
July 15th, 2008 at 9:14 am (#)
The Paul-O-Meter isn’t about which candidate we like best, it’s about whose politics are closest to that of Ron Paul. Please share and explain which categories in which you disagree with our rating. I’d like to understand areas where you disagree with our assessment based on the criteria given.
Thanks for contributing.
-Mike
July 15th, 2008 at 5:40 pm (#)
Chuck Baldwin would like to commment on a few of the rating items you have listed here…
#1…Chuck would like to point out that “there is a plethora of material out there about me to prove my commitment to liberty…”
#2… Chuck says he does “support competing currencies”.
#3…”I have publically called for bringing our troops home from bases around the world.”
#9… Chuck wonders what you mean by “not forthright”… Baldwin points out, “I am against federal regulation of the internet…” and questions what more he can offer beyond that strong statement.
#11… Chuck asks if your rating of him would increase if he were an atheist? And reminds us that “Ron Paul has publically expressed his faith in Jesus Christ”, so how is Chuck different in this regard, except that Chuck is a minister?
#15… Chuck responds by saying “I have said, as president, I would do everything in my power to keep drugs from coming across the borders…as for drug enforcement, I have repeatedly said that it is a state and local matter…” ( Again,just like Dr. Paul)
#20… Baldwin reminds us “as I recall, the main stream media did not give Dr. Paul much opportunity to spread the message either…”
Thanks for the opportunity to clear this up.
For more on Chuck Baldwin’s positions check out: http://www.Baldwin08.com
Sincerely,
Mary Starrett
Communications Director,
Baldwin 2008
Mary@Baldwin2008.com
July 15th, 2008 at 6:41 pm (#)
Mary,
Thanks so much for the response, clarifications, and questions. Below is our point by point reply.
#1 We don’t argue Chuck’s commitment to liberty at all; however we cannot “guess” what his voting record would be. The criteria is voting record and the guidelines we set up stated that if a candidate doesn’t have a voting record then the score should be right in the middle, which is a 3.
#2 We could not find anything stating that Chuck supports competing currencies online. Thanks for your clarification we will modify the score to a 5.
#3 Thanks for the clarification on this one as well. We will modify the score to a 5.
#9 Being forthright on specific legislation is what we mean. The linked interview has Chuck answering a broader question than was asked. If Chuck states that he is for repealing UIGEA (as it was passed within the SAFE Port Act) and unequivocally and specifically states that he would support no legislation regulating online gambling then we would have no problem switching this to a 5. Does Chuck fully support repealing UIGEA? Does Chuck support legislation regulating online gambling of any kind?
#11 If Chuck were an atheist and he continually mentioned that he was an atheist in his speeches/articles then we would certainly have rated him lower (not higher).
Our point is that Ron Paul does not regularly mention his religion within his speeches/articles. In fact he has said that he doesn’t even like to talk about it at all. His exact words (we believe) were he doesn’t “wear it on his sleeve”. He has spoken about his religion when asked and he “used” it when he published his “statement of faith” early in the campaign last year. Other than that religion is just not regularly part of his rhetoric. This is in pretty stark contrast to Chuck. We are not anti-religion, but we recognize that it makes some people uncomfortably afraid of “theocratic” style rule when it is mixed with politics.
#15 Does Chuck also promise to end the war on drugs? Does he also promise to free all non-violent drug offenders like Dr. Paul? Those are the two questions we could not find answers to that forced us to lower his score.
#20 The main stream media did not give Ron Paul equal coverage that’s for sure. But he did appear for several interviews on main stream media outlets like “This Week With George Stephanopoulos” and “Meet The Press”. He also was a regular guest on shows hosted by Tucker Carlson and Neil Cavuto. At this point in Chuck’s campaign he has not appeared on such main stream media outlets; therefore, we believe a score of 2 is certainly justified. As stated in our summation we could have easily justified giving him a 0 or a 1 here, but we gave credit to him for having such a great message of liberty. We hope he does end up on some of the same main stream media outlets as Dr. Paul. His message is strong and should be heard.
Thank you very much for taking the time to respond. Hopefully Chuck will find our responses acceptable and maybe further clarify his positions on our additional questions.
-Marc Gallagher
July 15th, 2008 at 10:56 pm (#)
M123star,
Where did Chuck Baldwin’s “issues” page go? It used to be there and now it’s missing. For someone running for the president of the United States of America, such a page is absolutely crucial.
July 16th, 2008 at 3:48 am (#)
Baldwin said in an interview with Independent Political Report that he strictly opposes Internet regulation of any kind. He said this in response to a question about Internet gambling. Baldwin feels strongly enough about the value of the Internet as a tool for knowledge and free speech that he refuses to set a bad precedent by regulating it in any way. He really does not deserve the 3.5 he has been given on it here. While I would give the Constitution Party a very low rating for its nasty platform issues with porn and gambling, I would give Baldwin a 5 because he refuses to regulate the Internet… period.
July 22nd, 2008 at 8:34 am (#)
[...] It is now Ralph Nader’s turn to be viewed through the Ron Paul colored glasses of the Paul-O-Meter. The Paul-O-Meter rates the candidates on how closely they resemble Ron Paul on the issues. For a complete description and methodology of the Paul-O-Meter please see this article. Thus far we have rated Barack Obama, John McCain, Bob Barr, and Chuck Baldwin. [...]
July 28th, 2008 at 9:52 am (#)
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October 15th, 2008 at 10:40 am (#)
[...] by saying he will “seal the border” to stop the flow of drugs. When we rated Baldwin on our Paul-O-Meter his campaign replied with some clarifications, but he never responded to our specific question that [...]
February 26th, 2011 at 3:38 pm (#)
I'm with ewj9961. It is not Baldwin's fault that fringe stream media won't cover him. Remember, they did the same to Ron until his meet-up groups turned into the TEA party. Even establishment R's tried to shut Ron down. And during the last Prez debates Michelle Malkin & Shaun Hannity made fools out of themselves when the joined the NY cross dresser Rudy when Rudy attacked Paul on blow back being a large part of why 9-11 happened. .
Now politicos all over the place try to pretend they are like Ron Paul.
Over all I like Baldwin & Judge Napolitano. Either of them would make GREAT VPs on the Ron Paul ticket.
I am not much for Palin.I think she is a hawk. I was for M Bachmann but she has waffled on specifics for budget cuts. I WAS gung ho for Michelle. Now I am not sure about her.
SamFox
SamFox