Liberty Maven

The final Presidential candidate we will be rating on the Paul-O-Meter is the Green Party’s nominee, Cynthia McKinney. For a description of the Paul-O-Meter see this article. We have previously completed ratings for John McCain, Barack Obama, Bob Barr, Chuck Baldwin, and Ralph Nader.

You can get in the action too by rating the candidates using our Paul-O-Meter polling application here.

Listed below is our own ratings for Cynthia McKinney.

1. Liberty-based Voting Record – McKinney has voted in a Ron Paul “way” on three issues: foreign policy, the drug war, and free trade. On almost every other issue she borders on complete socialism. Score: 1
2. The Federal Reserve and Monetary Policy – McKinney would like to “nationalize” the Federal Reserve and “taking the economic middleman out of coinage and currency”. This is the opposite of the free market ideas Ron Paul espouses. Score: 0
3. Foreign Policy and Iraq – McKinney may be more like Ron Paul on this issue than any other candidate. She wants to get our troops out of Iraq, switch to a non-interventionist foreign policy, and remove our troops from bases overseas. Score: 5
4. Taxes – McKinney is very much in favor of a progressive tax system. She would institute new taxes across the board. This is the opposite of the Ron Paul approach. Score: 0
5. Government Spending – McKinney is for dramatically expanding the role of government with numerous new programs to “take care of us.” Again, this is the opposite of the Ron Paul approach. Score: 0
6. Privacy and Civil Liberties – McKinney is pretty close to Ron Paul here but in some cases like same sex marriage she doesn’t support leaving it to the states. She prefers federally recognized marriage. Score: 4
7. Immigration – She supports amnesty and voted against the border fence. Score: 1
8. Gun Control and Second Amendment – McKinney supports all possible and potential gun control laws. This is the opposite of Ron Paul. Score: 0
9. Internet Regulation – McKinney supports Net Neutrality and regulating the Internet. Score: 0
10. Adherence To The Constitution – With all of the new federal programs, taxes, and departments McKinney is pretty far from adhering to the Constitution. Score: 0
11. Religion vs. Public Policy – McKinney is catholic, but never seems to mention it within her rhetoric. She successfully divorces her religion and policy. Score: 5
12. Environment – McKinney is the opposite of Ron Paul here. She supports new government programs to help with global warming and other environment problems. Score: 0
13. Energy Policy – McKinney doesn’t support drilling off of our coasts. She has said, “Leave the oil in the soil.” She wants to regulate energy prices. She is against nuclear energy. This is decidedly not like Ron Paul. Score: 0
14. U.S. Sovereignty – We could not find any statement from McKinney on the NAU or U.S. Sovereignty. Score: 0
15. War On Drugs – McKinney is mostly like Ron Paul here. She wants to end the war on drugs and free non-violent drug offenders, but she doesn’t support just leaving drug enforcement to the states. Score: 4
16. Education – McKinney fully supports the Dept. of Education and federally funding education programs unlike Dr. Paul. Score: 0
17. Welfare Programs – McKinney advocates for increasing many of the federal welfare programs instead of ending them like Ron Paul. Score: 0
18. Abortion – McKinney is pro-choice and is completely the opposite of Ron Paul here. Score: 0
19. Health Care – McKinney supports nationalized health care. Score: 0
20. Ability To Spread The Liberty Message – McKinney doesn’t have a liberty message like that of Ron Paul and furthermore she doesn’t get much media attention at all. Score: 0

Cynthia McKinney’s final Paul-O-Meter score: 20 out of a possible 99 points.

McKinney finished about where we expected. What we found most interesting is how extreme she is on certain issues, almost like she is Barack Obama’s own liberal conscience. Yet she is very much in line with Ron Paul on foreign policy and free trade, and maybe drug policy, but little else.

That concludes our Presidential candidate ratings. Stay tuned for an upcoming article with our own summation of the results of both our own ratings and of your ratings submitted via the Paul-O-Meter web polling application.