What do you look for in a presidential candidate?

Question

What makes your candidate better than the others? Do you support him/her because of his/her positions on specific issues?

Okay, some of the answers are a little vague. Let me put it this way:

What specific issues that concern you that affect who you support for president?

Answer 1

One that stays true to the foundations of America.
So far, I have not one person I can get behind and support.
Few get close but I don't think the final two will fit the mold.

You seem to be trying to corner people with the "one issue voter" garbage. I hope that's not true.

I have several litmus tests for a person to qualify to even be in the running.
1. Must be a rock solid pro-lifer with years of evidence.
2. Must be pro-family as defined in the Bible with no variance.
After these two, they should understand "separation of church and state" is not official law.
And they should understand the first amendment is to protect and support religion, not eliminate it and that it fundamentally means that the U.S. can not force you to be a certain religion and really nothing more.
Then I look at most everything else.
It's like a weighing of the issues.
A candidate must tally 1000 points.
Pro-life is worth 500.
Pro-family is worth 490.
Everything else is worth one point.
If someone came along along and said they would consult the Bible on all decisions and there was a track record to prove it, that is an automatic 1000 points.

Answer 2

Well I don't even bother looking for honesty any longer. I'd never fully trust a politician, even one that seems to share the same views as I do. I try to support people who do their best to individually address each issue with as much diplomacy and equalization as possible. I'd rather have someone who's willing to look at an issue and attempt to find the best route to appeal to the most people, rather than someone who's going to look at an issue and make their decision on it based on partisan beliefs.

I'm sure you'll get some people answering with things like "not liberal", or "not conservative". I really think those things are utterly immature. They're the very thing that allows the possibility of ignorant politicians to get into places of power.

Answer 3

I look for a candidate who can really rally the people. I believe an ordinary president can only do so much ... a weak president even less ... but some amazing things can be accomplished by the people themselves as they rally behind a president they believe in.

Kennedy, and to a lesser extent, Reagan were the only two in my lifetime who could pull this off. For my money, the candidate is Obama ... but as he rallies untold millions, he will likewise face untold millions of enemies ... so we'll see. That's why you see such fear of him as a strong candidate and these early swiftboating techniques so typical of our little narrow-mnded buddies on the right.

Answer 4

I support Mike Huckabee. Gov. from Ark.

Reasons why I support him:

Former Pastor of two baptist churches. Shows moral aptitude.
Actually backed it up by signing legislation outlawing same-sex marriage in Arkansas,Signed the Fetal Protection Act,Signed a law requiring parental consent for abortion

Fiscally conservative. Left the gov't after 10.5 years better than when we started.
Ie: Created over 90 tax cuts, reducing taxes by almost $380 million for the people of Arkansas, and Left office with a surplus of more than $800 million

Answer 5

I look for someone like Obama who is not a traditional politican and who believes that this country can be better than it is by ending stupid arguments between voters who support the party and not the candidate. Who believe whatever their party tells them. Who don't realize that the top 1% of our people who control most of our wealth are trying to drive everyone else into poverty, so they can feel even richer.

Answer 6

I look at positions on all the issues. Those who won't talk issues are ruled out immediately. Of the ones who do talk issues I assess their stand on each and the one that comes closest to my own stand on most of the issues is the one I vote for. Sometimes it winds up being the lesser of two evils. That was 2004 for me. I voted for Kerry but only because he was the lesser of the evils.

Answer 7

It has varied in previous elections.
But for this next one it will come down mostly to one issue.
Who is going to best deal with our immigration problems.

Since immigration has a large effect on education, crime, employment, healthcare and the economy in general as well its the most important issue by far to me.

Answer 8

A man thats not afraid to go after terriotists after we've been attacked, if your a coward then I'd think twice about running, Like those cowardly DC democrats who condoned the war and now wants to kill off our troops and bring alquida here.

Answer 9

I look for good looks, a close shave and a nice make-up job. Those are the presidential qualities I found in Clinton, Carter and Clinton #2.

Answer 10

National leadership experience, solid positions on key issues, good and preferably Christian values and morals.