Mitt Romney

The former Governor of Massachusetts is banking on his no-bull, Washington-outsider image to convince voters he can actually reform health-care by deregulating state markets and reform immigration by punishing states and businesses who don't play by federal rules.  Oh, and building an enormous wall along the southern border to keep out illegal immigrants.

He favors making the Bush tax cuts permanent, eliminating the death tax, increased military spending by up to 4% of the GDP, and enhancing No Child Left Behind to give states more flexibility in measuring student performance.

But that’s right about where he wants his similarities to the Bush administration to end.  Romney is casting himself as the candidate who can and will curb egregious government spending as well as the Asian economic encroachment that threatens to displace America as the world’s leading economy.

His tap-dance on abortion is a little harder to follow, but with the economy in the can, his near-obsessive business approach to leadership might be just the ticket.

He also has a nice smile and a memorable name.

John McCain

Washington-insider to Romney's outsider, the best card in McCain's hand is his leadership experience, both on the Hill and the battlefield.  His military service record isn't in question, but what about his “maverick” reputation as a U.S. Senator?  With he and Romney calling each other the “L” word, it can all get pretty confusing.  This should help . . . a little.

McCain’s stance on Iraq is most closely aligned with the current administration's, which you might suspect is undesirable, but he's also been monitoring the war more closely than the other candidates from his position in the Senate.  Rather than distance himself from the war, he seems intent on using it to his advantage, citing his proximity to the situation as a mark of readiness to deal with it upon assuming the office of the Executive.  In addition to higher troop levels, he's also requesting increased funding for programs like national missile defense.

His health-care plan is also market driven, promoting competition between providers and alternative treatments through the wider availability of generic drugs, for example.  And he, too, plans to slash taxes in general, make the Bush income and investment tax cuts permament, and roll back the Alternative Minimum Tax.

McCain is less harsh - and less specific - on illegal immigration, saying only that he will secure the border but provide both skilled citizens and immigrants with economic opportunity, leaving him open to charges that he's a softy on the issue.  Then again, immigration hasn’t been in the headlines too much of late, so it doesn’t appear to be hurting him.  For now.

And if there's any doubt that he's a conservative, how’s this:  He’d like to overturn Roe v. Wade to “return the question of abortion to the states” and is a firm Second Amendment advocate with a consistent record opposing gun control.

Mike Huckabee

The soft-spoken pastor-turned-Governor of Arkansas is a lot tougher than he looks.  He’d like to cast himself as the only social conservative left in the race, and he has the credentials to back it.  But he’s also hoping to generate support for his big economic ideas.

While everyone else is talking about cutting taxes, Huckabee plans to do away with them all together - at least the federal kind.  He wants to eliminate all federal income and payroll taxes and replace them with a so-called “fair tax” based on consumption rather than earnings.

Of all the GOP candidates, Huckabee's energy policy might be the most proactive, aiming to set up a federal fund for research and development of alternative energy sources, including nuclear energy, and develop alternative energy technologies quickly enough to then sell them to economic competitors like India and China, whose energy demands are likely to increase dramatically in the near-future.

He is also pushing for a project to add two lanes of highway to I-95 from Bangor to Miami as a way to address crumbling infrastructure in the U.S. and create what he estimates to be about 40,000 jobs.  This, in concert with his energy plan and fair tax, is his magic wand for bolstering the economy in the long-term.

He can also be seen playing electric bass on various late-night programs.

Rudy Giuliani

It might be hard to believe now, but the former Associate Attorney General under Reagan and Mayor of New York was once the front-runner in the race.  The characteristics that initially made Giuliani a strong candidate are still there - an impressive (if controversial) record on violent crime reduction, crisis management, and fiscal conservatism.

Giuliani is the great sloganeer of the GOP campaign, virtually summing up the defining campaign issues with his “12 Commitments” and belching phrases like “fiscal conservatism” and “Americanization” to no end.  The latter phrase is a reference to his immigration strategy - Huckabee and McCain advocate assimilation programs to teach immigrants English, but Giuliani just comes right out and says what they all mean by it.  Subtlety doesn’t suit him anyway.

In addition to free-market solutions, tax cuts, and reforming the tax code, he also advocates a Health Insurance Credit to low-income individuals and more price and qualifications transparency to provide Americans with more health care options. 

On education he says he's prepared to commit to a Federal Voucher Program for students trapped in failing schools and expanded charter schooling.

But with his big bid going south in Florida, none of it may matter anyway. 

Ron Paul

 And then there's Ron Paul, the libertarian running on the GOP ticket. 

Paul's stance on education seems to primarily consist of enthusiastic support  for home-schooling, with tax incentives for those who choose this educational route.

He supports “free-market energy,” going so far as to suggest a halt in federal subsidies for energy technology development in order to let the market set the standard for affordable alternative energy.  To that end, he too supports the exploration of nuclear energy but wouldn't throw a dollar of federal money its way to support it.

Here's where he enters the realm of mainstream anomaly:  He opposes the war in Iraq for too many reasons to list here, but he generally does so on the grounds of “unsustainable empire,” and he opposes the Patriot Act or any government invasion of privacy, including a national ID card system, for any proposed reason.

He's not completely loosey-goosey when it comes to government oversight, though.  He wants illegal immigrants out of the country as badly as the other candidates, maybe more so, and wants a wall, standing army, whatever it takes to keep them out.  Given his avid support of the Second Amendment, arming citizens on the border probably isn't out of the question for him.