Yeah I was with you Jeep right up until you said Rudy. That guys only accomplishment seems to be that he stood tall for one day when our national government wasn't paying attention. He was a symbol of strength for a day, ok maybe a couple days. He did do anything, when he actually got involved in the clean-up he suppressed safety concerns so people wouldn't be scared seeing people in gas-masks, unfortunately it may have lead to as many deaths as the attack itself. Rudy is no moderate. I'm not a moderate, I'm proud to be over on the left, but most of my family is pretty close to the center. We live in a very red area of a very blue state, we get to see both parties neither impresses us.

Thanks for all your comments Jeep. You have some very valid points. Ron Paul is a candidate that appeals to me the most out of the pack.

I, personally do not feel that privatization is the answer. I used to until Bush started pushing privatization in every nook and cranny and I cannot see that they are doing a better job especially when you look at the incredible waste that has been perpetuated on the American taxpayer from private contractors in Iraq.

I would probably put myself in the moderate camp and feel that the best answers for today probably include a little of both parties policies.

I have to be honest though, Rudy scares me to death. I feel he is much too hawkish for me. Perhaps even worse than Bush.

i do like ron paul. i think we need one congressman like ron paul just to debate the non-initiation of force principle, whether valid or not.

i use to be a social security hating republican and libertarian. today, i think we need it or at least some kind of system in place because people are not going to keep valid policies. you work a job and have all this insurance. you lose your job, become self-employed or work a job without all the insurance benefits. you skip on paying for insurance, you become disabled and are screwed. you have some kind of traumatic life experience and you spend your retirement money. with a total private system, there are going to be people who get screwed by the system and we'll still end up having to support them.

anyone not caught up in their propaganda can see these things. there are problems with the social security system, but we need to address those problems from all viewpoints, be open to new ideas rather than just spinning our own propoganda.

terrorism and the iraq war is an important issue. we need someone who can see through the propaganda. we're in iraq. leaving could cause bigger problems than sticking it out. i personally like the idea of the terminator or the godfather (rudy) helping us get through these tough issues. rudy is a moderate. he is pro-choice. and he has the ability to divorce one philosophy and marry a better one.

I find it funny of the bloggers here that describe Ron Paul as a moderate just because he is against the Iraq war. Ron Paul is a libertarian. Libertarians have a basic philosophy and adhere to that philosophy--the non-iniation of force. Libertarians are against public schools because it involves the government taking by force the earnings of the populace to educate the children. A disabled person with no kids struggling to support himself must pay taxes so that someone doctor's kid can have a tax-paid education. This is moderate?

Ron Paul is somewhat of a "moderated" libertarian in that he believes in a transition from social security to private longevity and disability insurance. I think if Ron Paul was moderated further he would believe there is an argument to be made that we need force for the transition of the world from a world of organized terrorism, nukes, and biological weapons to a world with democracy and prosperity for the world.

I'm a former libertarian. I even quit voting because I was so caught up in this way of thinking I began to see myself as a propagandist rather than a rational, moderated individual. I see this a lot today in the Democrat Party. They are so caught up in their own propaganda, they can't have honest, intellectual discourse. They just spin the propaganda like their way is the absolute truth and there is no other valid rationale.