I have addressed the five leading presidential candidates in my first two articles on the 2016 presidential election. 1. Trump and Carson. 2. Fiorina, Rubio and Cruz. This article will mainly be on third tier candidates – Bush, Huckabee, Kasich and Paul.  I will also briefly sum up the remaining presidential candidates at the end of this article.

Bush: Jeb Bush is the establishment candidate that was supposed to take a similar path to the Republican nomination as Mitt Romney. By changing the rules the Republican establishment intended to make it even easier for Bush to wrap up the primaries early.

The rule changes the GOP establishment made could back-fire on them if Trump or Carson win the early states and it is increasingly likely that one of them will. Bush is running way behind both men in all the states. Bush is even still running third or fourth in the state of Florida where he was governor for eight years.

They also had over 100 million in PAC money earmarked for Bush. They were not counting on Donald Trump and Ben Carson rallying Republicans that are totally fed up with the GOP establishment.

Bush has at least six strikes against him. He is on the wrong side of illegal immigration. He is on the wrong side of global trade. He is on the wrong side of Common Core. He is clueless about the evils of Islam. His persona is not very likable (On media appearances he looks like he is sucking sour grapes). And most people just do not want another Bush in the White House.

Bush certainly will get some delegates in the states that award delegates in proportion to the vote so he might endure until the convention. He is too well-funded to have to drop out. Even so, if Bush comes in third in Florida this Bush will never catch on fire. If Rubio does better than Bush in Florida the GOP establishment will shift to Rubio.

I do not like Jeb Bush’s tax plan at all. It cuts rates for the rich and for the poor and the lower middle classes that do not itemize on their returns. However, it increases taxes for those that need to itemize. That means if you’re middle to upper middle-class and pay real estate taxes and interest on your home mortgage and give a decent percentage of your income to charity or have other work related expenses or medical costs you will get screwed.

In Bush’s tax plan the government disguises more welfare to lower-income people by calling it working tax credits. Should government subsidize people to work because employers will not or cannot pay employees enough to make a living?? If they should, it is only because it was our federal government that made the globalist treaties that destroyed America’s good paying jobs. And how is this Bush tax plan any solution for the bloated federal government that spends much more than it takes in?

Bush claims he will solve America’s economic problems by increasing the growth rate to an average of four percent per year. Just saying you will do that does not make it happen. Even if he could accomplish that feat, four percent growth a year will not solve our long-term debt and entitlement problems. Bush’s economics will juggles a few things but his economic policies will solve nothing.

Bush was an Episcopalian that converted to Roman Catholicism in 1995 because of his wife. In Bush’s own words, “I converted to the Catholic Church—Christ came into my life a little earlier, but I converted to being Catholic in honor of my wife and because I believe in the blessed sacraments and they give me great comfort,”

Notice that he became a Catholic in honor of his wife and he believes in blessed sacraments. Catholicism teaches that keeping sacraments is necessary for salvation among other church requirements and your own good works. However, the Bible does not teach any such doctrine. The Bible teaches salvation comes by God’s grace alone, through faith in Christ alone, as defined in scripture alone, to the Glory of God alone. So does Jeb Bush just have religion or true salvation?

Jeb Bush is another Bush that believes that Muslims worship the same God as Christians. However, the Bible is very clear that the only way to the Father is through His Son. Yet, the Muslims condemn anyone that say that God has a Son. Jeb Bush even said that Obama is a true Christian. With such claims it seems to me that this Bush has shallow roots.

Huckabee: Mike Huckabee is a conservative Christian man who gets it right on just about all the issues. Actually his views and the views of Ted Cruz are much the same. These two are competing for the same bloc of voters so having them both in the race is not good for either of them.

Huckabee wants to abolish the IRS and he intends to do that with a Fair Tax. The Fair Tax is basically a sales tax that would amount to about 30 cents on each dollar spent. It would pay for all government including Social Security and Medicare. There would be tax rebates for the poor and for mortgage interest and for gifts to charity. The plan goes back to Huckabee’s prior campaign. It has received some support but generally the Fair Tax proposal has not caught on. It might create more problems than solutions.

Keep in mind that state and local taxes would still exist. When they add their sales tax you could be paying 40 percent more for all new items that you buy (houses, cars, gas, utilities, food, services, etc). What would that do to our economy? It certainly would be a boon for those that sell used goods and for the black market.

Another issue brought up is that the Fair Tax would not repeal the 16th Amendment that created the income tax. That could only be done by constitutional amendment. Getting any constitutional amendment passed is a long and difficult process. Therefore, a later administration could decide to have both a national sales tax and an income tax. Think it can’t happen? It is already happening in most of the Western world.

Huckabee is a Southern Baptist Christian. He was a church pastor for about a decade before he got into politics. He is a strong supporter of Israel and he gets Islam correct. He thinks Islam is a great danger to the world and he believes that the global free trade deals have not been fair trade for America.

Huckabee is not getting much financial support and he is dropping in the polls. He has high hopes for Iowa but he is now spending more money than he is taking in. Unless he gets a bump in the debates and gets more financial support I do not think Huckabee will even make it to Iowa.

Kasich: John Kasich is somewhat conservative but on some issues he is a social liberal. For example, he expanded Medicaid in Ohio. Over his long political career Kasich has a mixed record. He seems flexible on some issues but he can be very authoritative on others. Kasich is an equal opportunity offender. For example, he angered the conservative NRA by supporting the assault weapons ban in Congress and he angered the liberal AARP for wanting to means test Medicare. John Kasich marches to his own drummer (Linkin Park).

The people in Ohio like him as governor but the polls have him running behind Trump and Carson in his own state. I guess he could pull a rabbit out of his hat and take a number of delegates in the blue and purple states that award delegates according to percentage. Kasich really needs to come in at least third in New Hampshire to stay in the race. His national poll numbers are about 3 percent. He is going to have to win some debates to improve those numbers.

I don’t see it happening, but if Kasich beats both Bush and Rubio in New Hampshire he could become the establishment favorite. I still would not think that Kasich will get anywhere near the delegates he would need to get the nomination unless Trump and Carson fall on their sword.

Kasich was brought up Roman Catholic. He fell away, but later became an Anglican after the death of his parents in an auto crash. To his credit Kasich has had a bi-weekly Bible study with 8 men for about 25 years now. In spite of this Kasich seems to lack understanding on some teachings in the Bible.

For example, Kasich criticized those opposing his expansion of Medicaid by implying that they have no understanding of the Bible. Kasich thinks the passage in Matthew 25 about giving a cup of water to “the least of these my brethren” is talking about how people treat the poor. That passage is really about the sheep and goat judgment of the Gentiles. This is a judgment on mortals that survived the tribulation. (The brethren are the 144,000 sealed Jewish brethren that preached the gospel of the coming kingdom.) Those that opposed or hindered these Jews in their ministry will not enter the Kingdom Age on earth. They will be cut off from the earth.

Kasich actually told opponents of his Medicaid expansion, what are you going to say to Saint Peter when he asks why you opposed the government expansion of Medicaid? As if anyone is going to give account of their life to Saint Peter before they can enter the pearly gates? Me thinks brother Kasich is a bit confused by folklore and social justice theology. What he says tells me that John Kasich is somewhat short of biblical understanding himself.

Paul: Before this race started most people thought that Rand Paul would take the early lead among conservatives and libertarians and that he would win in Iowa and emerge as the leading Christian/conservative/libertarian/Tea Party candidate. It is not working out that way for a number of reasons.

He would not stand with Ted Cruz and Mike Lee against the republican establishment leadership. In fact he criticized them. He thought it was foolish to buck the leadership but I think Tea Party people concluded that Rand Paul wimped out.

Later he attacked Donald Trump in the first debate trying to bully Trump about an independent run and by implying that Trump was acting like a grade school bully. Trump can be a bully but he made Paul look like that school yard wimp. It was very effective. The lesson is, don’t try to bully a bully if you happen to be a wimp. I think those that watched the debates concluded that Paul appeared whinny and immature and that he needed to be thrown back in the pond. Paul is only a first term Senator. If it were not for his father, he would not even be in government office.

Paul’s flat 14.5 income tax and Value Added Tax is never going to fly. It taxes the poor at the same rate as the very rich. VAT taxes suck. In Europe the VAT tax percentages are continually being raised. Most of Paul’s other positions are conservative but his libertarian position on national defense and drugs conflicts with the conservative worldview.

Paul has a past record that I find a little troubling. He never got a bachelor degree before he was admitted to medical school. He is an M.D. but he is not board certified to practice medicine in any state. Board certification is not required in Kentucky but it is difficult to practice medicine anywhere in the United States if you are not certified to be competent by your medial profession. Some of Rand Paul’s speeches were clearly plagiarized. I believe he blames his staff for this. His short comings (no pun intended) makes me wonder if Paul takes the easy way out? Would that enforce the wimp factor?

Rand Paul says he is a born again Christian. He says it did not take the first few times so he got saved a number of times? He said that he sometimes doubts his faith because it is hard to believe when you see evil in the world? He also says he does not wear his religion on his sleeve?

Paul attends a Presbyterian U.S.A. church which is one of the most liberal denominations in the U.S. (they even marry same-sex couples). What is it about most of these “Christian” politicians that makes me wonder if their Christian identity is all they ever got? Is Paul’s faith phony or is just part of the wimp factor? I will let you people decide.

I am over my word limit again so I am going to do the rest of the candidates in very few words.

Christie: The only way that Chris Christie will rise to the top is if there is a major war or major terrorist attacks or civil upheaval or economic collapse or something similar. If people want an authoritarian dictator type to kick butt and restore order, Christie (or Hillary) will be their man. Maybe that is what he is counting on. It certainly could happen before most of the votes are cast.

Jindel: Outside of the Bayous he just does not catch the big fish needed to put meat on the table.

Pataki: He should have run in 2007 before people forgot that he was a three term governor of NY. I guess he had to wait in line behind fellow Rinos – McCain and Romney.

Santorum: His best run as a politician already happened.

Graham: Billy would stand a better chance.

Gilmore: Who??

Those are my thoughts on the 2016 candidates in about 7000 words, so what do you think?