Balloting for the Feb. 5 primaries are in full swing. I received my ballot in the mail yesterday. This morning, I voted in the Arizona primary. I was amazed at the number of names on the Republican ballot for President. I expected the main candidates to be there. I was surprised at the number of candidates that I had never heard of. It made it difficult to find the name I wanted to vote for.

To end the suspense, I voted for Mitt Romney. Any regular reader of this column will know that my candidate is Mitt Romney. I believe that he is our best chance against anyone the Democrats choose to put against us in the general election. He is the best candidate on the economy by far. There are no other candidates that can claim credibility like Mitt Romney on the economy.

On Immigration, all the Republican candidates claim to be for securing the borders first. Since all of them claim to be for securing the borders, you have to weed out those that are just giving it lip service and those that are serious. Those that are giving it lip service include John McCain and Mike Huckabee. Both of them are for amnesty. They now claim they want to secure the borders. Mike Huckabee has even made more radical claims. Just a month ago, he was for giving in-state tuition to children of illegal aliens. Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson all are for securing our borders and cracking down on illegal aliens. There are some minor differences in their approaches, but basically any one of the three would be acceptable.

All the Republican candidates support our troops and are for taking the war to the Islamo-Fascists. Since all support taking the war to the terrorists, you have to look deeper. When you look deeper, you find that Mike Huckabee is completely ignorant of foreign affairs. He is ignorant of the terrorist threat that we face. He would be the weakest of the Republican candidates on the war against Islamo-Fascism. John McCain, Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson all hold positions that are essentially the same. You would have to look at the toughness factor to determine if they will stand or fold. There is no doubting John McCain is tough. He withstood the communist Vietnamese for 5 ½ years. The only problem there is that he likes to be the maverick and sometimes jumps on issues to the other side. You cannot be sure he will be with you when the chips are down any longer. So, he would be put on the list to be discarded as a candidate. Rudy Giuliani is tough. He worked to destroy the Mafia in New York and was tough after 9/11. No problem backing Rudy for the Presidency based on this issue. Mitt and Fred have not had the tough test that Rudy or McCain have had. But, both are tough men. Mitt has had to be tough in the business world. That toughens up a person real fast. Fred has been a prosecutor in Tennessee. As far as the war against Islamo-Fascism is concerned, I could support Rudy, Mitt or Fred.

On Social issues, Rudy Giuliani openly is a liberal. This disqualifies him for my support if there are any other candidates to support. All the others are social conservatives. Mike Huckabee has been the most consistently a social conservative his entire life. Mitt Romney has had a conversion from the first time he ran for office in Massachusetts. People have conversions. I believe that Romney’s conversion is real. John McCain has been consistently pro-life over the years. Recently he has waffled some, so I would hold my support if there is someone better in the pro-life portion. Fred Thompson has been pro-life for most of his career. He did work as a lobbyist for an abortion group for a couple of years. This causes some questions to be raised. Fred has answered them to my satisfaction. I could support Fred.

When you boil it all down, the only candidate that is positive in all the categories is Mitt Romney. He is not the best in all the categories. He is just one of the best in all the categories. He also does not get disqualified in any category.  My second place vote would go to Fred Thompson. Fred also is good in all the categories. He is just completely outclassed in the economy and ties Mitt everywhere else.  Third would probably go with Rudy Giuliani. He has fewer negatives than some of the others. John McCain and Mike Huckabee would be very difficult for me to support. McCain would be difficult because you cannot count on him. Huckabee is a liberal in every category except for social issues. That is my reasoning on why I voted for Mitt Romney.