Via Stop the ACLU: Forbes Magazine rated the 2008 Presidential hopefuls on five policy issues, each on a scale of 1-10 (ten being the most conservative), making the highest score 50. Not surprisingly all of the Democrat candidates had scores of 10 and under, with Dennis Kucinich winning the prize for most liberal (2.8) followed closely by John Edwards (3.6).

Now, onto the GOP. This is why I am really hoping we won’t have to worry about a Giuliani nomination. According to Forbes, the big winner in the GOP is Fred Thompson with a score of 40.6 and a, roughly, 7.8 rating on social issues. John McCain came in very closely behind Thompson (40.5) and SAM BROWNBACK bested all other “second tier” candidates with a score of 37.9 (third highest) and a higher social issue score than the top two! The rest of the candidates scored as follows:

Mitt Romney 36.7
Rudy Giuliani 36.2
Duncan Hunter 34.3
Ron Paul 31.2
Tom Tancredo 31.1
Mike Huckabee 26

For those attending the Values Voters Debate (which also considered issues like immigration and terrorism), Mike Huckabee won hands down, so his rating here is surprising to me, especially his foreign policy rating of between two and three. I assume this refers to national security and the war and every time I always thought he was at least a tough talker on these issues.

So how did the candidates stack up on those “social issues”?

Hunter 10
Brownback 9.3
McCain 8.6
Tancredo 8.2
Huckabee 8.2
Thompson 7.8
Romney 7.8
Giuliani 5.8
Paul 4.2

I’m not sure what criteria they used for these social issues because some of the numbers don’t seem quite right to me. View some of the results yourself at Forbes.com.

If anyone is interested, CNN is hosting a YouTube Republican debate on November 28. You can submit video questions, to be aired and answered during the debate, from now until November 25.