With the conclusion of the 2006 midterm election, almost immediately has the press and blogosphere turned to the next developments in the 2008 race for President of the United States. While much of the press is focused on Hillary Clinton, Barak Obama, Rudy Giuliani, or John McCain, John Hawkins at RightWingNews.com has posted a great phone interview with California Congressman Duncan Hunter, who’s already declared his candidacy.

I’ve excerpted some parts of the interview that I thought were of major importance. Take a look:

John Hawkins: Talk to us about the war in Iraq. Give us a broad overview of what you think we should be doing right now.

Duncan Hunter: Well, the US is following in the same basic pattern that we’ve followed for 60 years in expanding freedom around the world. (The first step is) that we stand up a free government and we’ve done that in Iraq.

The second step is we stand up a military capable of protecting that government and the third step is the US leaves. We followed that pattern in Japan and the Philippines and Salvadore and our own hemisphere and it’s been the traditional and the effective method of this country spreading freedom around the world.

…I think the American people have been surprised by the enthusiasm with which the Iraqis have taken to elections and politics and right now we’re on the second phase, which is a very difficult phase and that’s standing up their military.

We are training the Iraqi military right now. We’ve got 470 embedded teams right now. Those are training teams within the Iraqi military itself and my recommendation to the President and to the Iraqis is that one thing they could do right now that would accelerate the maturation process for the Iraqi military is to pick the 27 battalions that are in the quiet provinces in Iraq - 9 of the 18 provinces have virtually no action taking place - take those 27 battalions and move them into the fighting in Baghdad and Anbar province in the Sunni Triangle.

Nothing matures a military force quicker than actual military operations. That develops cohesion that re-enforces the chain of command, develops combat effectiveness, and I think most importantly it validates the link between the military and the civilian government - that is, when the Ministry of Defense picks up the phone and calls a battalion commander and tells him to saddle up and move to Baghdad, if he doesn’t move, they need to reach into a battalion which is doing well, pull out a field officer and replace the officer who won’t move with one that will. So that is my recommendation to the President and one thing I told him is I’m sure that he’s not short on recommendations right now.

John Hawkins: Now, tell us a little bit about what we could expect from President Duncan Hunter on the illegal immigration issue beyond the fence. What else would we see? What would you want to do?

Duncan Hunter: Well, I think that we’ve got to do us a two-step program and the first step is to secure the border and the second step then is to…do internal enforcement. You’ve got 250,000 hard-core criminals - in federal, state, and local penitentiaries and jails. That means you have a large criminal element that’s operating within the US committing serious crimes against Americans and their property and once we secure the border, I would make an emphasized effort to ensure that we are to round up criminal aliens and…force their deportation.

John Hawkins: You’re a member of the fiscally conservative Republican Study Group, but the Club for Growth blog, among some others, has dinged you a little bit for voting for some bills that a lot of fiscal conservatives might (oppose). So, let me ask you: if you become President, what would you do to erase the deficit and what could fiscal conservatives expect from you?

Duncan Hunter: Well, first, …I’m a supporter of supply side economics and I think the general proposition that if you leave a few bucks in the pockets of American businesses rather than take it for taxes, …(then) the tax base is actually increased and revenue is enhanced. I believe that’s a valid proposition and I support that and that’s been reflected in my voting record for tax cuts. So I think that’s the way you supply - you increase the revenues into the federal government and you do that by encouraging growth.

John Hawkins: Would you like to see Roe v. Wade overturned?

Duncan Hunter: Yes. You know, I’m the author of the personhood-at-conception bill which right now has over 100 co-sponsors …that would define personhood as moment of conception, so, it would allow us to have a reversal of the effects of Roe v. Wade without a constitutional amendment.

John Hawkins: As President, it is entirely possible that you’d have an opportunity to select one or perhaps even multiple Supreme Court Justices. Can you tell us what you’d look for in a Supreme Court nominee and if there’s anyone on the court now who sort of embodies what you’re looking for in a judge?

Duncan Hunter: I’d just say that I think that I would like to see strict constructionists and people of great wisdom and I’d also like to see people who have a heart for the least of those among us and certainly that would be reflected in the unborn.

Read the rest at RightWingNews.com.