GOP wants new leadership, family values back in White House

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Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee speaks with Frank Luntz. (photo by Sarah Beckman)

All ten Republican presidential candidates that graced the stage of Stephens Auditorium in Ames during Saturday’s Family Leadership Summit agreed on many fronts, but one of the overlying themes of their statements was the need for a new kind of leadership in the White House.

South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham said he wants new leadership that “stops leading from the behind” in terms of foreign policy.

“I can’t wait to be Commander in Chief,” said Graham. “I’m tired of this kind of leadership that leads from the behind. I want a president that partners with people in the devastated regions and help them help themselves.”

Front-runner Scott Walker agreed with Graham’s view of leading from the front, adding that President Obama’s treatment of Israel is “bad foreign policy.”

“We need to eliminate the daylight,” said Walker. “We need to treat Israel like an ally and show them that we will support them in that region.”

Former Texas governor Rick Perry called out President Obama’s border security policies as well, stating that kind of leadership “gets us nowhere.”

“I asked for the president to come down and let me show him what’s happening with our border,” said Perry, “but he was busy. We need a president who is going to secure our border, and if he won’t, Texas will.”

Fellow Texan Ted Cruz also called into question President Obama’s attitude toward ISIS.

“We have a president who cannot even name the enemy,” said Cruz. “The president refuses to call this the war on radical Islam. We cannot have leadership like that.”

Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal added that he is upset with President Obama and his administration’s decisions “to take God out of the public square.”

“If I am elected president, the first thing I would do is sign an executive order that protects people from religious discrimination,” said Jindal.

The Family Leadership Summit saw more than 2,900 audience members throughout the eight-hour day of presenters and presidential candidates. Other presenters included Congressman Steve King, leaders from Liberty University, the National Organization for Marriage, the Iowa Conservatives Against Gambling Expansion, and America Next, among others. It was the largest gathering of GOP presidential candidates in Iowa so far this summer.