Friday, May 04, 2007

Candidates on the Issues

According to this test, here is how the candidates match my personal "ideal" candidate:
1. Theoretical Ideal Candidate (100%)
2. Barack Obama (80%)
3. Dennis Kucinich (80%)
4. Joseph Biden (72%)
5. Hillary Clinton (72%)
6. Wesley Clark (70%)
7. Al Gore (69%)
8. Christopher Dodd (68%)
9. John Edwards (68%)
10. Bill Richardson (63%)
11. Mike Gravel (54%)
12. Elaine Brown (50%)
13. Ron Paul (49%)
14. Kent McManigal (41%)
15. Rudolph Giuliani (29%)
16. Tommy Thompson (25%)
17. Mike Huckabee (25%)
18. John McCain (18%)
19. Mitt Romney (17%)
20. Chuck Hagel (15%)
21. Sam Brownback (10%)
22. Tom Tancredo (10%)
23. Fred Thompson (9%)
24. Jim Gilmore (8%)
25. Newt Gingrich (8%)
26. Duncan Hunter (6%)

In reality, these are my current preferences, in order:
1. Obama
2. Edwards
3. Gore
4. Clinton

Focusing solely on the issues doesn't take into account whether I believe someone would be an effective president (Kucinich) or would, for example, lead to an even more divided country (Clinton, through no fault of her own.)

18 comments:

Scott said...

A lot of those questions suck. For instance the one about stem cells that only give the option to ban or make the Federal government pay for it. All or nothing, typical of US politics I guess.

Plus I couldn't get it to tell my answers without earning an online degree and then my browser crashed. :(

Jewish Atheist said...

Yeah I didn't like either answer sometimes (or "neither") and there need to be more choices than two for how much you care about a given issue. For example, I'd prefer a candidate who supported civil unions, but not gay marriages if he was also less likely to start an unnecessary war over one who supported both but was a hawk.

Anonymous said...

Hey, at least you got an answer! I tried to fill it in as a matter of curiosity, but it locked me out when I couldn't provide a US zip code:-( Pity really, as I was curious to see if it threw up my preferred candidate (Giuliani out of that lot) or gave me something silly...

Random

beepbeepitsme said...

I will guess that someone like Obama would be first choice on my list, as the questionaire wouldn't accept info from outside the US.

Jewish Atheist said...

I didn't have to enter any info.. is it checking IPs or something? How strange.

Scott said...

Can't have those crazy foreigners taking part.

They're all crazy and stuff.

For the record I'll take Paul from that lot. I like how anti-war Kucinich is, but he's a little too pro-UN for me. Plus he's a little too anti-private property for me, but that probably goes without saying with all the Democrats.

beepbeepitsme said...

RE: crazy foreigners

Yeah - I say we all blame canada. Or the french. On second thought, you can blame australia if you want, they are all mad as cut snakes.

beepbeepitsme said...

Theoretical Ideal Candidate (100%)
Barack Obama (77%)
Dennis Kucinich (70%)
John Edwards (65%)
Christopher Dodd (64%)
Al Gore (61%)
Joseph Biden (60%)
Ron Paul (59%)
Hillary Clinton (59%)
Wesley Clark (58%)
Bill Richardson (48%)
Elaine Brown (46%)
Mike Gravel (42%)
Kent McManigal (34%)
Rudolph Giuliani (31%)
John McCain (26%)
Mike Huckabee (22%)
Tommy Thompson (21%)
Duncan Hunter (20%)
Newt Gingrich (20%)
Tom Tancredo (19%)
Fred Thompson (19%)
Jim Gilmore (18%)
Mitt Romney (16%)
25. Sam Brownback (15%)
26. Chuck Hagel (11%)

(I worked it out. I had to click the bit at the top of the page to avoid all the form filling in.)

dbackdad said...

1. Theoretical Ideal Candidate (100%)
2. Barack Obama (90%)
3. Dennis Kucinich (90%)
4. Joseph Biden (84%)
5. Wesley Clark (82%)
6. Hillary Clinton (81%)
7. Al Gore (81%)
8. John Edwards (80%)
...

The results are a bit odd to me since some of the more hawkish Dems are near the top (Biden, Clark, Clinton) and that is certainly not the manner in which I answered those particular questions.

My personal preferences (disregarding whether they are actually running):

Gore
Edwards
Obama
Clinton
Clark

Laura said...

Interesting:

Barack Obama (80%)
Dennis Kucinich (78%)
Joseph Biden (72%)
Hillary Clinton (71%)
John Edwards (70%)
Wesley Clark (69%)
Christopher Dodd (69%)
Al Gore (68%)
Bill Richardson (60%)
Mike Gravel (55%)
Elaine Brown (44%)
Ron Paul (42%)
Kent McManigal (35%)
Mike Huckabee (30%)
Rudolph Giuliani (27%)
Tommy Thompson (22%)
Mitt Romney (18%)
John McCain (18%)
Chuck Hagel (16%)
Newt Gingrich (13%)
Sam Brownback (12%)
Tom Tancredo (12%)
Duncan Hunter (11%)
Fred Thompson (10%)
Jim Gilmore (9%)

I personally like Obama & Edwards best. Something just rubs me the wrong way about Hillary.

asher said...

After Obama's stellar performance at the debates I really can't understand this adulation. Trying to name America's three best allys Obama, the Harvard law school graduate, after a moment thought came up with the EU, which last I looked wasn't a country and includes such helpful countries as France, Spain and Italy.

But I suppose Edward's performance inmpressed you all a little more. When asked what philosopher influenced him the most he hemmed and hawed and finally decided the answer was "Mah Lord". Sounds like the same answer George W gave many years ago. Hey..the guy is a trial lawyer..how do you expect him to think on his feet? After all, the folks of his home state refused to elect him a second time.

Is this your open mindedness? Is this your ability to see both sides of any issue?

Democrats...Good
Republicans...Bad

Sounds like a soundbite from one of the Frankenstein movies.

Jewish Atheist said...

Not going to give us your results, asher?

Anonymous said...

Thanks Beep, I've got it now too -

1. Theoretical Ideal Candidate (100%)
2. John McCain (76%)
3. Mitt Romney (70%)
4. Newt Gingrich (70%)
5. Fred Thompson (68%)
6. Tom Tancredo (67%)
7. Chuck Hagel (65%)
8. Rudolph Giuliani (64%)
9. Ron Paul (64%)
10. Sam Brownback (63%)
11. Kent McManigal (62%)
12. Duncan Hunter (59%)
13. Tommy Thompson (57%)
14. Jim Gilmore (54%)
15. Mike Huckabee (52%)
16. Bill Richardson (42%)
17. Al Gore (37%)
18. Christopher Dodd (35%)
19. Hillary Clinton (33%)
20. Barack Obama (33%)
21. Joseph Biden (32%)
22. John Edwards (29%)
23. Wesley Clark (28%)
24. Dennis Kucinich (26%)
25. Mike Gravel (16%)
26. Elaine Brown (5%)

Have to say I'm mildy surprised by that - I blame the choice of questions:-)

Random

Anonymous said...

My results don't agree with my choices, but that doesn't surprise me. There's more to to selecting a candidate than agreeing on issues.

1. Theoretical Ideal Candidate   (100%)
2. John McCain   (65%)  
3. Rudolph Giuliani   (58%)  
4. Ron Paul   (58%)  
5. Tom Tancredo   (56%)  
6. Kent McManigal   (55%)  
7. Duncan Hunter   (53%)  
8. Mitt Romney   (53%)  
9. Chuck Hagel   (52%)  
10. Newt Gingrich   (52%)  
11. Fred Thompson   (51%)  
12. Mike Huckabee   (47%)  
13. Dennis Kucinich   (45%)  
14. Christopher Dodd   (44%)  
15. Al Gore   (43%)  
16. Jim Gilmore   (43%)  
17. Tommy Thompson   (43%)  
18. Sam Brownback   (42%)  
19. Barack Obama   (42%)  
20. John Edwards   (42%)  
21. Bill Richardson   (39%)  
22. Wesley Clark   (39%)  
23. Joseph Biden   (37%)  
24. Hillary Clinton   (35%)  
25. Mike Gravel   (29%)  
26. Elaine Brown   (4%)  

I'll vote for a candidate from either party, although by heredity I'm a "new deal" democrat". The candidate that came out top on my list at 65% is the one that I would NOT vote for against any of the others (that I recognize) on the list.
My republican choices in order are Ron Paul and Willard Romney. My democrat choices in order are Joseph Biden, Al Gore, Hillary Clinton, and Dennis Kucinich.
Since it's all show biz the most entertaining race would be Paul vs Kucinich.

Ezzie said...

As I'm taking it, I'm noticing CLEAR bias to make people choose a certain way. That's so wrong.

Ezzie said...

WEIRD results, at least at the top. Kucinich on the very bottom makes sense.

I don't like McCain at all. I hate Hagel. Quick glance makes me not really like Thompson or Hunter. Guiliani, Romney, Brownback close to one another sounds about right. I didn't think the questions were great.

Your Results:

1. Theoretical Ideal Candidate (100%)
2. John McCain (72%) Click here for info
3. Fred Thompson (71%) Click here for info
4. Newt Gingrich (70%) Click here for info
5. Duncan Hunter (69%) Click here for info
6. Chuck Hagel (67%) Click here for info
7. Rudolph Giuliani (65%) Click here for info
8. Mitt Romney (63%) Click here for info
9. Tom Tancredo (62%) Click here for info
10. Sam Brownback (62%) Click here for info
11. Jim Gilmore (57%) Click here for info
12. Tommy Thompson (53%) Click here for info
13. Ron Paul (50%) Click here for info
14. Mike Huckabee (47%) Click here for info
15. Kent McManigal (41%) Click here for info
16. Al Gore (32%) Click here for info
17. Joseph Biden (26%) Click here for info
18. Hillary Clinton (25%) Click here for info
19. John Edwards (25%) Click here for info
20. Wesley Clark (25%) Click here for info
21. Christopher Dodd (24%) Click here for info
22. Bill Richardson (23%) Click here for info
23. Barack Obama (16%) Click here for info
24. Mike Gravel (14%) Click here for info
25. Dennis Kucinich (11%) Click here for info
26. Elaine Brown (6%) Click here for info

beepbeepitsme said...

I am suspicious of any candidate who wants to play both sides of the aisle when it comes to evolution.

And Mc Cain singing "Bomb, bomb, bomb Iran" to the tune of "Barbara Ann" - seemed a little psychotic to me.

Scott said...

And Mc Cain singing "Bomb, bomb, bomb Iran" to the tune of "Barbara Ann" - seemed a little psychotic to me.

Indeed, McCain is a warmonger.