Which Democratic Candidate do you REALLY like?!

[Darth Buddha]

Take the VOTE BY ISSUE Quiz at WBUR

Sick fo the media obsessing over who is up, who is down, whose wife is campaigning, and whose is not? Tired of a war whoop being used as a diagnostic tool for severe mental illness?

Well, if you have a good 20 minutes to spend, there is this excellent quiz at the WBUR (a PBS affiliate) website.

It gives you POSITIONS to read on different subjects, and you check which one you like the best. At the end, it tells you who you agree with most. I'm not going to post my results yet because I dont want to bias anything.

And even you Republicans might find SOME things you like!

Take So take the quiz and post your top two candidates and on which issues!

http://www.votebyissue.org/primary/

[eta_carinae]

Holy crap, I am TOTALLY suprised by my results. Howard Dean was #1 and Dennis Kucinich was #2. I am floored. Although, some of my answers were a little arbitrary, as alot of the answers sounded very similar. Hu.

[DRD2001]

It seemed to me too that some of the choices for answers were so close, except for small word changes. So I'd just pick one with no real reason for not picking another. So Edwards got the most of the choices at 4. But about 4 others were at one or two.

[grinner]

what if you don't care for any of those answers... very Left leaning questions.

[Darth Buddha]

I agreed with Clark four times so he took first, and Edwards was in second place.

And grinner, I thought you'd at least like some of the Clark positions, and the Dean position on guns.

But there should be an option for "I don't agree with any of these"!

[DRD2001]

I'd like to go back over it and choose the answers I don't like. See if one candidate is further from what I view than the others.

[Antrobus]

Howard Dean
Iraq -- Rebuilding
Economy
Role of U.S. Military
Health Care

John Kerry
Employment
Trade Policy

John Edwards
Social Security

Joe Lieberman
Poverty and Homelessness
Security & Civil Liberties
Gun Control


Al Sharpton
Family and Marriage

Wesley Clark
Education
Energy and Environment
Terrorism

Well, I'm in a pickle!!:D

[Hank]

Interesting. I got a real mix, including Al Sharpton on the economy and John Kerry on gun control (albeit not on anything else). But it's not a fair test. I found a lot of the answers to be vague in the extreme and tended to choose the ones that were more explicit about how they'd solve the problem.

[Antrobus]

I found a lot of the answers to be vague in the extreme

That sounds about right!

[eta_carinae]

Originally posted by Hank
But it's not a fair test. I found a lot of the answers to be vague in the extreme and tended to choose the ones that were more explicit about how they'd solve the problem.

Me too!

[DRD2001]

Originally posted by Hank
But it's not a fair test. I found a lot of the answers to be vague in the extreme snip Don't all politicians give answers that are "vague in the extreme". ;)

[stellar]

I agree with Clark on most of the issues... funnily enough Edwards and Sharpton tied for second. Al Sharpton did give the shortest answers. You've got to give it to a politician who BSs as little as this man does.

[BillFrugge]

Vague is one thing, but...

Look at the question about jobs. All of the answers were variations of "I'll create 4 million jobs."

One of the positions proposes public funded training programs. (Taxpayer funded)

Another position (I can guess who...) proposes tax increases that will (?) inspire companies to hire. (?) -- What the Frell is Dick smoking?

Now, I do like Shapton. I don't know what his positions truly are, but the man is impressive. He's quick to the point, and shows leadership.

[jayelsee]

Hmmm, interesting. And not exactly what I expected.

4 each for Dean and Clark. 2 for Edwards and for Kucinich. 1 for Kerry and 1 for Lieberman.

I might take it again in a couple of weeks after memory fades a bit to see how/if it turns out differently.

[atlantagirl]

I had 4 each for Dean and Clark too!

Then 2 for Edwards and 1 each for Lieberman, Sharpton, Kucinich, and Kerry.

But I agree -- on most issues their positions are so similar that there was nothing other than writing style (and lack of typos) on which to base a choice.

Personally, since the Georgia Primary is not until March 2nd, I'm not getting overly interested in any of these guys yet since I know the field could be whittled down considerably in the next few weeks.

[StephX]

I got Clark with 4, Dean and Sharpton tied with 3. Then Lieberman with 2, and Edwards and Karry with 1.

[LadyCrais]

Yikes! I'm every bit as undecided as I thought I was.

Clark and Edwards 3
Lieberman, Kerry and Kucinich 2
Dean and Sharpton 1

I suppose I've confirmed that I'm leaning towards Clark and have been against Dean and Sharpton from the day one. Got to find out more about Kerry given his surge in the polls of late. I'm just glad it's not looking like the shoe-in for Dean that was being bandied about a month ago, because I truly will not have a clue what to do at the polls if it's a Dean/ Bush matchup.

I thought it wasn't a bad sign that the answers were as similar as they were. And when I get really serious about it, I'll check all of the More Details boxes. But for the moment, it at least looks like the platform is consistent.

[Darth Buddha]

I found some of the questions elicited some VERY different answers. I think I liked Clark best on this survey because his answers to international trade, terrorism, and Iraq issues wasn't sound bite material.

[Third EYe]

They should just shut down now, not a one has a remote possibility of winning against a Bush.

[db11]

I came up with 5 for Kerry, 4 for Lieberman, 3 for Clark and 2 for Dean. Of course, I was also answering based upon who I disagreed the least with.

Lieberman is the only Democrat I'd even consider voting for in the general election. Being halfway moderate, though, he's got no chance of being the Democrat nominee, so I know where my vote is going this fall.

[Beaulah]

I had 4 for Kerry, 3 for Edwards and Sharpton (which shocked me, I've always thought of myself as fairly moderate) and 2 for Clark and Dean.

Excellent quiz, Thank you DB!

[Darth Buddha]

Originally posted by Third EYe
They should just shut down now, not a one has a remote possibility of winning against a Bush.

Oh, I don't know... I can think of some things that would lead to a garaunteed Bush loss, no matter who runs against him.

A second successful attack by Al-Quaeda. People might question why we are spending all our capital elsewhere. Trying to put myself in the shoes of those folks, I'd definitely take a shot at it. Not that I am condoning this, or wanting this, but just trying to think their way.

Iraq goes fundamentalist and throws us out on our butts. Not all that unlikely, really.

North Korea tests a nuclear weapon. When that cat is let out of the bag, LOOK OUT!

All candidates are at the mercy of events.

[fermicat]

Well that was interesting. Thanks for the link. I had the most (4) agreement with Wes Clark. But others with 2-3 in common as well. I agree that some of the positions on certain issues were remarkably similar which makes it harder to select out a single candidate based on that.

[harveywhispers]

I'm really surprised:

6 for Edwards;
3 for Kerry;
2 for Dean;
2 for Lieberman;
1 for Clark.

[trubador]

Only 6 responses from 5 candidates on 14 Qs came even remotely close to my own thoughts on the issues:

2 - Clark (Trade & Gun Control)
1 - Liebermann (Poverty)
1 - Kerry (Healthcare)
1 - Dean (Terror)
1 - Sharpton (Employment)

As to all the other 92 responses to the 14 Qs... I didn't agree with ANY of them.

[Frellster]

Originally posted by Third EYe
They should just shut down now, not a one has a remote possibility of winning against a Bush.

If you're from Texas or Florida it might seem that way, but Bush is not well liked in many parts of the country, and polls show independants are shifting towards the Democrats.

[mfa96]

Originally posted by Frellster
If you're from Texas or Florida it might seem that way, but Bush is not well liked in many parts of the country, and polls show independants are shifting towards the Democrats.

I'm from Florida and I definitely don't feel that way! And don't get me started bout how Bush "won" the last time.


*edited because my fingers can't spell as well as the rest of me

[db11]

Originally posted by Frellster
If you're from Texas or Florida it might seem that way, but Bush is not well liked in many parts of the country, and polls show independants are shifting towards the Democrats.

At the moment, I'm not sure the polls are indicative of any real shift. Remember, the Dems have pretty much been getting 24 hour a day coverage on the cable news networks for the last couple of weeks. The publicity helps them, while at the same time gives them a forum to attack Bush. So its really not that big of a suprise that the numbers are moving away from him right now. Once he really begins campaigning, then the polls will probably be a bit more indicative of how good his chances are.

[BillFrugge]

And the media outlets weren't too happy with having to air the State of the Union address...