Finally, A Worthwhile Quiz

Anyone who has an email account is familiar with the concept of Spam. Anyone who has a blog is intimately familiar with spam. In fact between spam and trolls there are many bloggers who wither require registration to comment or just don't allow comments at all. And most bloggers are very well familiar with the abundance of online personality quizzes.

Today in Hold the Mayo's email I got an unsolicited message from Wil Thomson. But Wil wasn't selling, Will was hunting. Wil was hunting for links.

Wil Thomson is a producer for WBUR, a public radio station in Boston. Wil had teamed up with PBS's News Hour to create a project called Vote By Issue.

Vote by Issue lets you separate the candidates from the issues, and look at their platforms with a dispassionate eye -- splitting the personalities from the campaigns and letting voters make up their own minds by reading the issues.

If you feel it's appropriate, please pass on the link to your readers, or anyone else who might be interested.

My first thought was "a voter education web site from a PBS station in Kerry's home state. This ought to be a fun and interesting bit of propaganda." I was very pleasently proven wrong by the straightforward non-partisan presentation.

The site presents 20 questions about important issues then anonymously presents the candidate's responses. (Except for George Bush who did not participate. The site presented his previously stated positions on the question, and did so fairly.) At the end of the quiz you are presented with your issue agreements and disagreements with each candidate. (At the start of the quiz you can specify which candidate's positions you wish to consider - I left them all checked)

I was a little bit surprised to see that I agreed with John Kerry on four issues, Terrorism/Homeland Security, Gay Marriage, USA Patriot Act, Intelligence. (But I guess that depends on which day he answered the questions). I also agreed with Bush on 3 out of those 4. The only difference being Gay Marriage. And Even if it were close, that is not an issue that is going to make any difference.

George Bush and I agreed on 15 issues. Energy/Environment, Iraq, Terrorism/Homeland Security, Taxes, Outsourcing, Deficit, Abortion, Economy, Foreign Policy, Poverty, Social Security, USA Patriot Act, Trade, Health Care, Intelligence.

The next best was Libertarian Michael Badnarik with 13 areas of agreement. Affirmative Action programs, Gay Marriage, Taxes, Outsourcing, United Nations, Abortion, Economy, Poverty, Social Security, Trade, Health Care.

He was followed with Michael Peroutka of the Constitutional Party with 11. Energy/Environment, Education, Affirmative Action programs, Taxes, Outsourcing, United Nations, Deficit, Foreign Policy, Poverty, Social Security, Health Care

Re-reading some of the areas of common agreement, it is clear that on many issues the agreement was not 100% but enough that I didn't oppose the position.

The real big shock was they guy who scored 1. David Cobb of the Green Party with his position on the defecit. Then I re-read it and realized that I had to have checked the wrong box

Our record-setting deficit is an irresponsible exercise in burdening future generations.  Any hard-working family will tell you that the more debt you accrue, the more interest you pay.  The middle class, working people and small businesses are shouldering a disproportionate amount of the debt burden.  Most importantly, our deficit threatens the well-being of these people and businesses who are the true backbone of the U.S. economy.

Definately do not agree with any of that except the part about the more debt you have the more interest you pay.

Coming in dead last with Zero Zilch Nana agreement, Independent Candidate Ralph Nader.

The test largely confirmed what I already knew about myself and my political beliefs, but was an interesting exercise. Having followed the campaign closely, it was easier to tell who the respondent was than to separate that knowledge and answer based on the provided statement.

The site was well done and remarkably fair.

Wil sent me an email looking for a link. I hope this is adequate. Congratulations and thank you for a well done site.

Good Hunting Wil.

Posted by: Stephen Macklin at 02:31 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment