May 31, 2007
Which 2008 Presidential Contender Best Matches Your Political Philosophy?
Thanks to our brand new R4′08er Aron for mentioning this nifty political quiz in the comments!
Not only does it attempt to peg your political philosophy, it also matches you up with the 2008 presidential candidate who best matches what you believe!
For the record, here’s what it says about your pal, DaveG:
You scored the following on the PoliticsMatch questions:
* Personal Score: 55%
* Economic Score: 76%Based on the above score, you are a Conservative-Leaning Libertarian.
Indeed I am. But be wary of the site’s attempt to match up your views with the various candidates. You may get some surprises. For example, in my case, Rudy is my second-best match. First is none other than Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback! Ahhh! 
Feel free to leave your results in the comments section!
http://race42008.com/2007/05/31/which-2008-presidential-contender-best-matches-your-political-philosophy/trackback/
May 31st, 2007 at 6:09 pm
Brownback as well here. One thing it definitely got right; Giuliani was 9th on my list!
May 31st, 2007 at 6:16 pm
McCain, Brownback, Tommy Thompson, Tancredo, Romney/Hunter/Gilmore. And Bill Richardson matches my views more closely then Rudy does (43% vs. 35%). But I don’t think the quiz is terribly informative. It misrepresents positions for instance. It claims that Romney strongly supports requiring companies to hire more women and minorities, and while affirmative action hasn’t been an issue in this campaign, I’ve studied Romney’s positions fairly closely, and I think that’s an outlandish characterization of his position on the issue. It also has, obviously, a small number of questions.
May 31st, 2007 at 6:18 pm
Hah. Richardson matched me more than Rudy also.
Did both quizzes and guess who matched me the most? FDT and Frist
May 31st, 2007 at 6:20 pm
Heh. So nobody’s giving up their scores, eh? I think those are far more interesting than the candidate-matches.
May 31st, 2007 at 6:20 pm
That site said I am a “hard-core conservative,” which is spot on! However, it matched me with Brownback, Hunter, Tancredo, Huckabee, McCain, Romney, etc., which is way off the mark.
May 31st, 2007 at 6:26 pm
Fred ends up exactly tied with McCain for my top spot at 60% match, when I add him into the equation.
May 31st, 2007 at 6:28 pm
6%
89%
May 31st, 2007 at 6:28 pm
70% Thompson
68% Frist
60% Gingrich
60% Hunter
May 31st, 2007 at 6:29 pm
38% Richardson
35% Rudy
May 31st, 2007 at 6:30 pm
I got named a “populist-leaning conservative”, with a 19% personal score and 68% economic score. Apparently, Romney is my #9 choice, following Rudy at #7!
May 31st, 2007 at 6:35 pm
1. Paul (not surprising, I have a Paul bumper sticker and have donated to his campaign)
2. Brownback (!! He’s one of my least favorites on the Republican side)
3. McCain (Wow, I don’t like him, either)
4. Gravel (Wha?)
5. Hunter (Hm..)
May 31st, 2007 at 6:38 pm
I’m highly skeptical of these “tests”.
May 31st, 2007 at 6:39 pm
Even took it again (taking some more thoughtful positions/opposing instead of strongly opposing: this time
Thompson 83%
Frist 68%
Rudy is barely ahead of Algore
May 31st, 2007 at 6:41 pm
I ended up with a 12% personal score, and 68% economic score. I’m not that socially conservative though. A better test is http://www.okcupid.com/politics . There I got 38% social and 75% economic, which seems quite a bit more accurate.
May 31st, 2007 at 6:42 pm
DaveG I’ll give up my score.
Social 20%
Economic 54%
May 31st, 2007 at 6:55 pm
Off topic, but it seems like Tweety Matthews has developed a new mancrush on Thompson!
May 31st, 2007 at 6:58 pm
All very interesting.
On Matt’s OKCupid political test, I get a 70% economic freedom and a 75% personal freedom.
I am supposedly similar to Donald Trump and Adam Sandler.
And I had to pick Cindy McCain as the hottest political spouse listed, even though she used to be much hotter.
May 31st, 2007 at 7:11 pm
DaveG,
Yeah, I was right on top of Bush’s mouth and very close to Reagan. The odd thing about both those political tests, is they seem to have no questions really relating to gay rights, or the death penalty, which artificially inflates my social conservativeness. But, all in all, the second test seems to be fairly indicative of my beliefs.
May 31st, 2007 at 7:13 pm
90% Social
73% Economic
Evidently I am a Hard-Core Libertarian…I thought I was a little more soft-core. Heh.
Paul 48
Brownback 45
Gravel 40
McCain 40
Dodd 40
Guiliani 38
May 31st, 2007 at 7:18 pm
Dave, Have you seen FDT’s wife?????
May 31st, 2007 at 7:20 pm
First off, DaveG have you seen Thompson’s wife? She is much hotter so I am guessing she wasn’t listed.
I am very skeptical of how they have the candidates scored. Brownback and Huckabee aren’t more economically conservative than Romney. Also, Bill Frist can take his Medicare part D bill and shove it. There is no way someone who supports expanding the government like that is that economically conservative.
I was 10% personal and 86% economic, but I did answer very strongly for each question.
May 31st, 2007 at 7:25 pm
I call BS on the whole thing. Take a look at how they classify many of the issues. I would not place them where they placed them.
They labeled me a “Hard-Core Conservative” with a Personal Score of 29% and an Economic Score of 100%.
I am a 70% match with Tom Tancredo!!!! #2 is Duncan Hunter… How on Earth is it possible to have a 100% economic score and have your #2 match be Duncan Hunter?!
May 31st, 2007 at 7:25 pm
According to all these surveys, I’m a wingnut.
May 31st, 2007 at 7:26 pm
Hunter was up there on mine too. I like Hunter, but that doesn’t come from economic concerns really.
May 31st, 2007 at 7:27 pm
Hunter
Huckabee
Tancredo
Romney
Gingrich if included would be 3rf, Thompson after Romney
pretty accurate.
May 31st, 2007 at 7:27 pm
on the ok cupid I scored a 75 15, compared to my other two tests, 89-6 and 82-0
May 31st, 2007 at 7:28 pm
Kavon,
where was Giulanni on your list?
May 31st, 2007 at 7:28 pm
they should really make natl. defense a seperate sectiion
May 31st, 2007 at 7:31 pm
JJ,
#9 at 33%!
But like I said, scroll down and see how they categorized many of the issues. I would take issue with many of them.
May 31st, 2007 at 7:31 pm
On Cupid I’m 78% socially permissive and 80% economically permissive.
But, I think that those questions are phrased very poorly in a lot of instances. For example, of course I am bothered by american jobs going overseas. But I understand why they do - corporate taxes, regulations, and compliance costs simply make it economically wise for companies to export those jobs.
So, I’m bothered by the jobs leaving, but its the tax code (and not the behavior) that bothers me.
May 31st, 2007 at 7:35 pm
Kavon,
yes, I get your point. but how many times can you actually flip Rudy’s stance (IE “support” to “oppose”)
btw, he was 9th on mine too.
May 31st, 2007 at 7:35 pm
Social 30%
Economic 40%
According to the survey this makes me a right-leaning populist, which sounds about right. What is strange is how it matches me up with the candidates.
48 Huckabee
48 McCain
46 Obama
May 31st, 2007 at 7:36 pm
Kavon, I’d have to agree that the candidate matching is ridiculous, and for good reason. People have broad-based views, but must prioritize them in order to select from a field of imperfect candidates. Thus, you select the one candidate out of 10 who matches with you on 3 or 4 of your highest priorities.
Unfortunately, the quiz doesn’t ask people to rank their priorities. They just smash everything together and offer up a person who doesn’t match you at all.
May 31st, 2007 at 7:37 pm
(last post got cut off)
45 T. Thompson
42 Richardson
I’m not sure how they managed to fit Obama in there…
Otherwise it’s spot on as to the GOP candidates.
May 31st, 2007 at 7:41 pm
My last word on this ridiculousness is that any quiz that would place Rudy Giuliani closer to John Kenneth Galbraith than Milton Friedman in the economic department is totally and utterly flawed.
May 31st, 2007 at 7:45 pm
The problem with these tests is that they don’t weigh things like I would. They assume that I would weigh all social issues equally, for example, but the truth is even though I’m pretty moderate on gun control and immigration, the fact is abortion is a much more important issue for me, and subsequently holds much more sway in the voting booth.
Anyhow, good fun. I’m embarrassed to tell which (democrat!) I am most in line with, but I wasn’t surprised Giuliani came in dead last.
May 31st, 2007 at 7:45 pm
Keep the govt out of the bedroom, the paycheck, the right to own a gun, and the woman’s reproductive system.
May 31st, 2007 at 7:50 pm
So I’m watching some focus group thing on C-SPAN, and it’s absolutely terrifying. 4 Republicans, 5 Democrats, and 3 independents, and like 7 people just said they’d vote for Obama if they could choose anyone. Absolute lunatics. As I’ve said before, regardless of his ridiculous left record, we underestimate this guy at our peril.
May 31st, 2007 at 7:52 pm
In contrast, 8 of the 12 people said they couldn’t vote for Hillary, when asked to name the number 1 candidate they couldn’t vote for.
May 31st, 2007 at 8:17 pm
Well, that’s unsurprising. The only people remaining who would vote for Hillary are unapologetic Socialists. That would be 4 of the 5 Democrats.
Obama presents quite a threat - though not as much of one as Edwards. They may both be light on the resume, but Edwards managed to sit across from Dick Cheney in a debate and didn’t get embarrassed. I would be surprised if Obama could do the same.
People who are paying attention will see that and take notice. Now we just have to hope our nominee is someone with enough gravitas to expose Obama’s substance-light style or who can at least coax him to come out of the closet as the socialist that he is.
May 31st, 2007 at 8:21 pm
Are you kidding me pb? Edwards was massacred by Cheneuy in 2004. He rambled on and on about Cheney’s gay daughter, and said nothing remotely interesting. I called my Democratic friend in the middle of the debate, and he was completely embarrassed, bemoaning that Kerry hadn’t selected Wesley Clark.
May 31st, 2007 at 8:23 pm
Conservative-leaning libertarian…
1. Tancredo
2. Hunter
3. Brownback
4. Huckabee
5. Paul
6. Romney
7. Giuliani
…It doesn’t let you elaborate, which makes it faulty. It also doesn’t allow for *how much of an emphasis* you put on each issue. Overall, fun to take, though. And I do like Tancredo and Paul on a lot of issues, too.
May 31st, 2007 at 8:29 pm
Hunter is who I was matched with.
May 31st, 2007 at 8:34 pm
TLG,
I’m surpriesed Rudy matched below Romney for you.
May 31st, 2007 at 8:35 pm
I wonder if they put Rudy as a true RINO.
May 31st, 2007 at 8:37 pm
My score is exactly the same as Tommy’s:
Personal: 6%
Economic: 89%
Interesting because I took this same exact test a month ago and scored farther to the left of the spectrum. Guess I’ve slided a bit eastward with all of the ridiculousness coming from the left these days. Anyway, I matched closest with Hunter: a man who I might support if more than a thousand people knew who he was. Richardson was above Paul on my list. I can rest easily tonight knowing that I matched 0% with Kucinich.
May 31st, 2007 at 8:39 pm
Well, they didn’t put every issue on there, and they didn’t allow you to adjust for importance. Like, I strongly oppose “teaching family values in schools,” but that registers as like, a five compared to the fifty for decreasing taxation on the wealthy or not spending more federal money on health care. There’s also nothing on there about reducing the scope of government, not enough about the war, etc… it’s not a very good quiz, but oh well. Hunter was #2 for me, but his protectionism disqualifies him from consideration, for me. I need a candidate serious about economics and foreign policy — Rudy is the only one for me. Fred Thompson is second, for me. Third would be Paul, except he’s nuts. His supporters are the Chemtrail nuts and the “the federal government is beaming rays into my head!” crowd.
May 31st, 2007 at 8:40 pm
pb,
What?!?! Edwards held his own?!?! Nearly everyone watching squirmed in their chairs after his accusing Dick Cheney of the crime of having a homosexual daughter. He lost hugely that night.
May 31st, 2007 at 8:47 pm
TLG,
for once we agree on something…
May 31st, 2007 at 8:48 pm
Well I know I’m a moderate Democrat and they said I’m a moderate liberal populist. John Edwards matches me 48% who I absolutely dislike, followed by Chris Dodd and Hillary Clinton at 45%. Giuliani comes in at 43%. Huckabee and Romney comes in at 35%.
Funny enough, Giuliani matches me closely on Social issues followed by Clinton. Dodd matches my economic positions closer than any candidate.
May 31st, 2007 at 8:48 pm
Hm. I remember thinking that Edwards didn’t perform incredibly poorly, but not particularly well, either. It was, I pretty much agree with the way Dick Morris put it, akin to watching a professor lecture his student.
May 31st, 2007 at 8:49 pm
Hah. JasonJack, post 50 — what did you agree with in post 48? This is a breakthrough.
May 31st, 2007 at 9:17 pm
The ideological “test” didn’t even mention the exploding debt. I don’t know how you can tell if someone is an economic conservative without telling what their fiscal views are.
In this “test” Bush may have been ranked as a strong economic conservative.
May 31st, 2007 at 9:24 pm
TLG,
“Well, they didn’t put every issue on there, and they didn’t allow you to adjust for importance. ”
“There’s also nothing on there about reducing the scope of government, not enough about the war, etc it’s not a very good quiz, but oh well”
“Fred Thompson is second, for me.”
May 31st, 2007 at 9:52 pm
Libertarian-leaning Conservative. Top match Brownback - and I’m a Romney man!
Wouldn’t mind Brownback for VP though, if it wasn’t for his stance on Iraq.
May 31st, 2007 at 9:54 pm
The other thing I don’t get is why Hunter scores so high as an economic conservative, as TLG says, the guy is a protectionist!
May 31st, 2007 at 10:03 pm
JamesP,
Interestingly, I’ve been listening to Mitt speak recently, and it seems like, at least with regards to China, he’s not terribly far off from Hunter on trade. I’m a free trader, but I’m not outrageously wedded to complete free trade, and essentially agree that China purposely devaluing it’s currency is deeply unfortunate, and I’d be willing to consider some sort of adjustment in trade to address that. I wouldn’t call Hunter’s position protectionist, nor would I call Mitt’s lighter skepticism of unrestricted trade with China, protectionist. I think they’re pretty thoughtful positions which I might not entirely agree with, but which I’m certainly willing to consider.
May 31st, 2007 at 10:14 pm
BREAKING NEWS:
I know this is way off topic but it made me laugh. I was channel-surfing and passed by the 700 Club. I don’t normally watch it, but they were doing a bit on Fred Thompson. After the Thompson segment they go back to Pat Robertson. He mentions something about Thompson being an exciting candidate, and then, out of nowhere: “The problem is that he’s going to have a tough time catching up to GEORGE Romney in fundraising.” (My emphasis) Pat! Still living in the sixtys? I winced at first and then just couldn’t stop laughing! Wait an hour or two and I bet it’ll be on YouTube. Again, I know it’s off topic but highly amusing.
May 31st, 2007 at 10:18 pm
well, all I can say is, at least he didn’t call him Willard.
May 31st, 2007 at 10:19 pm
Haha. Very true… Very true…
May 31st, 2007 at 10:21 pm
Old George must be an even smoother operator then his son if he’s raising money from the grave.
May 31st, 2007 at 10:23 pm
You never know with the Romney clan. They seem to be racking in the dough from the womb. The grave can only be the next step…
June 1st, 2007 at 4:11 am
My top five matches:
1. Brownback
2. Tancredo
3. Hunter
4. Huckabee
5. Rudy
It got one thing right, at least:
9. McCain
My least favorite D is HRC according to this survey. Who the heck knows what that means. After all, not like Barak or Edwards are any better. Favorite D is Richardson…have a feeling nearly all of us will have him ranked as no. 1 D…not that that is saying much.
Pegged me right on the label (Conservative leaning libertarian, 55% personal, 98% economic), but not candidate, similar as you, Dave. For example, it says I agree only 50% with Rudy on economics, which is totally off. Looking the comparison table, though — while I “strongly support” privatizing social security, it’s not a political reality today, but if it could be done, could you imagine anyone else having a better shot at getting it implemented? Yet, likely bc Rudy is “neutral” and I “strongly support” we are “mismatched.” Only area we disagree on is Missile Defense. Didn’t know Rudy was anti there. Still, one thing and we are only 50% in agreement?
June 1st, 2007 at 4:48 am
Hard-Core Conservative
Personal Score 0%
Economic Score 84%
Brownback 80%
Gilmore 73%
Hunter 70%
Romney 70%
Tancredo 68%
Huckabee 65%
Thompson 58%
McCain 55%
Giuliani 48%
June 1st, 2007 at 5:36 am
OKCupid Politics Test
Social Conservative
(33% permissive)
Economic Conservative
(68% permissive)
June 1st, 2007 at 7:06 am
I am a Hard-Core Conservative.
1. Duncan Hunter (83%)
2. Tom Tancredo (80%)
3. Sam Brownback (75%)
4. John McCain (58%)
5. Mike Huckabee (55%)
Supposedly I only match up 48% with my number one choice (Mitt Romney).
June 1st, 2007 at 9:18 am
Just so you know, the VoteMatch quiz gets all of the candidates’ positions from Ontheissues.org, which is always a little behind the times. It’s a great site, mind you, just a little slow in making alterations to political stances. Also, if a candidate had not made any public statement regarding a particular issue at the time his/her “position page” was written, they were marked as “neutral.” For example, Rudy’s page on ontheissues.org was likely last updated when he was still serving as NYC mayor. His page does not, therefore, list him as having said anything in regards to replacing U.S. troops in Iraq with U.N. While Rudy currently opposes this, it was irrelevant or not even talked about while he held his last political position. So, if you put down “strongly disagree,” you would be marked as disagreeing with Rudy because he HAD no opinion and was marked “neutral.” Therfore, while you DO agree with the mayor on this one, it would count as a DISagreement.
June 1st, 2007 at 10:10 am
Somehow I am a hard-core conservative… news to me, since i always considered myself to be more of a moderate libertarian-conservative
As for my candidate matchs, it got my first choice right (Rudy) but after that it has me with Brownback, who I would be hard pressed to vote for in a general election.
June 1st, 2007 at 10:51 am
42% Social
83% Economic
Apparently I’m a Libertarian-leaning Conservative. Sounds about right.
On the candidates — #1 = Ron Paul, which is a little odd considering my foreign policy views which were BARELY included in this test.
June 1st, 2007 at 11:32 am
here’s mine:
1) brownback
2) Huckabee
3) Hunter
4) McCain
5) Romney
6) Giuliani (wow)
….and last: HILLARY…. I am soooooo proud of that!
June 1st, 2007 at 12:12 pm
Jason - how did your list come out?
June 1st, 2007 at 12:25 pm
I’m fairly convinced at this point that this quiz is a front for the Brownback campaign. Where is Billy Valentine. I demand that he appear and explain himself. Haha.
Just to clarify, I didn’t say that Edwards won the Cheney debate, or anything. I just said that I thought that he didn’t get embarrassed by Cheney. And, as to the whole gay daughter commment: I give Edwards props.
It takes balls to sit across the table from someone and call them out for not having the spine to stand up for his own family members because it is politically inconvenient to do so. I don’t doubt that Cheney loves his daughter or his granddaughter, but I think it is fair that Edwards brought up the subject of Cheney’s support for an Administration that endorses anti-homosexual policies and took him to task on it.
June 1st, 2007 at 2:20 pm
pb, this is not meant to offend you (as a lot of guys on here tend to throw things back in your face). i sim0ply want to remind you that Edwards is the same guy, who told John Kerry a very sensitive, touching story about something that he did when his son suddenly dies, and told Kerry that he was the only person he ever told. Turned out that he (Edwards) had already told that same exact story - - to Kerry a year earlier. Who is the one without the integrity here?
June 1st, 2007 at 2:21 pm
dies=died
June 1st, 2007 at 9:38 pm
Matt, interesting point re: trade with China. My feeling is that yes, they are artificially undervaluaing their currency which is having a significant effect on the trade balance.
I don’t see it as a problem at all though. All it does is significantly reduce the costs of US imports - there is a reason why Americans can buy more today for the same amount of money than ever before. Yes, it does make it harder for the US to export to China and yes it would be better if it was more realistically valued.
However, I don’t see any tool that the US could use to address this without doing much more harm than good. Tariffs? Subsidies for affected industries? Restricting the trade of Chinese currency? We gave them all up (well, almost) many years ago, because free trade works even if the other side isn’t practising it. Effectively, the Chinese are just subsidising us, and I’m happy to be the beneficiary of that.
June 2nd, 2007 at 3:02 pm
Will Ron Paul & Rudy Giuliani Debate Foreign Policy at Freedomfest?
The annual FreedomFest conference, has issued a debate invitation to GOP Presidential candidates Rudy Giuliani and Ron Paul to use FreedomFest ‘07 as a debate venue to further explore their fundamental differences in foreign policy and the war in Iraq that were highlighted in the Columbia, SC debate. To review the debate invitation - http://www.freedomfest.com/debate.htm
For more information on the July 2007 FreedomFest Conference in Las Vegas, go to
http://www.freedomfest.com
June 3rd, 2007 at 4:45 pm
Rudy
Romney
Since I would rather have a root canal than one day of Romney I think it’s a lot of bunk.
June 4th, 2007 at 6:24 pm
Ron Paul Supporters: Where’s Giuliani? From http://www.gambling911.com
http://www.gambling911.com/Ron-Paul-Giuliani-060307.html
Carrie Stroup with Gambling911 has requested the folks at Sportsbook.com - presently offering political betting odds on the 2008 US Presidential election - to offer odds on Giuliani attending and debating Ron Paul at FreedomFest.
Breaking News at 9:34 AM on 6/4/2007
Dr. Paul accepts the invitation to debate Mr. Giuliani. .
Lew Moore
Campaign Manager
Ron Paul 2008 PCC
850 North Randolph Street, Suite 122
Arlington, VA 22203
For more information contact:
Ron Holland,
FreedomFest Marketing Coordinator
828 689 2148 ron@freedomfest.com
http://www.freedomfest.com/debate.htm Paul/Giuliani debate invitation