GOP Nominee
Former Candidates
After Aron’s post a while back that linked to a test that matched you with a candidate, I found these types of tests to be quite fun, if not sometimes amusing. There is a very thorough test I found today at www.politichoice.com. It is quite long, but I think it is a pretty good indicator, and these things are always fun. You have to register, but can refuse to accept emails. If you like, you can post your results here.
Here are mine, and no suprise here:
Candidate Total Score
Fred Thompson 92.57 %
Duncan Hunter 82.87 %
Mike Huckabee 82.30 %
John McCain 80.90 %
Mitt Romney 80.90 %
Tom Tancredo 79.49 %
Ron Paul 72.47 %
Rudy Guiliani 69.66 %
Sam Brownback 68.54 %
Joe Biden 37.36 %Party Match:
Republican Party 85.11 %
Democratic Party 19.10 %
August 22nd, 2007 at 10:58 pm
[...] post by Tommy Oliver and software by Elliott [...]
August 22nd, 2007 at 11:01 pm
Wow. Check out my top 5:
1) John McCain
2) Sam Brownback?!
3) RUDY
4) Fred
5) Joe Biden?
August 22nd, 2007 at 11:07 pm
Mike Huckabee 83.33 %
Duncan Hunter 82.03 %
Fred Thompson 81.77 %
Mitt Romney 80.99 %
John McCain 79.17 %
Tom Tancredo 76.56 %
Sam Brownback 75.26 %
Rudy Guiliani 67.45 %
Ron Paul 66.15 %
Joe Biden 42.97 %
Republican Party 80.73 %
Democratic Party 21.09 %
I think this survey is reasonable, but fails to ask certain types of questions that would allow me to distinguish certain candidates from each other. For instance, I think Mike Huckabee is an awful candidate, and hardly a conservative by any measure. The fact that he matches so highly with me in this quiz is attributable to two facts. One, I rated all abortion related issues as “extremely important”. There’s practically no fiscal, or general governmental philosophy, questions of any relevance. There’s no particular question there designed to root out “nanny-staters” like Huckabee. For instance, there’s no way of imagining from this quiz, that Huckabee supports smoking bans on pregnant women, and has more then hinted in the past that he’d be open to banning smoking entirely. There’s nothing here that talks about general size of government, government spending, or the role of government more generally. There’s nothing that can capture Huckabee’s continual class warfare rhetoric; his disdain for “fat cats” or “wall-streeters”. And there’s certainly nothing that goes to taxes more broadly (I confess I’m not particularly interested in capital gains taxes, or inheritance taxes). Other then it’s ability to disguise Huckabee’s flaws, I find it a pretty accurate test.
August 22nd, 2007 at 11:42 pm
Biden registered on mine as well, at least compared to Dems. Matt is right about general philosophy, as I ahave yet to see a test that questions on specifics of it. I’m actually suprised I matched up with the party line as well as I did.
August 22nd, 2007 at 11:44 pm
“Nanny staters”
I still refer to them as “compassionate conservatives”
August 22nd, 2007 at 11:53 pm
Ron Paul 84.23 %
Tom Tancredo 61.61 %
Sam Brownback 58.93 %
Fred Thompson 57.44 %
Bill Richardson 55.06 %
John McCain 48.51 %
Mitt Romney 46.73 %
Duncan Hunter 46.73 %
Mike Huckabee 44.35 %
Dennis Kucinich 42.86 %
Republican Party 49.11 %
Democratic Party 43.45 %
That kind of makes sense. RP is by far the only candidate I can support, but still he has his flaws.
August 22nd, 2007 at 11:54 pm
Fred Thompson 87.22 %
Duncan Hunter 83.52 %
Tom Tancredo 78.13 %
Mitt Romney 78.13 %
Mike Huckabee 77.27 %
John McCain 75.00 %
Rudy Guiliani 74.15 %
Ron Paul 69.03 %
Sam Brownback 63.35 %
Joe Biden 30.11 %
Uh huh…
Of course, there are more to candidates than issues, and not all issues can be covered in one test. But, yes, I agree with *most* of what each candidate in our party believes. But the emphasis is always what counts — what the *candidate’s* emphasis is, that is. And also, electability and so on.
August 22nd, 2007 at 11:54 pm
it’s also interesting to see my bottom ones…
Joe Biden 41.67 %
Rudy Guiliani 41.37 %
Chris Dodd 40.48 %
John Edwards 40.18 %
Barack Obama 38.69 %
Hillary Clinton 34.23 %
Sounds about right.
August 22nd, 2007 at 11:55 pm
Haha, it’s funny to me that Giuliani is just barely better than Dodd and Edwards on my list. That sounds about right, too
August 22nd, 2007 at 11:56 pm
Republican Party 84.38 %
Democratic Party 12.50 %
August 22nd, 2007 at 11:58 pm
Hah, see post 3 — ironic that I’m more of a match more today’s Republican Party than someone like Matt according to this test.
It’s due to the emphasis I placed on the issues, I’m sure. I answered liberally for all of the social issues, but put unimportant or not very important for all of them.
August 22nd, 2007 at 11:59 pm
Duncan Hunter 91.52 %
Fred Thompson 85.94 %
Mitt Romney 85.71 %
Tom Tancredo 83.48 %
Mike Huckabee 82.59 %
John McCain 74.55 %
Rudy Guiliani 71.88 %
Sam Brownback 70.98 %
Ron Paul 64.96 %
Joe Biden 37.95 %
Chris Dodd 28.57 %
Hillary Clinton 24.78 %
Barack Obama 23.21 %
Bill Richardson 17.41 %
John Edwards 15.40 %
Dennis Kucinich 4.69 %
Republican Party 89.29 %
Democratic Party 11.38 %
August 22nd, 2007 at 11:59 pm
It’s also interesting that it only does the two major parties. Wouldn’t you think someone like me would be like…85-90% for the libertarian party? My two party matches kind of…suck.
August 23rd, 2007 at 12:00 am
So Randy, I guess you’re moving to Iceland if we get a President Kucinich?
August 23rd, 2007 at 12:03 am
You think Iceland would be far enough away? I’m not so sure.
August 23rd, 2007 at 12:28 am
Mike Huckabee 92.08 %
Mitt Romney 89.38 %
Fred Thompson 88.96 %
Duncan Hunter 88.96 %
John McCain 83.75 %
Tom Tancredo 82.92 %
Sam Brownback 75.83 %
Rudy Guiliani 74.38 %
Ron Paul 61.46 %
Joe Biden 41.67 %
Chris Dodd 34.17 %
Bill Richardson 31.46 %
Hillary Clinton 30.21 %
Barack Obama 28.54 %
John Edwards 25.63 %
Dennis Kucinich 11.25 %
Republican Party 92.92 %
Democratic Party 19.17 %
August 23rd, 2007 at 1:11 am
Rudy Giuliani 87.16%
Fred Thompson 84.80%
Mitt Romney 79.73%
Mike Huckabee 78.04%
John McCain 76.35%
Duncan Hunter 75.00%
Tom Tancredo 67.57%
Sam Brownback 61.15%
Ron Paul 51.35%
Joe Biden 42.23%
Hillary Clinton 42.23%
Barack Obama 40.54%
Chris Dodd 37.50%
Bill Richardson 33.11%
John Edwards 30.74%
Dennis Kucinich 21.62%
Republican Party 81.76%
Democratic Party 29.73%
August 23rd, 2007 at 1:25 am
All of us except Nusrat (dude, I don’t know you got Kucinich even if you are libertarian) so far have Biden as their best Democrat. I think its because he’s the only Democrat who isn’t pandering to the KOSmonauts.
August 23rd, 2007 at 1:27 am
Whoops! Sorry Nusrat! Didn’t see that you had Richardson WAY up there. Still, Kucinich 2nd?
August 23rd, 2007 at 6:23 am
TLG,
Hmm. Let’s see where I went off the reservation. I generally stuck to the party line on environmental issues, but couldn’t terribly enthused by them. I’m willing to drill in Alaska, in the abstract, but frankly I think we’re better served focusing on various alternative energy sources. So I put “not important” for almost all the environmental questions (and I went a bit off the reservation on CAFE). The same thing for the tax questions. I’m not REALLY a supply sider, as such. I haven’t developed much in the way of tax philosophy actually.
But, I’m admittedly not too keen on decreasing taxes on the “wealthy”, before we decrease taxes to middle income families (from what I’ve learned in economics, I tend to think middle income breaks are superior in stimulating growth). So I stuck with the party line on that, since I generally want to decrease taxes on everyone, but I put “not very important”. Same with the inheritance tax. Basically, at the moment I’d prefer to get spending in control, before we do any broad based tax cuts. And I finally, I go a bit off the reservation on a few social issues (gay marriage and the death penalty), but I only rated one of them “important”.
August 23rd, 2007 at 7:19 am
‘But, I’m admittedly not too keen on decreasing taxes on the “wealthyâ€?, before we decrease taxes to middle income families ‘
That was a poor question. You could only choose between making taxes for the wealthy higher or lower, there was no option to retain current levels. Passing on the tax burden to future generations seems unwise to me, so I ‘voted against’ lowering those taxes.
Fred Thompson 72.06 %
Rudy Guiliani 70.59 %
John McCain 66.91 %
Mike Huckabee 63.24 %
Mitt Romney 61.76 %
Duncan Hunter 59.56 %
Chris Dodd 58.09 %
Sam Brownback 56.62 %
Hillary Clinton 55.15 %
Tom Tancredo 54.41 %
Barack Obama 53.68 %
Ron Paul 52.21 %
Joe Biden 51.47 %
John Edwards 50.74 %
Bill Richardson 50.00 %
Dennis Kucinich 36.03 %
Republican Party 63.24 %
Democratic Party 44.85 %
August 23rd, 2007 at 7:54 am
Awakened,
Yup, that was more or less what I felt. I’m only in favor of relatively modest tax breaks, until we get the deficit under control, and decreasing “upper tax brackets” isn’t one of my top priorities.
August 23rd, 2007 at 8:09 am
I had a very interesting group of results. Here they are:
Sam Brownback 71.67 %
Ron Paul 57.86 %
Tom Tancredo 55.00 %
Mike Huckabee 53.10 %
Duncan Hunter 51.19 %
Joe Biden 50.71 %
Mitt Romney 50.71 %
Dennis Kucinich 49.52 %
Fred Thompson 48.81 %
Chris Dodd 48.33 %
Bill Richardson 48.33 %
John McCain 46.90 %
Hillary Clinton 46.19 %
Barack Obama 45.71 %
Rudy Guiliani 42.62 %
John Edwards 40.00 %
Republican Party 57.86 %
Democratic Party 43.81 %
It looks like Sam Brownback is way ahead of the pack. I haven’t decided who to support, but I’ve always liked him. I just don’t think he can win. I agree with Ron Paul on a number of things too, and he was second. I do realize he’s a loose cannon though. This 12 year old cousin of mine knows I don’t like Democrats, but I did watch one of their debates, and she asked, “If you had to pick one of them, who would you pick?” I thought about it for a second and said, “I guess Biden.” Sure enough, he scored highest of all the Democrats. He was even tied with Romney and scored higher than Thompson, McCain, or Giuliani which was interesting. I’ve never been very fond of John Edwards or Rudy Giuliani, and they scored the lowest of everybody. Obama and Hillary were right behind. I was surprised at how low McCain scored though. Looking at these results, I want to ask who you all think I should vote for? Brownback is way ahead of everybody but has little chance of winning. Even though he has only 50.71% agreement with me and is the same number Biden, Romney is the highest top-tier candidate, so you could argue he would be the best choice. Anyway, please discuss.
August 23rd, 2007 at 9:00 am
I’m going to tell you guys right now, Joe Biden is the only Democrat I’d vote for. I would probably vote for him over someone like Fred Thompson, and would have a difficult time deciding whether or not I’d vote for Giuliani over him. He’s an old-school Democrat, one who doesn’t pander to the left, and I appreciate him for it. I finished his book ‘Promises to Keep’ recently, and I recommend it, it’s a good read.
Anyway, here are my results:
Mike Huckabee 70.90 %
Mitt Romney 69.40 %
Sam Brownback 69.40 %
John McCain 68.66 %
Tom Tancredo 67.91 %
Duncan Hunter 67.16 %
Fred Thompson 64.55 %
Rudy Guiliani 63.43 %
Ron Paul 62.31 %
Joe Biden 47.76 %
Chris Dodd 47.01 %
Bill Richardson 40.30 %
Barack Obama 38.81 %
John Edwards 36.94 %
Hillary Clinton 36.94 %
Dennis Kucinich 36.94 %
August 23rd, 2007 at 9:20 am
The Survey does not take into account the reasoning for your answers; however, it does seem somewhat reliable to me.
August 23rd, 2007 at 9:37 am
I’m not suprised that Biden registered on a lot of the results posted. Even though he’s pretty far down on mine, I do respect him as an individual. Actually, I’m a little suprised Richardson didn’t register at all with my top tier. I have always thought he and Biden were the best of the bunch the Democrats have up for nomination.
Clarence-
Fascinating results. I found it strange that Brownback ranked lower than Paul and Tancredo on mine. I’m not a big fan of him, but I was under the impression that he would be closer than he turned out. It seems I still have much to learn about some of the candidates. I also was under the impression that Tancredo would rank higher than he did. Paul, I can understand being in the middle ranks, since I do agree with him on a number of issues, but rank some big disagreements I have with him as “very important.” Also, compared to others, I matched up relatively well with the Republican party platform, and I hardly consider myself a guy who tows the party line on every issue. As I regularly comment here and in my posts, I don’t see the Republican leadership today following the federalist philosophy.
August 23rd, 2007 at 9:39 am
Funnily,
I don’t see Gravel registering on anyone’s results. Did he drop out and I was not aware of it, or did they just leave him off?
August 23rd, 2007 at 9:57 am
They just left Gravel off.
August 23rd, 2007 at 10:51 am
Clarence-
On who you should vote for… From the looks of your survey, I would guess Huckabee (out of the legitimate threats to win the nomination). Your results indicate more of a populist leaning, at least judging by the order. You have some conservative tendencies socially, and do favor some libertarian principles, but also some populist ideas.
August 23rd, 2007 at 10:59 am
Fred Thompson 86.73 %
Duncan Hunter 85.40 %
Mitt Romney 83.63 %
Tom Tancredo 83.41 %
Mike Huckabee 82.08 %
John McCain 79.87 %
Sam Brownback 71.68 %
Ron Paul 69.91 %
Rudy Guiliani 69.03 %
Joe Biden 35.84 %
See, there’s a reason that Duncan Hunter is my second choice in this race. He’d be my first if he had any chance to win.
But what’s up with Fred being my number 1?
August 23rd, 2007 at 11:07 am
I guess this just proves that selecting a candidate is based off of more than just issues.
August 23rd, 2007 at 11:08 am
Republican Party 86.95 %
Democratic Party 15.04 %
August 23rd, 2007 at 11:44 am
Duncan Hunter 95.05 %
Mitt Romney 91.34 %
Mike Huckabee 89.60 %
Tom Tancredo 88.86 %
Fred Thompson 86.88 %
Sam Brownback 78.22 %
John McCain 77.23 %
Rudy Guiliani 68.56 %
Ron Paul 64.36 %
Joe Biden 36.39 %
Chris Dodd 33.42 %
Hillary Clinton 27.48 %
Bill Richardson 26.24 %
Barack Obama 25.25 %
John Edwards 23.02 %
Dennis Kucinich 8.17 %
Republican Party 96.29 %
Democratic Party 16.58 %
August 23rd, 2007 at 12:02 pm
I will vote for no Demo and I support Rudy, but this should show my conservative bonafides. Mitt 85.58; Huck 83.33;Tancredo 80.77; McCain 80.77; Hunter 79.17; Fred 78.21; Rudy 75.32; Brownback 70.83; Paul 53.21; Biden 51.60; Hillary 46.47; Obama 45.19; Dodd 44.55; Richardson 34.29; Edwards 32.37; Kucinich 24.04.
August 23rd, 2007 at 12:10 pm
Tommy Oliver, I do have some populist tendencies, but I’m a Catholic, so I guess that makes sense. I support some libertarian ideas as well…kind of a mixed bag I guess. I have a hard time with Huckabee though. Matt highlighted some of the problems. I don’t like his class warfare. He does come off as a big government conservative in some ways. If he hinted at banning smoking, that is 100% wrong. I wouldn’t encourage anyone to smoke, but that is a personal choice. Having said that, he does have his good qualities. I don’t know who I’ll back. Romney, while less controlling than Huckabee, does have some nanny-state ideas. He has that commercial about cutting back on sex and violence in the media…also not the role of the federal government and very Clinton-esque.
August 23rd, 2007 at 12:50 pm
Grant,
So is it safe to say your only issue this election is perceived electability? That’s what your rankings would seem to indicate.
August 23rd, 2007 at 1:54 pm
Not perceived electability–rather actual electability.
August 23rd, 2007 at 1:56 pm
If my personal view on the issues was all that mattered, we wouldn’t need an election–conservative Repubs would always win. Unfortunately, people who disagree with me get to vote, too.
August 23rd, 2007 at 2:10 pm
Clarence,
I am in agreement on you with Huckabee. He seems like an honest, genuine candidate, but speaking as a chronic tobacco user, that right there knocks him out of contention for me alone. Also, I am dedicated to smaller government, so that one knocks him off my list too. That’s just my take on it though.
August 23rd, 2007 at 2:11 pm
Grant, why do you say it’s “actual” electability? How do you know for sure that Giuliani is the most electable? Isn’t all of this just a matter of speculation? I would say that anytime someone talks about electability, it is only perceived and not actual. For example, in 1980, Ronald Reagan was perceived as much less electable than Howard Baker, George H.W. Bush, and John Anderson. He took 44 states.
August 23rd, 2007 at 2:15 pm
Tommy Oliver, in my state, New Hampshire, the Democratic-controlled Legislature and Democratic Governor passed a ban on smoking in restaurants and even BARS! It’s funny how these Democrats talk about how they are “pro-choice” but they’re certainly not pro-choice as far as whether privately-owned bars can allow smoking. What a bunch of hypocrites!
August 23rd, 2007 at 3:06 pm
My results:
Mitt Romney 87.38%
John McCain 87.14
Mike Huckabee 83.74
Fred Thompson 83.25
Rudy Giuliani 81.07
Duncan Hunter 81.07
Tom Tancredo 69.17
Ron Paul 55.83
Joe Biden 50.24
Republican Party 81.80%
Democratic Party 30.10%
Sounds about right for me. My higher score with the Democratic Party is probably due to my strong support of governmental regulation over the environment. No surprise that Romney tops my list, but I am surprised that a) Fred didn’t rank higher and b) that McCain is so high on mine. Not a bad test, though.
August 23rd, 2007 at 4:59 pm
‘Grant, why do you say it’s “actualâ€? electability? How do you know for sure that Giuliani is the most electable? ‘
Nothing is certain. But most people with common sense know that Rudy Giuliani, who appeals to Independents and Democrats, who is a good speaker, would make a better candidate than a joker like Sam Brownback.
August 23rd, 2007 at 5:19 pm
Grant,
Do you feel like perceived (no such thing as “actual” at this stage in the game) electability is the reason Democrats lost in 2004? They went with the guy they thought would be most likely to win, when a careful, thoughtful analysis would have given them a character who excited their base, was a better speaker, more optimistic, and was an all-around better candidate.
That didn’t work out so well for them…
August 23rd, 2007 at 5:42 pm
“For example, in 1980, Ronald Reagan was perceived as much less electable than Howard Baker, George H.W. Bush, and John Anderson. He took 44 states.”
Illegitimate comparison, and you know why.
It’s the same reason Hillary Clinton could take 44 states if things keep going horribly for us.
August 23rd, 2007 at 5:43 pm
In other words: Reagan *was* less electable than Baker or Bush. But we could get away with a Reagan because people hated Carter so much. And then once he did well, people kept him in. He also was running against a milquetoast promising to raise taxes, so that helped.
August 24th, 2007 at 7:59 am
That Rudy is the most electable Republican is evident from the polls–I admit that is in large part due to his performance after 9/11. Things can change, but it is easier to win an election when you are even or slightly behind than to win when you are 15 points behind.