Vote By Issue Quiz

Vote By Issue Quiz -- A fascinating exercise from the Online News Hour and WBUR. I say fascinating because my candidate of choice is Howard Dean, but I chose only one of his responses (civil unions) in this issue-by-issue "pop quiz."

More interesting was the fact that the by-far biggest agreement I had, issue-by-issue as presented, was with Carol Moseley Braun, with 7 of the 14 listed issues, with the rest spread across Kerry (trade and poverty), Gephardt (terrorism and economy), Sharpton (gun control), and Edwards (Social Security). I consciously knew I really liked Moseley Braun's stance on universal health care, but given her clear non-electability, I probably haven't paid enough attention to other issues of hers. It's probably a shame that too few others have as well. I'd like to see her in a major cabinet position.

That said, all of the choices in the quiz had several acceptable approaches described, and most of those I chose were near indistinguishable from Dean's, who I'm sticking with on the strength of personality, character, outspokenness, energy, common sense, and what his transformative campaign/dialogue is doing to help the people take back the political process. I also happen to think that of the others, he has the best chance of clearly differentiating himself from, and therefore beating, Bush. Far better than the other front-running beltway boys. (I must also admit a fairly consistent appreciation on my part for "outsider" candidates.)

What the quiz did help me with was to realize that, while a campaign is about differences, there are in this field so many so close to my positions, that I know I'm comfortable with all but one or two of the party's candidates. When compared to Bush (the ousting of whom is important to me), I'll be OK with voting for all but one, who just turns me off at a visceral level as much as Dean turns me on. I guess if it turns out to be Lieberman, I'll just have to hold my nose as I pull the lever.

I hope I don't have to just vote against Bush, and odds are good that I won't have to.

(Interestingly, Joho the Blog, through which I found the quiz, but whose full posting I didn't read until finishing the writing of this one, had similar results and similar conclusions, even about the same candidate that would dampen his ardor.)