Posted on 10/24/2007 12:30:50 PM PDT by Calpernia
Several websites are offering compass headings to voters who feel lost in the big field of presidential candidates.
Sites such as selectsmart.com and vajoe.com seek to match people with candidates through questionnaires that cover immigration, taxes, abortion and other issues.
“It looks to me as if matchmaking and dating have intersected with running for president,” said John Zogby, head of the independent polling firm, Zogby International. “I guess it was inevitable.”
Although the questionnaires have no value as scientific polls, opinion experts say they may give voters who are unfamiliar with the herd of candidates a starting point in the 2008 election.
At vajoe.com, a privately owned site geared toward military service members and veterans, the “Candidate Calculator” has attracted about 1.2 million responses, according to a website counter.
The questionnaire lists issues such as “border fence” and “same sex marriage” and asks respondents, “Do you support?” After answering “yes” or “no,” respondents mark whether the issue is of high, medium or low importance. Respondents may click on each issue to get background information. Clicking on “border fence,” for example, brings up the National Public Radio website and a 2006 Q&A about security along the U.S. border with Mexico.
Answering questions along a conservative line on vajoe.com produced a top match with U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo. A consistent liberal response connected with U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio.
The results were about the same at selectsmart.com, where Kucinich also popped up after a liberal response and Tancredo landed just behind the top conservative match, U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif.
The selectsmart.com site asks questions centered on a respondent’s “ideal candidate,” and also gauges voters’ preferences for a candidate’s age, political experience and marital history. Both that site and vajoe.com match respondents with a sliding scale of candidates, from ideological mates to those who wouldn’t get a first date.
Minnesota Public Radio’s website, minnesota.publicradio.org, also features a candidate-matching questionnaire, but the site calls it a “survey” and warns it is “not designed to tell you what candidate you should vote for. It is intended only to help you think about your positions and then introduce you to the candidates.”
None of the sites offers a randomly-selected, representative poll of American voters, opinion experts stressed.
“I think people will make up their minds based on other things than filling out a questionnaire,” said Karlyn Bowman, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute who studies public opinion.
“It’s better than nothing, but it’s only half the story,” said Frank Luntz, a communications expert based in Washington.
The other big piece is the candidate’s character, Luntz said.
“Personalities are as important as where they stand,” he said.
Luntz cited leading Democratic candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Their stances on the issues are similar, he said, “but one of them is very much a polarizer [Clinton] and the other one is very much a unifier [Obama].”
While candidate calculators may be a useful source to learn more about candidates, Zogby said, “the key question is the role of personalities.” Voters, he said, choose a president based on their perceptions of leadership abilities, among other factors.
“Character traits are extremely important, especially for voters in the middle who can go either way, who don’t usually vote ideologically, or who float ideologically,” Zogby said.
Elections websites general ping
How sad that such a method is thought to be necessary!
It is kinda like wikipedia.
When people have no idea where to start looking, sites like this help them begin.
This survey also has Hunter on top. When issues and votes are considered, Hunter comes out ahead.
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/projects/ongoing/select_a_candidate/poll.php?race_id=13
That is why he won the TEXAS straw poll by such a large margin. When you look at the issues most important to conservative voters, Hunter is 100% on all of them.
GO HUNTER!!!
On some of those surveys, I get Hunter, on some I get Tancredo. I do always find it interesting to see where all the other candidates fall. Often the most MSM promoted are way down with the dems. :)
B4DH
This was closer than I figured it would be, apparently I need to read up on the mortgage crisis and education. I’m pretty sure I agree with Hunter on both of those but I didn’t pick his viewpoints out of the crowd.
You know, it just occurred to me, that with Hunter getting so few questions tossed at him during these debates, maybe part of his response could be to send viewers to one of these sites so they can see for themselves that they agree with him. Bypass the process, speak directly to the voters.
> http://minnesota.publicradio.org/projects/ongoing/select_a_candidate/poll.php?race_id=13 <
And Hunter is my man! Thompson, if he remains true to what he claims he now believes, which widely varies from what he voted for in the Senate. Do not be fooled!
Hey, hey!
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
This is what selectsmart.com selcted for me:
1) Tom Tancredo
2) Duncan Hunter
3) John McCain
4) Alan Keyes
5) Jim Gilmore
6) Mitt Romney
7) Ron Paul
8) Sam Brownback
9) Fred Thompson
10) Rudolph Giuliani
I’ve gotten results like that too. It is always a toss up as to whether Tancredo or Hunter is first, the placement for the rest are pretty consistent with yours.
Me too.
bump
I think his being endorsed by the Log Cabin’s twice are really going to hurt his chances.
Geez...I wonder how NPR portrays the issue? Not!
If he did that during a debate, I can easily see a site being recommended getting a domain hijack or something. Anyone Net savvy already knows about these sites. Someone not Net savvy would be easily to have the traffic compromised.
Overall, my favorites at the beginning were Jim Gilmore and Duncan Hunter. Of the "top tier" candidates, I like Mitt Romney the most. I voted for Alan Keyes twice, but he shouldn't be running again. He has nothing to offer in this field.
Bill
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