Excel Scoresheet: Who Should Republicans Nominate for President?

Free Republic ^ | 2/14/2016 | PoconoPundit

[poconopundit]

The battle of conservative issue purity has been waged on Free Republic for many months! And I'm not sure the Trumpbots and Cruzbots will ever agree on who is the most conservative.

And I think it varies issue by issue.   But I'm not going to argue here about who is the more conservative.

Rather, my aim is to show a spreadsheet analysis of the four voting dimensions I consider important in selecting a republican you want to vote for in primary.

The dimensions are: 1) Conservative positions; 2) Independence; 3) Executive experience; and 4) Electability. See the chart below for my rating (Scale 1 to 9) for each of the major candidates.

And the Excel spreadsheet itself you are free to download and juggle the ratings, weights, or change the dimensions.

The spreadsheet is simple in operation.   The relative weights of the "voting dimensions" are on the left side, so you adjust these so the column adds to 100.

Ratings are from 1 to 9, with 9 being the highest score.

You'll notice that I show Cruz and Rubio as the most conservative in terms of stated positions.

The main point I want to make is that "conservative positions" is only one factor to consider in a candidate.  In fact, the positions espoused in the campaign may not be realized when in office if the candidate is overly influenced by donors or lacks the management / negotiating experience of getting things accomplished.

For instance, I estimated that "conservative positions" account for about 35% of the value of candidate to me.   And you, of course, will have your own opinion.

So I welcome hearing from you FReepers. How would you modify the ratings, weights, or dimensions themselves?

If you have the time, please download the spreadsheet, modify it, and post a image of your own scoresheet.   I think it would be fun to see the rational process FReepers use to decide who they are voting for.

[big'ol_freeper]

LOL...where’s the column about supporting funding for Planned Parenthood?

[Pearls Before Swine]

Oh, I see... the max score is 90. I guess that’s ok... I like 100 as a max and would use a normalizing factor, but that’s me.

The real fight is over the assignment. I wonder if it makes sense to give Trump a max “9” on electability. At least half the populace (all Dems, plus a significant number of GOPers) are being blasted by MSM and GOPe propaganda against him. It’s hard to believe it will be without effect.

[MrEdd]

Total garbage numbers. If Yeb! were even remotely electable he would be poling at least in the twenties. How many delegates does Short Bus Bush have, anyway.

Anybody can make up numbers out of thing air and plug them into a chart. That is all this is.

[SuzyQue]

Who Should Republicans Nominate for President?

Weight Voting Dimensions Trump Carson Bush Rubio Cruz Kasich
35 Conservative Positions as expressed during campaign 2 4 1 5 9 1
15 Independence from donors & lobbyist influence 0 9 0 0 9 2
20 Executive Experience & Success managing large organizations 5 5 5 0 3 5
30 Electability — Name recognition & ability to win conservative / moderate / independent voters 9 6 9 5 6 2
100 44 56 41 33 69 23

[sparklite2]

If you cut your final scores in half, the numbers align with current polling data.

[jessduntno]

“The main point I want to make is that “conservative positions” is only one factor to consider in a candidate. In fact, the positions espoused in the campaign may not be realized when in office if the candidate is overly influenced by donors or lacks the management / negotiating experience of getting things accomplished.”

Conservative Positions HISTORICALLY is conspicuously missing. Just roll it back 30 years, to be fair and make up for the one or two “youthful indiscretion.” Anyone can say anything in the last two years and place at the top of this nonsense you are putting forth.

[poconopundit]

How is it possible to read my post and respond in a little more than one minute after it was posted?

Do you have a robotic FR search capability perhaps?   Hats off to you.   Your reading and typing speed is incredible?

A question for you: What does your response have to do with the subject of the post?

[DannyTN]

That’s not a bad way to look at things.
Laying out the criteria helps you decide what is important and what is not.

I’d disagree with your rankings on the first row. But then I’d give Trump credit for focusing on the most important issues that we need to fight for right now.

You could add a row on Foreign policy, but then I’d rank Trump higher than the other candidates there too.

[traderrob6]

Silly and essentially worthless graphic. Don’t quit your day job.

[PIF]

That’s the executive experience speaking ... telling LIVs what they want to hear ...

[poconopundit]

OK, fair enough.   Conservative Positions HISTORICALLY is a good suggestion.   But if you roll the analysis back 30 years, then Cruz and Rubio were maybe 10 years old at the time.

If you have some time, please send back your revised spreadsheet.

[poconopundit]

If it’s worthless, how would you change it to make it right?

[JediJones]

That is the DUMBEST scorecard I ever heard of. By your logic, you would vote for a far-left socialist wack job who has executive experience, is electable and has no donors over a staunch conservative.

DUMB DUMB DUMB DUMB DUMB! And DUMB!

It’s the IDEOLOGY, stupid! Nothing else trumps that. Nothing.

[jessduntno]

“If you have some time, please send back your revised spreadsheet.”

Hey, you are the genius that thought this is a fair way to weight voting decisions. I am not competing. And as for the 30 years, age has nothing to do with the ever changing funscape that is the mind of some candidates. That others might not have that particular problem has nothing to do with anything. At all.

[poconopundit]

Thanks.   Actually your previous post in another thread pointing to the OnTheIssues.org analysis is what prompted me to write this!

[JediJones]

LOL, yep, the OP is clueless. Trump and Bush rate at the bottom of the toilet bowl in electability in ALL POLLS, yet he has them at the top. Just another Trump cultist living in a fact-free zone.

[poconopundit]

OK, so if it’s dumb, then what dimensions would you choose instead?

[jessduntno]

“How is it possible to read my post and respond in a little more than one minute after it was posted?”

I don’t think it takes long to recognize what this is. We’ve all stepped in it once or twice. It’s instantly recognizable.