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Candidate Calculator

My result was

Former Alaska Senator Mike Gravel (D)
91.30% match

I noticed this name before following the news in the US. I hope it means something good.
 
My Results:
Ohio Representative Dennis Kucinich (D)
92.45% match
 
wahrheit said:
My result was

Former Alaska Senator Mike Gravel (D)
91.30% match

I noticed this name before following the news in the US. I hope it means something good.
Click to expand...

I got the same guy with the same percentage. Either you and I happen to agree on everything, or there's a flaw in the coding.
 
TragicMonkey said:
I got the same guy with the same percentage. Either you and I happen to agree on everything, or there's a flaw in the coding.
Click to expand...

I'm afraid it might be the former. I liked you and your posts from the day I joined this forum. And mind you, that was before I realized you would become a repeated TLA winner celebrity and such.
 
Ohio Representative Dennis Kucinich (D)
83.87% match

I am 83.87% elfish.
 
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I got Gravel with 90.48%. I've never even heard of him!

ETA: I can't wait to see who BPSCG gets!
 
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First, I entered "Yes" and "Medium" for everything, and "Undecided for the candidate, and got back:

#1) Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) - 82.61% match
#2) Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney (R) - 73.91%
#3) Connecticut Senator Christopher Dodd (D) - 69.57%
#4) Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee (R) - 69.57%


Then I entered "Unsure" and "Medium" for everything, and "Undecided" for the candidate, and got back:

#1) Delaware Senator Joseph Biden (D) - 0.00%
#2) Kansas Senator Sam Brownback (R) - 0.00%
#3) New York Senator Hillary Clinton (D) - 0.00%
#4) Businessman John Cox (R) - 0.00%


Then I entered "No" and "Medium" for everything, and "Undecided" for the candidate, and got back:

#1) Texas Representative Ron Paul (R) - 82.61% match
#2) Businessman John Cox (R) - 73.91%
#3) Former Alaska Senator Mike Gravel (D) - 69.57%
#4) Kansas Senator Sam Brownback (R) - 56.52%


Finally, I entered my real interests, set everything to high importance, Declared "Undecided" for the candidate, and got back:

#1) New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson (D) - 63.64%
#2) New York Senator Hillary Clinton (D) - 59.09%
#3) Arizona Senator John McCain (R) - 59.09%
#4) Delaware Senator Joseph Biden (D) - 54.55%


I'll keep my "No Political Affiliation" status, and wait until after the primaries.
 
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I'm one of those weird people who prefers to make up my own mind, rather than have a website tell me who I should vote for.

Call me crazy.
 
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Cleon said:
I'm one of those weird people who prefers to make up my own mind, rather than have a website tell me who I should vote for.

Call me crazy.
Click to expand...

Um...who the candidate calculator picks for you isn't legally binding, you know.
 
You're right, Lisa. How dare I even open that web page, I can't even vote in the US! Silly me.
 
Cleon said:
I'm one of those weird people who prefers to make up my own mind, rather than have a website tell me who I should vote for.

Call me crazy.
Click to expand...

You should make up your mind, but you should make up your mind in a rational way which attempts to find the optimal person. (Or, more pragmatically, find the optimal vote, since with tactical voting the two do not always overlap.) What could be more rational than to consider each candidate as a vector of their various political positions and credentials and then assign a score based on the distance between that vector and some sort of hypothetical "optimal candidate." These Internet polls (this one explicitly gives its algorithm) serve to allow you to do this efficiently by giving you some predetermined collection of dimensions which is deemed representative and then showing which candidates are closest to you using a 1-norm weighted according to your own wishes. There's a certain amount of limitations in their choice of dimensions, and thus no poll is exactly perfect, but it is a highly useful way to get a quantified sense of candidates which you can then refine at your leisure. Math is power.

And as is fairly often the case on this sort of poll, I get Kucinich/Gravel (tied), with Obama in third.
 
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UserGoogol said:
What could be more rational than to consider each candidate as a vector of their various political positions and credentials and then assign a score based on the distance between that vector and some sort of hypothetical "optimal candidate."
Click to expand...
The problem is how to define those vectors. For example, one might support universal healthcare but be vehemently opposed to how a specific candidate wants to implement it.

Nor would I trust any such result without checking the calculation and input data from the candidates. Call me paranoid.

On the other hand, if the outcome is markedly different from what you expect it may very well be worth it to check the other candidate out. And if such polls help stimulate people to think about issues and politics before an election I'm all in favour.
 
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Ohio Representative Dennis Kucinich (D)
73.91% match


The first time I did it, I said I was going to vote for Mike Gravel and I ended up getting him as a result. I thought my saying that would mess up the results and since he almost definitely won't get the Dem ticket, I said "undecided" the next time and got Kucinich.



Abortion Rights Yes
Death Penalty No
No Child Left Behind No
Federal Embryonic Stem Cell Research Yes
ANWR Drilling No
Kyoto Protocol Yes
Assault Weapons Ban No
Gun Background Checks Yes
Patriot Act No
Guantanamo Detention Camp No
Waterboarding Detainees No
Citizen Path for Illegal Immigrants Yes
Border Fence Yes
Internet Neutrality Yes
U.S. Sanctions Against Iran Yes
Military Action Against Iran No
Support Iraq War No
Increase Minimum Wage Yes
Same-Sex Marriage Yes
Universal Health Care Yes
Free Trade No
School Vouchers Yes
Privatizing Social Security No




It's worth noting that in the state I'm living in right now, Primary elections are closed and limited to party members and I'm a registered independent.
 
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Well, I guess I'm supposed to vote for Rudy Giuliani, with Mike Huckabee a close second.
Personally I'd rather wait and listen to where all of the candidates stand on the issues and make my decision based on what I think then.
 
Most people here don't realize that Mike Gravel probably supports most of the things that they do, and they don't even know anything about him or even who he is.
 
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