Bookworm

Who Should I Vote For?

Have you decided who you'll vote for in the primaries?  I have to say that I'm torn. 

There's an online quiz at a site called Quiz Rocket -- I'm going to try it out.  Well, heck, DO NOT take that quiz.  It wasn't a bad quiz, but before they'd give the results you had to click through all sorts of stupid "offers" -- and some screens you couldn't get through without agreeing to get information on something.  And the kicker?  My dream candidate?  Joe Biden -- WHO IS OUT OF THE RACE.

OK, let's try another one at a site called Electoral Compass.  This one is much better -- there are text ads on the site, but it doesn't make you jump through any hoops.  It's probably much more useful, too.  You answer every question on a sliding scale: Completely Agree, Agree Somewhat, Neutral, Disagree Somewhat, Disagree Completely, No Opinion.  When you finish it shows where you fall on a quadrant and you can see little head shots of the candidates whose positions are closest to yours.  I'm in the corner where all the Democrats are, am slightly to the right of all of them, but nowhere near the Republicans.  So, yeah, I'm a Democrat.  You can click to see, in percentage points, which candidate aligns closest to your answers. I was in closest agreement with John Edwards, followed by Barack Obama, and then Hillary, but all three were within ten percentage points.  Or, on the quadrant screen, you can click individual issues to see where you and the candidates match up.  And finally, you have the option of saving your data by choosing a user name and password for the site.  No other information is required.

One more -- at a site called Politicalbase.com.  All the questions for this one are on one page, with radio-style buttons to choose for each; essentially the same five option scale as in the prior one (I think that's called a Likert scale).  These questions are less specific -- I'm not sure it will be as accurate at capturing my actual stance on the issues.  Yup, I was right about that.  I think the way the questions were asked made my positions seem more extreme than they actually are.  I matched up with Dennis Kucinich (83% agreement), Bill Richardson (83% agreement), and Mike Gravel (79% agreement).  Richardson is out of the race (which the site acknowledges).  Is Kucinich still in it?  And who on earth is Mike Gravel?  This quiz takes a strong second place, though, because on the screen where they give the percentages it does a nice job of telling you why you matched with the candidates.

I voted today -- did you?

Could He *Be* More Cocky?

"President Bush said the public's decision to reelect him was a ratification of his approach toward Iraq and that there was no reason to hold any administration officials accountable for mistakes or misjudgments in prewar planning or managing the violent aftermath. "We had an accountability moment, and that's called the 2004 elections," Bush said in an interview with The Washington Post. "The American people listened to different assessments made about what was taking place in Iraq, and they looked at the two candidates, and chose me." [Washington Post, found via Blogdex]

I'm sorry . . . did someone tell Shrub that everyone voted for him?  The election was hardly a landslide and there were many issues that caused people to cast their votes as they did.  And even for those who did vote to keep GWB in office because of the ongoing war in Iraq, it was less a hearty pat on the back for a job well done than a belief that it would be better for our efforts and troops to keep the same personnel in place at such a sensitive time. 

Electoral College Reform Proposal

Am I crazy, that this proposal really seems to have some merit to it?