Burnt Orange Report

July 06, 2003

Who Should I support?

By Byron LaMasters

Select Smart says Patrick Leahy (not sure why he was included. Leahy has endorsed Howard Dean) and Dennis Kucinich. Regardless, I'm sold on Howard Dean, but this is an interesting little test here. Link via Slightly Rought, via Greg's Opinion via Cal Pundit. Cal Pundit warns, however, that the quiz might be skewed to favor Kucinich.

1. Leahy, Patrick Senator, Vermont - Democrat (100%) 2. Kucinich, Cong. Dennis, OH - Democrat (98%) 3. Green Party Candidate (98%) 4. Gephardt, Cong. Dick, MO - Democrat (91%) 5. Daschle, Senate Minority Leader Tom, SD - Democrat (90%) 6. Clinton, Senator Hillary Rodham, NY - Democrat (88%) 7. Kerry, Senator John, MA - Democrat (87%) 8. Edwards, Senator John, NC - Democrat (86%) 9. Feingold, Senator Russ, WI - Democrat (86%) 10. Dean, Gov. Howard, VT - Democrat (84%) 11. Moseley-Braun, Former Senator Carol IL - Democrat (82%) 12. Biden, Senator Joe, DE - Democrat (79%) 13. Sharpton, Reverend Al - Democrat (79%) 14. Lieberman Senator Joe CT - Democrat (79%) 15. Jackson, Cong. Jesse Jr., IL - Democrat (79%) 16. Graham, Senator Bob, FL - Democrat (76%) 17. Dodd, Senator Chris, CT - Democrat (73%) 18. Kaptur, Cong. Marcy, OH - Democrat (69%) 19. Bayh, Senator Evan, IN - Democrat (68%) 20. Clark, Retired Army General Wesley, AR - Democrat (66%) 21. Socialist Candidate (65%) 22. Feinstein, Senator Dianne, CA - Democrat (65%) 23. Bradley, Former Senator Bill NJ - Democrat (55%) 24. Gore, Former Vice-President Al - Democrat (53%) 25. Libertarian Candidate (46%) 26. McCain, Senator John, AZ- Republican (17%) 27. Hart, Former Senator Gary, CO - Democrat (16%) 28. Hagelin, John - Natural Law (14%) 29. Buchanan, Patrick J. – Reform/Republican (7%) 30. Vilsack, Governor. Tom IA - Democrat (6%) 31. Bush, George W. - US President (5%) 32. Phillips, Howard - Constitution (4%) 33. LaRouche, Lyndon H. Jr. - Democrat (-6%)

Update: After reading more about this survey from Cal Pundit, I have further belief that the survey is flawed, even though I think that my political views are very similar to Patrick Leahy's. However, I don't think that I agree with Dennis Kucinich 98% of the time. There are some real issues where I disagree with Dennis Kucinich on, and they're not just concerns related to his abortion flip flop. I disagreed with the following two statements on the quiz (that Kucinich supports):

There should be a guaranteed livable annual income for all, including those outside the work force.

Full employment for all Americans should be federal policy.

I disagree with Kucinich on trade. I support free trade, NAFTA, WTO, FTAA, etc. in theory. Globalization is inevitable, and it's dumb to not acknowledge that. That said, I think that it is critical to protect the environment and workers rights in every trade agreement that we make. Unfortunately, that's not done, but still I don't think that throwing out NAFTA is the right approach either, as Kucinich would have us do. I have the similar disagreements with the Green Party and I would not say that I agree with 98% of their platform. Also, I have substantial diagreements with both Kucinich and the Greens on war. I opposed war in Iraq, but I don't consider myself a pacifist. I supported taking out the Taliban in Afghanistan, and I actually think that we didn't go far enough. We had the Afghan tribes do our dirty work, when we should have gone in ourselves and taken out Osama Bin Laden. Instead, he managed to slip away. I opposed invading Iraq for several reasons, most fundamental of which is that I did not see Iraq as a threat to U.S. national security (in the way that the Taliban was). I felt that the claims of weapons of mass destruction and links between Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden were at best disingenuous.

Also, others have expressed confusion about Tom Vilsack's placement on the list. I'm a big fan of Vilsack, and I'm sure his placement is a flaw with the program.

BTW, I'd love to know what others get on this, so if you take the quiz, let me know your results!

Posted by Byron LaMasters at July 6, 2003 07:15 PM | TrackBack

Comments

President George W. Bush, followed by Indiana Democrat Senator Evan Bayh (not in the running to my knowledge) then the Libertarian candidate.

My national security and neocon unilateralist tendencies killed the libertarians for me.

Posted by: TX Pundit at July 6, 2003 08:07 PM

'Unilateral' in most cases being a codeword for 'something France, Germany, Russia and the People's Republic of China don't like' regardless of how much support the US gets from everyone else. Long live 'New Europe'!

Posted by: TX Pundit at July 6, 2003 08:15 PM

"regardless of how much support the US gets from everyone else"

You mean, "regardless of how much support the US buys from everyone else", right?

Heh.

Posted by: ByronUT at July 6, 2003 08:17 PM

Yeah clever, like Kerry insulting the allies who actually went into Iraq with us - Britain, Australia, and Poland - and now nearly every NATO member outside the Franco-German axis and some candidate members (and I should add the Japanese) arriving in Iraq this fall. Screw him, my last name's Polish, and I'm going to Warsaw in three weeks. But when Dems insult our real (as opposed to waffling) allies, who actually makes a note of it?

You have failed to grasp the difference between principled disagreement on an issue and doing everything possible to undermine the position of one's 'friends', as the Chiraq government did.

Posted by: TX Pundit at July 6, 2003 08:43 PM

I got Kucinich 100%, then Dean 88%, then Kerry 85%. Kucinich 100%? This thing has to be rigged. But everything else made sense.

Posted by: Mark at July 7, 2003 12:39 AM

Kucinich-100% (yeah, right!), Green-97% (and give the country to Bush again?!), Kerry-82% ("I was misled"), Dean-78% (Ouch! He's still the man though! Must be so low because of my gun answer or something.), Sharpton-75% (oh no!), Gerphardt-74%, Braun-73%, Lieberman-71%, Clinton-70% (maybe in 2012 after Dean's terms), Edwards-70%, Daschle-65% (I love the man, but he did introduce the PATRIOT act in the Senate...). Grahm and Gore are way down there with 56% and 43% respectively. Ack! I had 7% with Bush! NOOOO!
Yeah, the test is probably rigged for Kucinich, but he needs all the help he can get. I find it interesting how diverse is the Democratic party. I have a Democrat at 100% and one at -9%. Even though the test isn't all that accurate per se, it does correctly portray the Democrats. We aren't united as a party. Hell, where else can Kucinich and Hall share the same affiliation? Perhaps if we were more unified, *we* could have a monopoly on the Government. In retrospect, perhaps that's part of the appeal of our party--our political diversity. I'd be eager to discuss this topic more with someone who has a clue. Either way, Dean is still the candidate for me and for America for that matter.

Posted by: Chris at July 7, 2003 02:02 AM

Thanks for the link. The Kucinich-skewed-results theory has some merit. If you look at my results, you'll see I got Libertarian, Bush, etc. -- all reasonable results. Then Edwards, Green, Kucinich. Very odd that Kucinich would be that high and Lieberman would be way down between the Socialists and Al Sharpton.

Posted by: Rob Booth (Slightly Rough) at July 7, 2003 07:47 AM

Dennis Kucinich projected to win in 2004!

Have you checked out the section where they rate the winner of the election based on people's results? I think you're right, their a bit skewed:

51% Kucinich, Cong. Dennis, OH - Democrat
14% Bush, George W. - US President
12% Green Party Candidate
7% Libertarian Candidate
5% Kerry, Senator John, MA - Democrat
3% Gephardt, Cong. Dick, MO - Democrat
2% Edwards, Senator John, NC - Democrat
2% Sharpton, Reverend Al - Democrat
2% Dean, Gov. Howard, VT - Democrat
1% Lieberman Senator Joe CT - Democrat
0% Jackson, Cong. Jesse Jr., IL - Democrat

Posted by: Benjamin S at July 7, 2003 12:57 PM

Kucinich wins for me, too (I limited the results to only those who have actually declared, and only the two major parties). The whole thing is silly, I'm afraid.

Posted by: Charles Kuffner at July 7, 2003 01:48 PM

Something is very wrong with that quiz. Top two:

Bush
Dean

I was so shocked, I didn't even pay attention to the rest of them.

I would stab myself to death before I voted for that evil incompetent piece of crap in the WH.

I *am* leaning towards Dean though even though he's not as liberal as I'd prefer.

My entire day is ruined now.

Posted by: Marisa at July 7, 2003 02:27 PM

Byron, I think it's the gun issue.

As you know, I'm somewhere to the *right* of the NRA on guns and just generally incoherent on other civil liberties issues (I'm amenable to, though not necessarily supportive of the death penalty; somewhat concerned about violence and sex on TV; and "neutral" on returning to a peacetime military draft). Hence I picked the NRA position on guns and "no preference" on the ACLU support/oppose question.

Even though I also agreed with full employment, living wages, and ending the war on drugs, I got the following scores:

1. Dean, Gov. Howard, VT - Democrat (100%)

2. Green Party Candidate (94%)

3. Kucinich, Cong. Dennis, OH - Democrat (90%)

4. Kerry, Senator John, MA - Democrat (87%)

5. Lieberman Senator Joe CT - Democrat (81%)

6. Moseley-Braun, Former Senator Carol IL - Democrat (78%)

7. Sharpton, Reverend Al - Democrat (73%)

8. Socialist Candidate (68%)

9. Feingold, Senator Russ, WI - Democrat (66%)

10. Jackson, Cong. Jesse Jr., IL - Democrat (66%)

11. Leahy, Patrick Senator, Vermont - Democrat (65%)

12. Edwards, Senator John, NC - Democrat (65%)

13. Gephardt, Cong. Dick, MO - Democrat (59%)

14. Biden, Senator Joe, DE - Democrat (56%)

15. Graham, Senator Bob, FL - Democrat (54%)

16. Clark, Retired Army General Wesley K "Wes" Arkansas - Democrat (54%)

17. Bradley, Former Senator Bill NJ - Democrat (51%)

18. Libertarian Candidate (46%)

19. Kaptur, Cong. Marcy, OH - Democrat (42%)

20. Feinstein, Senator Dianne, CA - Democrat (42%)

21. Hagelin, John - Natural Law (24%)

22. McCain, Senator John, AZ- Republican (22%)

23. Bush, George W. - US President (22%)

24. Buchanan, Patrick J. – Reform/Republican (15%)

25. Vilsack, Governor. Tom IA - Democrat (4%)

26. Phillips, Howard - Constitution (-1%)

27. LaRouche, Lyndon H. Jr. - Democrat (-9%)

I feel this is roughly accurate to my actual candidate preference (although you won't catch me dead voting Green, if there's a Democrat in the race).

Posted by: Jim D at July 7, 2003 05:26 PM

Mishka rules !

Posted by: Mishka at September 23, 2003 11:08 AM

Boris rules !

Posted by: Boris at October 1, 2003 01:59 PM

You better get auto loans for all of your new cars today. You won't be driving your used autos anywhere anytime soon without getting a auto loan! You may also want to take a look at different prices and auto values. Then you'll be all set!

Posted by: Used Autos at February 24, 2004 02:51 PM

News, Politics, and Fun From Deep in the Heart of Texas

July 06, 2003

Who Should I support?

By Byron LaMasters