Wednesday, November 14, 2007

And The New President Is...




Recently I found a survey tool at the USA Today website which shows you which of the 17 presidential candidates match up best with your own personal views on the current issues. The website is (http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/candidate-match-game.htm?loc=interstitialskip). It’s very quick and simple. The survey asks 11 multiple choice questions. You select the answer that best describes your view and then the survey shows you which three of the 17 Republican and Democratic presidential candidates best match up with your view in the order that they best match up.

My curiosity got the best of me and I took the survey. What did I find? One thing that didn’t surprise me was that all 3 of the candidates that best matched my views were from the same political party. I could have easily guessed that. But here is what really amazed me. The one candidate that I am leaning toward supporting was not in the top 3 that best matched my answers. In fact, 2 of the 3 candidates that did best match my answers to the 11 questions were individuals I would never consider voting for.

What’s that mean? I’m not sure but I thought it would be interesting to see what the tabulated results would be if a segment of our staff took the same survey. 52% of those who attend our bi-weekly staff meetings here at Grace took the survey. 58% of those taking the survey were male staff members (not that it matters much). Below are the tabulated results. Please realize that this is in no way any endorsement of any certain candidate. It simply shows which candidates the survey revealed best matched up to the views of our staff overall:

Of the 17 presidential candidates, 8 of them did not make anyone’s match list. Of these 8 the names include Clinton and Giuliani, who are the current front-runners in the national polls, along with Obama, Biden, Brownback, Edwards, Gravel, nor Kucinich.

Of the 9 candidates who have made at least one person’s match list, 7 of them were Republicans. The only 2 democrats to make anyone’s list were Richardson and Dodd.

If you go solely by the #1 match choice, the winner was Romney. Thompson came in second followed by Trancredo. Huckabee and Hunter tied for fourth.

Romney also made the most lists (75%), followed by McCain (58%); Huckabee (50%); Thompson (42%); Trancredo (25%); and Hunter (16%). Paul, Richardson and Dodd were each on 8% of the lists.

If you were to give 3 points for each time a candidate made #1 on a list; 2 points for each time a candidate made #2 on a list; and 1 point for each time a candidate made #3 on a list, the results would be as follows: Romney (21); Thompson (14); Huckabee (12); McCain and Trancredo (both with 8); Hunter (5); and Richardson (2). Paul and Dodd each had 1 point.

Hang on to your hats, folks…we still have a ways to go until next November!!

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