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By Garth Sundem | January 29th 2008 09:41 PM | 3 comments | Print | E-mail | Track Comments
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About Garth Sundem

Do you need a Monday morning shot of geekery?

If so, you've come to the right place. Every Monday, early, I'll drop splendid geekery from the fields of physics, math, computer science, zoology


... Full Bio

After using a previous equation to pair parenting styles with a parenting method book, I thought it might be fun to use a similar format to pair political ideas with a candidate.

The following equation is as non-partisan as I could possibly make it, and does more to measure and define your personal opinion than to choose candidates in the abstract. The crux, of course, is nailing down politicians' beliefs enough to accurately chart their numbers (though letting your bias, beliefs and opinions peek through this equation is as telling as the eventual result, itself).


The Equation - Who Should You Vote For?




First, order the following traits or political issues according to how central they are to the candidate’s message, or at least how important you think they should be in their central message ; 1 through 7 with 1 being most important and 7 least.

___ II = Iraq
___ EI = Economy
___ DI = Education
___ CI = Character
___ SI = Smarts
___ MI = Immigration
___ GI = Globalization

Then you have to score yourself on a -10 to 10 scale.

I = Your score on the following scale:
-10= Bring the troops home
10= Stay the course

E = Your score on the following scale:
-10=Tax and spend;
10= Trickle down

D = Your score on the following scale:
-10=Support public education;
10=Parents should choose the best schools for their children

C = Your score on the following scale:
-10=Candidates’ private lives should be private;
10= Candidates should model family values

A = Your score on the following scale:
-10=Brains make the candidate;
10=The candidate is but a faceplate

M = Your score on the following scale:
-10=Bring us your huddled masses;
10=Protect our borders

G = Your score on the following scale:
-10=Buy local;
10=Free trade

Put them all in the table below. Whichever Vote is highest is who should get your vote.




As always, let me know how it works out.

Comments

Please add digg to your list of buttons http://digg.com/tools/integrate
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We used to have a Digg button and were quite popular there. Later we got complaints that they have the site on an automated system to keep articles from being popular so we removed them. We tested it over a period of months using their API and found that articles that reached their 'upcoming' first page were removed even if they had no down votes.

We had almost 2 million articles read last month so we do well without them. We certainly won't endorse a site that discriminates against us.

We can revisit it again if you see something here you want to submit there. Let us know which article you post and we'll monitor it.

The issue I have with this is that it assumes the only reason to vote for a candidate is because he or she shares your views. But there's also the negative aspect -- voting for a candidate because you dislike someone else. For example, imagine I hate John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee for president. In choosing Democratic candidates, I might prefer Barack Obama's views, but think Hillary Clinton has a better chance of beating McCain and thus vote for her. So while the equation might help me pick the candidate who most shares my views, it's less helpful in choosing whom to actually vote for!

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