I just don't knoooooow!

What decides your vote?

We all would like to be able to say we vote on the issues, but we don’t.  We pick someone because we like something we heard in a speech, or because we think they’ll have a better chance of beating the opposing party’s candidate, or because we think they will appear more “presidential” to world leaders.

But I still would like to know who I WOULD vote for if none of these other things was a factor.  People keep asking me which presidential candidate I’m supporting, and I keep replying “I’m not sure.”  In 2004, I took a very long survey, with over 100 unambiguous questions, and felt pretty good about the information it came back with, based on the background and voting records of the candidates (as opposed to what they were publicly stating).

I couldn’t find a survey like that this time around, at least not yet.  But I did find a BUNCH of short, easy surveys.  I took a smattering of them, and (surprise!) the results varied hugely, depending on the questions included and the way they were presented.

Grrr.  The only one who showed up on every list was Kucinich.  But, like I said, we don’t really vote just on the issues.  I don’t think it’s practical to put my support behind a candidate that admitted, on national television, to having seen a UFO!

Ambiguous results aside, it’s still interesting, and I thought some of you might like to give them a try.  Here are the surveys I found, along with my results.

Survey #1

For this one, I get:

1. Kucinich & Gravel (tie)
2. Obama
3. Edwards
4. Clinton & Biden (tie)

I don’t think this one includes all the candidates:

Survey #2

1. Edwards
2. Dodd
3. Kucinich
4. Obama
5. Clinton

Be careful to read the wording of the items on this one carefully:

Survey #3

1. Clinton
2. Dodd
3. Gravel
4. Kucinich
5. Edwards

This one is more like a video game:

Survey #4

1. Gravel
2. Kucinich
3. Biden

I liked this one because the questions were unambiguous, and it covered some issues the others did not:

Survey #5

1. Kucinich
2. Obama
3. Biden
4. Clinton
5. Dodd

This one is from Minnesota Public Radio.   A couple of the questions (immigration and the mortgage crisis) are very difficult and have answers that are not mutually exclusive.

Survey #6

1. Dodd & Edwards (tie)
2. Clinton
3. Kucinich
4. Obama
5. Richardson

Oh, well, at least I know I really AM a Democrat!