2008 Woodie Awards
SectionsAmericans need tools to choose
Stephen Herzog
Issue date: 10/2/07 Section: Opinion
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Choosing a favorite presidential candidate just got easier - and more colorful.
The USA Today Web site features an interactive tool called "Candidate Match Game," which allows users to answer 11 questions, each with about four to six choices.
After these choices are made, the user can then alter the level of importance of each of the issues posed.
At the end of the game, the user is shown the top three candidates who are "most like" him or her.
Now, this tool is fun, and because it's USA Today, very colorful. But by no means should this kind of thing actually help a potential voter decide which candidate they should vote for.
About a month ago, I jokingly wrote a column about which candidates were cool. That is also not a reason to choose a candidate - it is all in jest.
The real problem here is that most people aren't interested in digging into the issues and the past voting record and the leadership history of candidates, so they lean on these kinds of things to make their judgments.
Those problems are even more dangerous for this election, with candidates unwilling to actually answer questions being posed.
Campaigns have always been about public relations and feeding the people whatever you want them to hear, but it's even worse now.
Yesterday, the panelists on "Meet the Press" talked about how the candidates are mostly just hiding on the Internet, posting on blogs and such.
Because of this trend, I was almost giddy for last week's democratic debate with Tim Russert firing questions. I figured, if anyone on TV was going to ask tough questions, it was going to be him (or David Letterman, who should really moderate one of these debates).
Russert did indeed ask some of the big questions, but disappointingly, many of the candidates hung back in the shadows.
The front runners, Clinton, Obama and Edwards, resigned to mostly wait until they were specifically called on to answer questions. (Good form for the classroom, but not for debates like this.)
The USA Today Web site features an interactive tool called "Candidate Match Game," which allows users to answer 11 questions, each with about four to six choices.
After these choices are made, the user can then alter the level of importance of each of the issues posed.
At the end of the game, the user is shown the top three candidates who are "most like" him or her.
Now, this tool is fun, and because it's USA Today, very colorful. But by no means should this kind of thing actually help a potential voter decide which candidate they should vote for.
About a month ago, I jokingly wrote a column about which candidates were cool. That is also not a reason to choose a candidate - it is all in jest.
The real problem here is that most people aren't interested in digging into the issues and the past voting record and the leadership history of candidates, so they lean on these kinds of things to make their judgments.
Those problems are even more dangerous for this election, with candidates unwilling to actually answer questions being posed.
Campaigns have always been about public relations and feeding the people whatever you want them to hear, but it's even worse now.
Yesterday, the panelists on "Meet the Press" talked about how the candidates are mostly just hiding on the Internet, posting on blogs and such.
Because of this trend, I was almost giddy for last week's democratic debate with Tim Russert firing questions. I figured, if anyone on TV was going to ask tough questions, it was going to be him (or David Letterman, who should really moderate one of these debates).
Russert did indeed ask some of the big questions, but disappointingly, many of the candidates hung back in the shadows.
The front runners, Clinton, Obama and Edwards, resigned to mostly wait until they were specifically called on to answer questions. (Good form for the classroom, but not for debates like this.)
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
Nate
posted 10/04/07 @ 4:30 AM NA
A link to another candidate calculator:
http://www.vajoe.com/candidate_calculator.html
or you can just Google "candidate calculator" and it is the first result. (Continued…)
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