The United States Presidential Election of 2008 is more than a year away, and the primaries even sooner, but already the topics of which presidential candidate is best, which one is richest, and which one people should vote for has been brought up countless times; not only in Massassi, but teh intarweb as well.

So I decided that since people naturally tend to think,

"Hey! You have 10 fingers? Me too! Lets be friends! Then we can find someone with 9 fingers and beat the crap out of em!" -George, Dead Like Me

that someone (not I, but lo' and behold), should make a thread about how to be well informed of all the positions each candidate is on, since all elections seems to be these days are popularity contest.

So I found this on Digg.com the other day, and since we have nothing more than this to go off of really, I decided to post it here. For those ignorant of American politics, THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE. And also, don't go off this chart alone, it's just meant as a guide.


(click to enlarge)
Actual Site

So now that you've gone over this chart, you can now use this as ammunition in your arguments, or do what you're supposed to do and keep this information to yourself. Since, you know, no one really cares whom you think is best.

(lol politics)

Politics suck.

I'm gonna pay attention to them when Philip Mead is elected the President of the U.S.

...45 years left to see what's gonna happen.

I bet many will. Which would be a problem because this chart doesn't map who is more competent at being president.

Oooh. Ron Paul looks good. He don't support ****! Which is good. Half of those things are massive government spending and government size increases.

Romney, Huckabee, Hunter, Tancredo, Brown, and Cox lost massive points because they support basically Christian doctrine as law (Marriage Amendment).

Edit: Well it's good to roughly know what they stand for. The president can use the bully pulpit to swing favor for his agenda to get passed in Congress.

Unfortunately, this chart doesn't have a row for "Jackass."

Funny how only Kuchinich, Gravel, and Paul are against the USA PATRIOT act...

I like Paul best; as a Republican, I support McCain, but would be happy with Edwards or Obama.

I will expatriate (or "repatriate") to England and concede the failure of the American experiment if Hillary is elected.

You guys gotta vote Brownback, his name made me lol a little bit in my pants.

Giuliani, McCain and Paul are the only Republican candidates that aren't completely ****ing nuts. Unfortunately, none of them support net neutrality. Also Giuliani and McCain seem to support more Iraq, which is ****ing stupid.

i'll second that motion!

Brownback definitely gets a check in the Jackass row.

Giuliani too.

You Americans are ****ed either way, it appears.

Good job, burger boys

I like Clinton.

How come people dislike Hillary Clinton? I haven't been following this election too much, but all I hear about her is 'married to Bill' and 'OMG ICE *****'.

I think her Jack Thompson-like approach to computer games would be reason enough to not vote for her.

...that isn't seriously the reason, is it?

Yeah. ... or is it?

I've promised to move to Canada if Hilary Clinton becomes president.

Also, Ron Paul looks like a jackass on that table.

Yeah, but like...why?

Didn't some people promise to move to Canada if Bush got re-elected, and when he did they stayed in the US?

She's all of the bad of a democrat with all of the bad of a republican. She's the antecedent of a moderate.

She will avoid conflict, continue to use minorities and children as scapegoats for her control policies, rely on her staff more than bush has, and will push her hippie education plan through the roof without having any idea how to pay for it.

Looking at the diagram it seems like democrats represent good and republicans represent evil. Obama trumps Hilary because he doesn't support the death penalty.

Obama or bust.

agreed

Heh, Detty's post reminded me of

Obama hype bugs me almost as much as Ron Paul hype.

It's not really hype. He has charisma and he supports the policies I agree with. It makes him pretty darn promising as a candidate. Of course, it would help if I was American :p

I can't get over how at least four of the republicans support torture. What's up with that?

Well... they're republicans.

I support the death penalty.

Just because a political votes against a bill, doesn't mean he disagrees with it. People like Ron Paul vote against bills with to much pork barrel talked on or other bad thing embedded in them.

EDIT: Holy crap, Obama is against Same sex marriage! I bet he changes that before the election.

Why? They're still allowed Civil Union.

If I was American, Obama is the perfect candidate for me.

I like how misleading and over simplified that chart is, and basically useless for actually being "enlightened".

Based purely on this chart, Romney appeals to me more than anyone else.

This chart means very little in who I want to lead the country, though.

We must be able to go to any lengths to defend our country!!!1

(Also those Republicans are jackasses.)

er, i hope you guys don't choose who to support based on a chart. At all. A better, but still fairly poor, start would be wikipedia

You're a fool if a check mark next to 'supports torture' on this chart means anything to you beyond 'I ought to do more research on that before I make a conclusion'.

There's a lot of complexity to the 'debate on torture', like whether or not sleep deprivation and whatnot are considered torture and in what situations (from just gaining intel to saving lives in imminent danger) it is justifiable. Those who 'support torture' on the chart could have beliefs falling anywhere along that spectrum, even if it's just 'think SOME methods of limited torture are justifiable in a situation where imminent harm can be prevented.' or whatever.

You know, those democrat policies, if enacted all at once...

So, first we're gonna welcome a huge influx of unskilled labor to become citizens.

Then we're gonna go and give everyone health care.

Don't forget, let's increase minimum wage with that surge.

Let's also fund a huge amount of other federal social programs, while keeping up the military expenditure for the time being (as it seems they are quite OK with a war with Iran, phased withdrawal from Iraq, and the patriot act, among other things).

I dunno, the whole "welcoming a huge underclass to support while implementing federal social programs" seems a bit flawed. I can only see their policies squeezing the middle class/small buisness dry. The money has to come from somewhere, and as most politicians are in the upper bracket, I don't think they will vote to tax themselves.

Well, most Americans are selfish idiots, with shallow ideals. These kind of people generally are too short sighted not to screw themselves with their own greed.

...how is universal healthcare selfish? I can at least understand the 'it's too expensive' argument, but selfish?

selfish != owning things.