# Election Quiz: Which Candidates Matches You The Most? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [October 30, 2015, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-quiz-which-candidates-matches-you-the-most/736147 "2015-10-30T02:25:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Memnon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f1d935/32.png) [@Memnon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Memnon)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2015, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-quiz-which-candidates-matches-you-the-most/736147/41 "2015-10-31T01:33:41Z")
I got: Sanders - 88% Clinton - 85% Bush - 63% O’Malley - 62% Christie - 60% Paul - 57% Huckabee - 57% Rubio - 55% Katich - 54% Graham - 53% Trump - 53% Jindal - 37% Cruz - 37% Santorum - 33% Carson - 30% Fiorina - 28% Webb - 27% No big surprises, really. I’m slightly amused that Trump scored so highly, but then again, the main reason I don’t like Trump is that he’s a massive arsehole, and there wasn’t really a question for that. Looking at his actual policy positions, he’s actually (for a Republican candidate, at least) surprisingly liberal in some areas. ---
**Author:** ![standingwave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@standingwave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/standingwave)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2015, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-quiz-which-candidates-matches-you-the-most/736147/42 "2015-10-31T04:04:55Z")
How bizarre… Clinton 83% Paul 75% Sanders 71% Kasich 69% Bush 67% Trump 67% Cruz 65% Carson 64% ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2015, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-quiz-which-candidates-matches-you-the-most/736147/43 "2015-10-31T04:29:44Z")
> [@Tithonus](#): > > No big surprises, really. I’m slightly amused that Trump scored so highly, but then again, the main reason I don’t like Trump is that he’s a massive arsehole, and there wasn’t really a question for that. Looking at his actual policy positions, he’s actually (for a Republican candidate, at least) surprisingly liberal in some areas. Were Trump smart enough to actually mount a campaign, he could take a few pages from Huey Long and sweep the Republican caucus without a problem. He’d even get a fair number of Democratic votes by campaigning on the issues and staking out a position between Clinton and Sanders on his left and the Charismatic Republigelicals on his right. I can almost see it: A million or more Stanley Kowalskis, feeling disenfranchised and lost, drawn to “Every Man A King” and a guy who can give every rotten petty thing in their lives a good punch in the nose. He’d have people going right down to the wire, and I can’t guarantee that version of Trump would lose. I’m happy we don’t have that Trump. I’m happy we have the Trump who runs casinos into the ground. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2015, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-quiz-which-candidates-matches-you-the-most/736147/44 "2015-10-31T05:53:11Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > Were Trump smart enough to actually mount a campaign, he could take a few pages from Huey Long and sweep the Republican caucus without a problem. He’d even get a fair number of Democratic votes by campaigning on the issues and staking out a position between Clinton and Sanders on his left and the Charismatic Republigelicals on his right. > > I can almost see it: A million or more Stanley Kowalskis, feeling disenfranchised and lost, drawn to “Every Man A King” and a guy who can give every rotten petty thing in their lives a good punch in the nose. He’d have people going right down to the wire, and I can’t guarantee that version of Trump would lose. > > I’m happy we don’t have that Trump. I’m happy we have the Trump who runs casinos into the ground. If only! If Trump actually campaigned as a Huey Long (who we have to remember was to the left of FDR), I would be supporting him in a heartbeat. He’d actually be a Bernie Sanders who could connect to the American working and lower middle classes instead of being like Gene McCarthy, George McGovern, John Anderson, Gary Hart, and Howard Dean, the candidate of the college campuses and SWPLs. The left needs a candidate who the people feel can actually give the damn moneygrubbing fatcats of Wall Street a bloody nose. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2015, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-quiz-which-candidates-matches-you-the-most/736147/45 "2015-10-31T14:34:40Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth **BobLibDem** : > > Sanders 98% > … > Kasich 17% > [@](#): > > Quoth **wolfpup** : > > Interesting. We’re identical on Sanders, and then rapidly diverge. I have Clinton at 94%, O’Malley at 86%. When it gets to Republicans I was surprised to see Kasich come in at 52%, but only based on environmental and science issues, and Jeb at 31% based on health care and science. OK, now I’m really wondering how they’re calculating their match percentages. If **BobLibDem** and **wolfpup** are both a 98% match for Sanders, then that should mean that their views are at most 4% different from each other, and hence that their scores for any other candidate should differ by at most four percentage points. Yet **wolfpup** ’s match to Kasich is a whopping 35 percentage points higher than **BobLibDem** ’s. ---
**Author:** ![DinoR](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dinor/32/2821_2.png) [@DinoR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DinoR)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2015, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-quiz-which-candidates-matches-you-the-most/736147/46 "2015-10-31T16:48:04Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > OK, now I’m really wondering how they’re calculating their match percentages. They seem to give credit for similar answers. If you click through to the analysis for a specific candidate they show both matches and similar answers. Many of the candidates answers are classified as the more nuanced options other than strict yes or no. That at least opens the options of getting very similar scores on a candidate or two despite entering different answers. Those different answers then produce a different score when comparing to other candidates that are only similar to one of the different responses. ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2015, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-quiz-which-candidates-matches-you-the-most/736147/47 "2015-11-01T04:14:43Z")
87% Hillary Clinton 86% Bernie Sanders 75% John Kasich 72% Mike Huckabee 69% Jeb Bush 63% Donald Trump :eek: 60% Ben Carson 59% Ted Cruz :eek: 53% Rand Paul Your political beliefs would be considered moderately Authoritarian on an ideological scale, meaning you tend to believe it is the government’s role to provide stability, equality, and opportunity for its citizens. Sounds about right, although I’ve always understood authoritarian to be a bad thing. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2015, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-quiz-which-candidates-matches-you-the-most/736147/48 "2015-11-01T05:02:35Z")
> [@Nobody](#): > > Your political beliefs would be considered moderately Authoritarian on an ideological scale, meaning you tend to believe it is the government’s role to provide stability, equality, and opportunity for its citizens. > > Sounds about right, although I’ve always understood authoritarian to be a bad thing. That’s because they’re using the word like an anti-government extremist would use it, to mean literally everyone who thinks government should play an active role in maintaining a just and free society. Mostly, people use it to refer to those who think government should utterly control every aspect or most aspects of society, like Stalin or Hitler did, and there are very few of those left around. They could try to defend it as a technical term, but then they’d be wrong: Political scientists use it in a way closer to the common definition, with some maintaining the old authoritarian/totalitarian distinction left over from the Cold War (as in, “our dictators are better than their dictators”) but none who would seriously describe Clinton or Bush as authoritarian. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2015, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-quiz-which-candidates-matches-you-the-most/736147/49 "2015-11-01T20:46:31Z")
> [@Tithonus](#): > > I got: > > Sanders - 88% > Clinton - 85% > Bush - 63% > O’Malley - 62% > Christie - 60% > Paul - 57% > Huckabee - 57% > Rubio - 55% > Katich - 54% > Graham - 53% > Trump - 53% > Jindal - 37% > Cruz - 37% > Santorum - 33% > Carson - 30% > Fiorina - 28% > Webb - 27% > > No big surprises, really. I’m slightly amused that Trump scored so highly, but then again, the main reason I don’t like Trump is that he’s a massive arsehole, and there wasn’t really a question for that. Looking at his actual policy positions, he’s actually (for a Republican candidate, at least) surprisingly liberal in some areas. I’m curious how you got Sanders and Clinton as your top scores yet agree with Webb less than any Republican candidate. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2015, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-quiz-which-candidates-matches-you-the-most/736147/50 "2015-11-01T21:00:51Z")
Sanders 87%. Not surprising based on the questions. The rest at 50% or above: Hillary 85% JEB 64% O’Malley 64% Trump 61% Hucksterbee 58% Christie 57% Jindal 57% Fiorina 55% Cruz 51% It’s not really telling me anything though. Most candidates will qualify their positions on these subjects leaving plenty of room in the middle to agree with. In reality most of them have either a personal or political desire to act more toward the extremes. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2015, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-quiz-which-candidates-matches-you-the-most/736147/51 "2015-11-01T22:08:34Z")
98% Sanders 89% Clinton 82% O’Malley Nobody else is above 50%. I am an extreme left winger. My social and domestic stances in agreement with SDMB 49%. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2015, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-quiz-which-candidates-matches-you-the-most/736147/52 "2015-11-02T04:25:42Z")
Trump 97% Carson 96% Bush 94% Good thing I vote for Presidents more on character and competence than on the issues. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2015, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-quiz-which-candidates-matches-you-the-most/736147/53 "2015-11-02T19:35:22Z")
Sanders 90% Clinton 88% O’Malley 75% I’ll hold my nose and vote for Hillary. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2015, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-quiz-which-candidates-matches-you-the-most/736147/54 "2015-11-03T00:29:32Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Trump 97% > Carson 96% > Bush 94% > > Good thing I vote for Presidents more on character and competence than on the issues. Don’t you think that character and competence informs their positions on the issues? ---
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2015, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-quiz-which-candidates-matches-you-the-most/736147/55 "2015-11-03T00:55:22Z")
77% Rand Paul 75% Bernie Sanders 72% Hillary Clinton Jim Webb’s the only one below 50% (31%). I was on the left-libertarian side of Centrist. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2015, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-quiz-which-candidates-matches-you-the-most/736147/56 "2015-11-03T01:56:20Z")
Sanders 85% Clinton 81% O’Malley 73% Huckabee 61% (wha…???) Webb 59% Christie 57% Paul 54% Rubio 53% Cruz 51% (expected less) Combover Dude 51% Graham 46% Jindal 46% Carson 39% Kasich 37% Frothy Mix 37% Jeb! 36% (expected better) Fiorina 33% “Agreed most with”: [ul] [li]Sanders, Ted and Jeb on science (huh…)[/li][li]Sanders on education, environment, economics[/li][li]Clinton on healthcare, most social and domestic policy issues, foreign policy[/li][li]Jindal on immigration[/li][li]Nobody on electoral issues (probably because I did a write-in for the question on IDs)[/li][/ul] Prior tests put me as near-left-of-center. My high Huckabee score probably reflects that there are _some_ aspects of his positions I find complete deal-breakers (SOCAS [and within that, Reproductive Choice and Marriage Equality], UN, AGW) but others are tolerable and even supported, rather than being top-to-bottom unacceptable. And looking into the elaboration links I can see that the match seems to allow for a lot of overlap when either or both your and the candidate’s answers are qualified or conditioned, and then uses the factor of whether you marked each issue more or less important. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2015, 8:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-quiz-which-candidates-matches-you-the-most/736147/57 "2015-11-03T08:46:08Z")
Sanders 98 Clinton 90 O’Malley 81 Webb 53 Trump 37 Christie 36 Kasich 36 Huckabee 34 Bush 27 Paul 25 Fiorina 16 Jindal 13 Graham 13 Cruz 7 Carson 5 Rubio 5 Santorum 4 Regardless, Hillary has my vote. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2015, 8:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-quiz-which-candidates-matches-you-the-most/736147/58 "2015-11-03T08:47:10Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > Don’t you think that character and competence informs their positions on the issues? To some extent, yes, but character and competence are not generally ideological. One way a candidate can show character and competence on the issues is by correctly diagnosing what the nation’s most urgent priorities are, whereas a candidate without good character or competence will just campaign on whatever the polls or headlines say is most important. ---
**Author:** ![DerekMichaels00](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f14d63/32.png) [@DerekMichaels00](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DerekMichaels00)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2015, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-quiz-which-candidates-matches-you-the-most/736147/59 "2015-11-03T11:03:04Z")
84% Hillary Clinton 82% Bernie Sanders 68% Martin O’Malley 62% Chris Christie 60% Jeb Bush 56% Mike Huckabee 54% Jim Webb 53% Bobby Jindal 53% Carly Fiorina 52% Marco Rubio 46% Lindsey Grahams 46% Ted Cruz 46% John Kasich 41% Rick Santorum 37% Rand Paul 36% Ben Carson 31% Donald Trump I wish Scoop Jackson were there. Figures at much at my result (with Christie being the top GOPer) because on social/domestic issues, I’m rather liberal, but on foreign policy and American Greatness, some might call me a “neo-con.” ---
**Author:** ![MacTech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MacTech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacTech)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2015, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-quiz-which-candidates-matches-you-the-most/736147/60 "2015-11-03T23:16:24Z")
83%Ben Carson 83%Rand Paul 79%Mike Huckabee 79%Ted Cruz 73%Jeb Bush 73%Donald Trump 66%Bernie Sanders 55%Hillary Clinton I’m actually disappointed that hillary was that high, I _LOATHE_ her! I’d vote for Cthulhu before I’d cast a vote for hillmohtep I also hate Trump(y) (hey trumpy, you can say stupid things!), and jeb, and would trust Christie about as far as I could throw him (not very far) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-quiz-which-candidates-matches-you-the-most/736147.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/election-quiz-which-candidates-matches-you-the-most/736147.md?page=4)