# WaPo Candidate Quiz - Democrats **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [January 17, 2020, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wapo-candidate-quiz-democrats/846584 "2020-01-17T20:39:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2020, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wapo-candidate-quiz-democrats/846584/21 "2020-01-18T11:13:15Z")
My high score (and the score shown for other Dopers) for Andrew Yang confirms my belief that he has, by-and-large, the best policy positions. And is wrongfully denigrated as foolish by the media (and some Dopers). But I wouldn’t trust the numbers too much. Sanders scores lowest by far with me — I admire him but find some of his leftism too bold. Yet when I see _which_ questions gave Sanders a low score with me, two show up (carbon tax and UBI) where Sanders is ostensibly to my _right_! > [@(See Note)](#): > > I have to admit I haven’t drilled down into the policy positions on many of the candidates yet. I was surprised that I matched 14 with Steyer, who I know nothing about. I’ll have to read up on him… I was thinking that I was wavering between Sanders and Warren (leaning Warren), but I’ll have to do some more homework. Why the surprise that you matched with someone you “know nothing about”? Anyway, stance on issues is almost completely irrelevant for candidate selection, especially since the GOP Senate and GOP Scotus will prevent all but the most moderate of agenda. Instead candidate selection should focus on electability, intelligence, character, electability, personality, wisdom, electability, experience, charisma, and electability. Note: Is it against the rules to remove attribution from a quote? I took one of several similar comments and used it strictly as a pivot for a comment; I had no desire to focus on a specific. ---
**Author:** ![Tatterdemalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/43a26b/32.png) [@Tatterdemalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tatterdemalion)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2020, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wapo-candidate-quiz-democrats/846584/22 "2020-01-18T14:38:15Z")
Tied, Warren and Bloomberg. I find that disturbing. There’s no way I could vote for Bloomberg. One New York Billionaire is enough for this lifetime. ---
**Author:** ![octopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/octopus/32/3716_2.png) [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2020, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wapo-candidate-quiz-democrats/846584/23 "2020-01-18T14:40:51Z")
Yang with 12. Bloomberg and Biden are close behind. Warren and Sanders are, not surprisingly, last. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2020, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wapo-candidate-quiz-democrats/846584/24 "2020-01-18T14:42:43Z")
I had 2 candidates tie for first, and your poll allows only one vote, so I did not vote. The results, which surprised me are: Buttigieg 14 Yang 14 Klobuchar 13 Steyer 13 Bloomberg 12 Warren 12 Biden 11 Gabbard 8 Sanders 6 :eek: Gabbard, who I’m pretty sure is a Republican, beat Sanders in my head. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2020, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wapo-candidate-quiz-democrats/846584/25 "2020-01-18T14:54:39Z")
Apparently, I’m part of the Yang Gang now. Yang and I agreed on 15 questions. I agreed with Klobuchar and Buttigieg on of the items, and I agreed with Biden, Bloomberg, and Steyer on 13 of the items. I’ve felt all along that I’m leaning toward Biden or Klobuchar. By the time the primaries roll around, I’m guessing Klobuchar won’t be on the ballot, but I could be wrong I guess. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2020, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wapo-candidate-quiz-democrats/846584/26 "2020-01-18T15:06:36Z")
Kamala Harris, but she’s not on the poll. Based on the poll it’s Bloomberg, which calls the validity of the poll into question… ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2020, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wapo-candidate-quiz-democrats/846584/27 "2020-01-18T15:35:27Z")
> [@](#): > > My high score (and the score shown for other Dopers) for Andrew Yang confirms my belief that he has, by-and-large, the best policy positions. And is wrongfully denigrated as foolish by the media (and some Dopers). Having good policy position doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be denegrated as foolish. You can hold great policy positions and still be a joke of a candidate that doesn’t have a prayer of coming anywhere near the presidency. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2020, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wapo-candidate-quiz-democrats/846584/28 "2020-01-18T15:52:26Z")
“Policy positions”, especially when they deal with legislation rather than executive powers, don’t really matter a huge amount in a presidential primary unless the candidates are talking about going in different directions entirely. Like, all of the candidates want a lot more paid parental leave than we currently have, and they’d all sign whatever amount of it that got passed by Congress, so what’s the point in turning twelve weeks or more-than-twelve weeks into an essential question? ---
**Author:** ![str8cashhomie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7cd45c/32.png) [@str8cashhomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/str8cashhomie)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2020, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wapo-candidate-quiz-democrats/846584/29 "2020-01-18T16:17:00Z")
> [@DinoR](#): > > I don’t weight issues equally like their result does. They also give very little focus to the foreign policy questions I most care about when selecting a president. As a tool it at least summarizes lots of positions. If you go past the simple score it is a nice rollup. Yeah, these need to have a weight. I think [www.isidewith.com](http://www.isidewith.com) has a better system (where you rank how important each question is on a scale of 1-5), although they really need to update their questions for a lot of the issues that have been brought in to the forefront politics in the last 10 years. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2020, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wapo-candidate-quiz-democrats/846584/30 "2020-01-18T16:18:45Z")
> [@Tatterdemalion](#): > > Tied, Warren and Bloomberg. I find that disturbing. > > There’s no way I could vote for Bloomberg. One New York Billionaire is enough for this lifetime. Trump has many faults. Oh so many. The fact that he’s from New York and may be a billionaire are very far down the list. Bloomberg’s fine. Warren’s fine. They’re all fine. There isn’t enough policy differences to move the needle for me to one or another. I’m all about electability and character. ---
**Author:** ![Lance\_Turbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lance_turbo/32/6156_2.png) [@Lance\_Turbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lance_Turbo)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2020, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wapo-candidate-quiz-democrats/846584/31 "2020-01-18T16:26:25Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > Warren, who is my preferred candidate. Ditto ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2020, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wapo-candidate-quiz-democrats/846584/32 "2020-01-18T16:26:48Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > Trump has many faults. Oh so many. The fact that he’s from New York and may be a billionaire are very far down the list. > > Bloomberg’s fine. Warren’s fine. They’re all fine. There isn’t enough policy differences to move the needle for me to one or another. I’m all about electability and character. This 100%. Bloomberg came in dead last on the results of my WaPo quiz. And Biden came in on the low end as well. Yet those two are among the three candidates that may have my vote on March 10 (Warren, the top candidate from the WaPo quiz, is the third). I fully understand the things that I believe in and value aren’t the same things many of the blue collar and suburban voters in the Industrial Midwest value. And I’m basing my vote on them. If I think Warren is best positioned to capture their vote, then I’ll vote for her. If it’s Biden, then I vote for him. If it’s Bloomberg, and he seems to be doing oddly well in Michigan right now, so if that continues, then I’ll vote for him. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2020, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wapo-candidate-quiz-democrats/846584/33 "2020-01-18T20:16:23Z")
Before I take the quiz or have even looked at the responses in this thread, I’ll put down this marker: most of these quizzes have blind spots a mile wide. Whatever the results of the quiz are for you _apply only to the issues the quiz covers_, and to the extent that they badly represent the universe of issues of concern to you, it won’t tell you much. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2020, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wapo-candidate-quiz-democrats/846584/34 "2020-01-18T20:31:02Z")
Yeppers. Voting rights and democracy restoration? Nothing. Global warming? One question out of 20, and it wasn’t representative of where the debate is now. (Though the fracking and nuclear power questions bear on global warming, they were asked in a way that made no reference to climate change.) Labor rights? The minimum wage? Nothing. And the filibuster? Nothing. OTOH, there were a large number of questions where I either have little opinion on which answer was best, or hadn’t considered the question much at all. I still agreed with Warren more than anyone else, but it’s a crappy survey IMHO, and at the very least, a respondent should be able to weight the questions in terms of importance to them to get a better read on how much even the answers to those questions tell them who they really agree with. ---
**Author:** ![RioRico](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f04885/32.png) [@RioRico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RioRico)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2020, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wapo-candidate-quiz-democrats/846584/35 "2020-01-18T22:46:57Z")
I’m a Green, not a Dem, but I tried it anyway. 13 Steyer 12 Buttigieg 11 Bloomberg, Yang 10 Klobuchar, Warren 09 Biden 08 Sanders 07 Gabbard And I’ve never even heard most of them. Go figure. ---
**Author:** ![Monocracy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monocracy/32/4493_2.png) [@Monocracy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monocracy)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2020, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wapo-candidate-quiz-democrats/846584/36 "2020-01-19T14:43:16Z")
Biden and Yang tied at 13 for me (Biden won the coin toss for the poll). Then came Bloomberg 12, Buttigieg 11, and Klobuchar 10. Warren and Sanders were at the bottom with 4 and 3. Yang has some great ideas and he realizes some of the major problems that technology and innovation is creating, and I have been a fan of UBI for a long time. But I just don’t think his plan makes any sense. Buttigieg is my guy right now, especially after the last debate. But my vote on Super Tuesday will depend on the how the first four states go. If Warren or Bernie have a chance at the nomination, I’ll vote for whatever moderate is positioned to beat them (probably Biden). If Biden is already running away with the nom, I’ll pick either Butti or Yang. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2020, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wapo-candidate-quiz-democrats/846584/37 "2020-01-19T14:53:39Z")
you (out of 20) Klobuchar 14 Yang 13 Steyer 13 Buttigieg 12 Warren 12 Biden 11 Bloomberg 11 Sanders 8 Gabbard 8 ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2020, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wapo-candidate-quiz-democrats/846584/38 "2020-01-19T15:44:17Z")
Warren first, then Sanders. No surprise. My main difference was whether programs like free college should be means-tested. As I understand it, Sanders supports higher taxes on the wealthy than Warren and free college for all, while Warren supports slightly lower taxes on the wealthy and free college for some. It seems to me that it’d work out in the wash; the question is whether you means-test for college and for tax, or just for tax. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2020, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wapo-candidate-quiz-democrats/846584/39 "2020-01-19T19:27:50Z")
I agreed most with Bloomberg. I’m Canadian and won’t be voting. That probably wouldn’t be my first selection. ---
**Author:** ![Unreconstructed\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/76d3ee/32.png) [@Unreconstructed\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unreconstructed_Man)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2020, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wapo-candidate-quiz-democrats/846584/40 "2020-01-19T22:23:52Z")
I got Buttigieg, then Yang, then Sanders. The trouble with this quiz is all the questions are given equal weight. Yeah, I do agree with Yang on a lot of stuff, but one of the few things I disagree with him on is his signature issue, UBI. I think UBI is a fucking _terrible_ idea, and I presume it’d be Yang’s top legislative priority if he were elected. So there’s no way in hell I ever would - or _should_ - support him over Sanders. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wapo-candidate-quiz-democrats/846584.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wapo-candidate-quiz-democrats/846584.md?page=3)