Select An Image

Posted at 9:14 AM on October 8, 2007 by Bob Collins (2 Comments)

For an application that, I think, is pretty long in the tooth, MPR's Select A Candidate has been getting a lot of attention from folks who've just discovered it for the first time. From what I understand, some TV station in Iowa lifted it off the site and plunked it on theirs, and the boss of the station is a friend of Howard Stern, who mentioned it on the air and the station's servers crashed thanks to his mentioning it. Howard Stern. Seriously.

Since most news stories are ripped off from other media and repackaged to be treated as "new news," the quiz's existence has now reached Los Angeles where L.A. Times columnist Robert Greene discovers that people vote for candidates on other things besides the issues. Yeah, no kidding.

Political consultants are way past questions about trust and respect. What they really want to know is: Whose story do you like the best? Do you respond better to a Joe Biden, who seems to know everything and has been around forever? Or do you prefer a guy like Fred Thompson because he has stature in another field but is a fresh face in politics? Maybe you like Hillary Clinton, not merely because you like her strength and where she is on the issues but also because you'd see in her election simultaneous vindication against the vast right-wing conspiracy and cheating husbands. Or perhaps you like that a Mormon Republican such as Romney could emerge from Massachusetts, homeland of the Catholic Kennedy clan.

Many people have sent me notes to tell me there's no education question on the quiz. I've been working on adding it for weeks now, researching candidate positions. Here's the problem: most of the candidates do not have well-formed positions on education. They have generalities and stump speeches. "We need to educate our kids," or "we need more accountability." Inspiring stuff, really. But the "how" of it all -- with a few exceptions -- is hard to find.

For a reason.

Comments (2)

I saw somewhere a report that most (average) voters vote on just a few items none where issues (well ok it is the last thing in the list if I remember correctly). I will try and find the study or article and post it back later.

Posted by Brian Hanf | October 8, 2007 12:22 PM

I've been an educator in the public schools for ten years now and would like to see some candidate who has better answers than the blase "accountability" comments that hurt underprivileged students and the schools they attend. But more than that, Bob, where are the questions about the environment, the air quality, the lack of "accountability" of our Executive Branch including agencies like the EPA, Fish and Wildlife Service, OSHA, etc? I'm really tired of electing people who promise and then forget. Where is their accountability?

Posted by heidi | October 8, 2007 5:51 PM

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