Exactly fifteen months from today, Americans will go to the polls to select the 44th President of the United States of America.
Thus far, there’s been a lot of discussion regarding the charisma, style, and fundraising prowess of the 2008 Presidential Candidates without a lot of focus upon where the candidates stand on the individual issues. The political website On The Issues keeps track of where candidates stand on the issues and plots their political positions on a 2-dimensional chart which—like the Nolan Chart—plots social issues versus economic issues.
I find myself in disagreement with some of the results, as the data tends to make the Democrats seem more socially liberal than they really are and Republicans seem more fiscally conservative than they really are. Also, given that Ron Paul has a record of voting against virtually every spending bill that comes before him, I find it hard to believe that Fred Thompson, Mike Huckabee, Tom Tancredo, Sam Brownback, and Duncan Hunter are more fiscally conservative than he is. However, it gives a relative overview of where the candidates stand on the issues.
I think what stands out immediately is how diverse the Republicans are on social issues, spanning from Ron Paul (who holds the most libertarian views on social issues) to Duncan Hunter (who holds the most communitarian views on social issues). The Democrats, in contrast, share fairly similar views on social issues and differ very little on economic issues.
DEMOCRATS
Joe Biden
Hillary Clinton
Chris Dodd
John Edwards
Mike Gravel
Dennis Kucinich
Barack Obama
Bill Richardson
REPUBLICANS
Sam Brownback
Rudy Giuliani
Mike Huckabee
Duncan Hunter
John McCain
Ron Paul
Mitt Romney
Tom Tancredo
Fred Thompson
Tommy Thompson
Note: This post was cross-posted at The Coming Realignment.
Birthplace: San Diego, CA
Birthdate: That’s for me to know
Political Party: Independent
Political Philosophy: Libertarian-liberal