A diverting little toy from the USA Today. It’s reductive of course, since the only issues that seem to matter are the Iraq War (what about Afghanistan?), immigration, health care, gay marriage, tax reform, global warming and “experience.” Nor do the answers allow much room for horse trading: What if I believe that border enforcement must be combined with a guest worker program? Choose one.
Still, I was surprised to see that Rudy Giuliani came out as my top pick, with John McCain second and Bill Richardson third. Once I toyed with the scales on the right – the Iraq War is more important to me than Global Warming, just now – McCain ended up in first, Guiliani second and Duncan Hunter in third.
I thought the “experience” question was particularly dumb. IMNSHO, it’s very important that the candidate have run a large organization–whether a state, a city, a business, or a large military organization–which one, I don’t particularly care. The important thing is to have had actual responsibility and accountability for decision-making, rather than serving only in “staff” positions.
Mr. Foster
Leadership can be learned at a number of levels. Accountability is part of what defines leadership. Staffers are held accountable by their superiors. You don’t have to have run IBM, Apple, Microsoft, the First Marine Division, or some other mega-entity to be a leader. Leadership is about getting people to do what needs to be done to accomplish a mission. That ability is learned at the small unit level or not at all.
Well. Knock me over with a feather! That surprises the living Hades out of me, too!
OnceaMarine…I think maybe we’re using the terminology differently. I use “staff” in the sense of one who advises but does not decide. Hence, a corporate financial analyst who prepares various ROI scenarios is “staff”, whereas the sales branch manager or plant department manager is “line”, as is a Marine or Army squad leader. The decision authority of all these people may be limited–for example, the sales branch manager cannot give more than a certain discount on his own authority, and the plant department manager can’t buy new machine tools–but it exists, and exists within a framework of accountability. This is less true for the pure staff person, who can sometimes get by with a fog of words.
I agree that leadership is generally learned at small-unit level. That said, there are problems that exist when managing 150 or 10,000 people, all of whom you cannot know personally, that don’t exist when you’re managing a small group, and it would be good for a potential President to have the second class of experience as well as the former.
Rudy, Romney and Ron Paul third? Should I just get it over with now? I would rather commit seppuku then vote for Ron Paul.
Yikes
I didn’t like their questions (no wiggle room at all) and I don’t like the candidate they came up with for me. Actually, I don’t particularly care for ANY of the candidates. Guess it’s a “voting against” year for me…which idea I just hate.
I like the idea, but some of the questions simply weren’t crafted well. With some refinements, this could be a very useful tool for the average (confused) citizen. Good effort. Thanks for bringing it to our attention, Lex. I wonder if there are others like it out there in cyberspace.
Can I write “No qualified candidate” in November?
Mike
There’s another one here. Courtesy of Take 5.
Liked those questions, Michelle. Thanks! Re-affirmed my candidates, too.
McCain
Hunter
Romney
Oddly enough, Romney finished first for me, even after adjusting some weights. I suspect that the code behind this little widget has a touch of assumptions added to it.
Which, thinking about it, Mitt isn’t an altogether bad choice. I don’t know him personally, obviously, and he’s changed a few positions, but honestly his religion is a plus to me — I’ve yet to meet a Mormon who wasn’t a solid citizen, family values, give you the shirt off their back sort of person, and anybody rendering unto God 10% of his adjusted after-tax income knows the bite that rendering unto Caesar takes already.
Still, it’s interesting that the widget should favor him so heavily… I’d really like to see the code behind this.
Beware the media when it is fawning over a Republican.
– Max
(using the survey Michelle offered up)
80% Romney
78% McCain
73% Tancredo
70% Thompson
69% Giuliani
That about covers it. Can’t say I’m a fan of McCain – I think he’s a liberal in Republican clothing. But he’s not the worst of the GOP options. Tancredo is a non-option as is Thompson (*sniff*).
As for Romney…I’m not a fan of the Morman religion (for my own, personal reasons) but it’s not something that would prevent me from voting for a candidate that was Morman. The fact that a candidate believes in God (and not Allah, Buddah, or any other -ah deity they can conjur up) is a point in their favor.
And if that is who the GOP chooses in it’s primary then that is who I will support. Because the alternatives are completely unacceptable to me.
Wow, supposedly I like Ron Paul. I don’t feel crazy.