There are so many candidates running for president these days, it is hard to keep track. Sure, the media has picked its front runners, whom it thinks has the best chance to win. Some Americans don’t even want to pay attention until the election is much closer, but others are watching the race very closely. For those of us who are somewhere in the middle of these two philosophies, a new site has emerged to help us choose a candidate. Now, we don’t need to pour over every candidate’s website to see where they stand on a particular issue. Glassbooth.org has developed a quick and easy quiz to help match Americans to their ideal candidate.
What is glassbooth.org? According to glassbooth.org’s site, “Glassbooth is a nonprofit organization that is creating innovative ways to access political information.” Glassbooth is committed to non-partisan, unbiased reporting and is committed to the the integrity of its quiz and information placed on site. If you spot any errors or think that something is missing from the site, they want to hear from you. There is an email option for you to discuss the discrepancy with them.
Once you arrive at the www.glassbooth.org site, you are greeted with a list of issues facing our country. The list of 14 issues include the War in Iraq, Illegal Immigration, Health Care, Civil Liberties, and many others. From there, you assign points to the issues that are near and dear to your heart. You will split your concern about issues up into 20 point scale, assigning a value to the issues that are hot button issues for you this election. Once you have assigned your allotted 20 points, you will take a mini quiz to determine just how strongly you feel on certain issues. At the end of the quiz, you will see which candidate’s platform most closely matches your feelings on the issues. You will be shown the top three matches and the percentage by which you matched.
It should be noted that only 13 candidates are listed as possible matches, including Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Rudy Giuliani, and Mitt Romney, all of whom are well-covered in the media. Notably absent is Alan Keyes, a conservative Catholic who is also in the running. Mr. Keyes would likely be a very close match for many if not most practicing Catholics in the United States. That being said, take this poll with a grain of salt. While it may be informative to a certain extent in that it makes it a bit easier to find a candidate that is aligned with your moral belief system, you may still be led astray because the candidate that would really be your best match is not on the list for comparison.
That being said, once you receive your short list of candidates, you can click on links to see just why you matched the candidate on certain issues. If you matched in some areas but not others, you will also be able to click a link and see that information also. You may just be surprised whose views are most like your own. The quiz itself took less than 5 minutes, so this free service will appeal to many.
