I just found an interesting political (Select a Candidate) Quiz on one of Catherine Morgan’s Blogs Informed Voters. The test requires that you answer only 11 questions on the topics of Iraq, Social Security, Marriage, the Death Penalty, Immigration, Taxes, Stem-Cell Research, Health Care, Abortion, the Line-Item Veto, and Energy and rank each issue as to its importance to you. It then gives you a score as to how well your concerns correlate with those of the current candidates who are campaigning for president. The test also indicates which issues you agree with and which you disagree with for each candidate.

When I took the test, I scored highest (45) for Mike Gravel with whom I disagree only about the Line-Item Veto and Energy and lowest (14) for Rudy Giuliani with whom I disagree on eight of the eleven topics. Guess he’s out! LOL I had scores of 34 for both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

The designers at Minnesota Public Radio answer the following questions concerning the quiz.

Q: Does Select A Candidate tell me who to vote for?

A: Absolutely not. Its main purpose is to introduce you to the candidates who are running and their positions on the issues.

Q: How did you come up with these questions?

A: The questions mirror the campaign. There might be issues we are interested in that haven’t come up in the campaign so far, and those aren’t listed here. Should they come up — and we have a mechanism for your interests to be part of the campaign — they will be added to Select A Candidate. The choices from each question mirror positions that candidates have stated. If no answer is close to your position, do not answer the question, for there is no candidate with that position.

Q: How does the scoring work?

A: Each candidate gets 1 point for each question that matches your answer. If you indicate that an issue is very important to you, the candidate gets 3 points. If you indicate that the issue is of no importance to you, the candidate gets 0 points. In this way, the “match” is weighted to reflect those issues on which you decide elections.