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June 06, 2007
Rep'in the right
Ooh boy - more fun political stuff. I watched last nights debate with rapt attention - tally sheet in hand. As with the Democratic debate of a few days ago, everytime a candidate says the right thing (i.e. something I agree with) he gets a check in the "Right" column. Everytime something wrong is said, a check in the "Wrong" column. Also, everytime there is an attempt to spin or dodge the question, there was a check in the "Dodge" column. In addition to totals for the entire debate, the answers were broken down by subject matter as well.
The subject headings used were: War, Immigration, Environment, Healthcare, Domestic Issues, Foreign Affairs, and Economy. The percentages are a bit misleading because some candidates may not have mentioned a topic at all while others may have harped on the same subject over and over. (I.e. you could get five check marks on Economy good, bad, or dodge, but never mention Environment at all.) All of the stats are available here, but here are some interesting results.
Combined, the candidates answered the majority of the questions wrong by a narrow margin and spin versus the dems was slightly higher.
40.2% Right
40.6% Wrong
19.1% Spin
The top three spin-masters: Although overall spin was higher with the Republicans, nobody did more spinning than Hillary Clinton's 38.5%.
33.3% Sam Brownbeck
27.8% Mitt Romney
23.7% Rudy Guliani
Unlike the Democrats where the spinners also gave the most wrong answers, only Rudy Guliani was in both the spin and wrong lists.
52.6% Rudy Guliani
51.9% Mike Huckabee
50.0% Duncan Hunter
The big surprise again was who most often chose the right answers:
83.3% Ron Paul
57.9% Tom Tancredo
51.4% John McCain
Out of a whopping 256 total comments by all candidates only 5 times was the economy mentioned. Just as the dems seemed to ignore the environment, this is an area avoided by Republicans.
Further proof that immigration is the big non-issue distraction, Republicans got it right only 48.1% of the time. (It should be noted that this is far better than the Democratic consensus.)
Again, this report card is NOT who I think would be the best candidate from the bunch... it is a grade based on how they handled the issues brought up. I was shocked to see Ron Paul so clearly win this debate and apparently CNN readers agreed.
Posted by CDogg at June 6, 2007 08:00 AM
Comments
I went to wikipedia and read up on Pablo. i have to say i'm impressed with most of his views. but our stance on Iraq differ but i do like the letters of marques bit on the bin-laden issue. kudos to you for keeping the scales balnced...
Posted by: EJ " I am still clueless on why Courtney won't go out with me" Green at June 6, 2007 01:38 PM
Chris, I love what you're doing here with the debates.
Posted by: Brian at June 6, 2007 06:07 PM
this is cool but it scares me.
Posted by: mikeypod at June 6, 2007 10:42 PM
Very nice project! Go Ron Paul!
Posted by: Derek Shumate at June 15, 2007 08:10 AM