Project Vote Smart

[Escondido]

Check this out-

http://www.votesmart.org/

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[JanS]

thanks..interesting , straightforward information…at least, for/about those candidates who responded and answered the comprehensive question list. I wish more had taken the time to do this. It’s so much more helpful than the attack ads on TV…and so much cheaper!

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[JoB]

JanS…

if you click on the name of the candidates who didn’t answer the questions you will find enough info to make your decision easier…

i really liked the little issue generator.. watching candidates signs come forward and then recede as i answered issue questions…

I could spend a lot of time at this site.

i sent it out to my family list and posted it on facebook. way cool.

Thanks Escondido for bringing this great tool to our attention!

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[JanS]

I noticed that they had answers for those who didn’t actually answer…and that’s helpful…to a point. Some of those just couldn’t be answered..and that’s telling, too…not being able to come up with what they think a candidate is about regarding certain topics. Yes, I can see spending a lot of time on that site.

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[JoB]

HanS..

clicking on the candidate on the listing of compliance will give you their voting record…

which is a lot more instructive to me than their answers.

i didn’t expect a progressive President when we elected Obama because i looked at his voting record and the actual content of the bills.

I expected the centrist we got.

In an odd way that made it possible for me to appreciate what he had done instead of focusing on what he hasn’t that i hoped he would.

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[DP]

. . . clicking on the candidate on the listing of compliance will give you their voting record… which is a lot more instructive to me than their answers.

Here, here JoB! Just be aware that the Vote Smart algorithm breaks down a bit when dealing with complex and contentious issues, like health care. So even going by voting record can be challenging.

Let’s take Jim McDermott and health care, for instance. Since McDermott has a long and proud record of advocating for public health care, you’d think that assessing his record would be a no-brainer, right? Unfortunately, it’s not.

Vote Smart asked the candidate: Do you support a public option for health care?

And McDermott, not surprisingly, said yes.

McDermott also got a 100% compliance rating on that issue, voting yes on 13 out of 13 votes, according to Vote Smart. So that’s crystal clear, right? I’m for the public option, and McDermott voted for the public option 13 out of 13 times. So McDermott is most “like me” on the public option, right?

Not necessarily.

In fact, there are two ways in which McDermott could have shown his support for the public option in Congress. One way was to vote in favor of the public option during the early, formative stages of the Obama health care plan — and McDermott did that, so he definitely earned his record on that.

However, the second, and possibly more important, way that McDermott could have shown his support for the public option would have been to vote no on any final bill that didn’t include a public option. And this is exactly what McDermott told the 34th Dems that he would do. (I know this because I was there at the Hall on Fauntleroy on that historic evening, when Jim McDermott told the overflow audience, to thunderous applause, that he would in fact vote no on any health care bill that didn’t have a “robust” public option.)

But in the end, McDermott, like most of the other pro-public-option Dems, caved-in and voted yes to the Obama plan.

:(

So how could Vote Smart still give McDermott a “full compliance” score card on the public option? They could do that simply because they didn’t count McDermott’s final vote on the Obama plan against him.

However, if I were McDermott, I would have stuck to my guns and voted no on the final, too-watered-down version of the health care bill. Because that’s what supporting something means to me: it means taking a stand.

Ergo, McDermott is not like me on the public option.

Ergo, Vote Smart’s algorithm fails on this.

Hey, I know . . . it’s complicated, right?

OK, so it’s complicated.

Let’s just leave it at that.

Still, Vote Smart is a great tool, and I thank you for posting it here, Escondido.

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[JoB]

At least McDermott answered the questions…

But as you pointed out ….

the issues are complicated.

digging deeper into voting records is the only reliable way i know of to predict what a politician will do when faced with tough decisions.

As for McDermott caving on health care…

only idealists believe that nothing is better than something.

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[DP]

“only idealists believe that nothing is better than something”

To which I might counter-quip that half an appendectomy is worse than none at all.

The question of health care rises beyond the level of aphorisms, JoB. It goes beyond even the question of tactics and strategy. It goes to the question of the character and political integrity of our government.

Was the Obama compromise really a small step forward on health care? Or was it a weak half-step that played into the Republicans’ hands and will ulimately lead to a larger step backward?

Hell, maybe it really was a step forward. Maybe Democrats will be able to use it to build support for a stronger, more comprehensive plan in the future. That’s McDermott’s view, I’m guessing.

On the other hand, maybe the Obama plan was really the prelude to a general rollback.

Look at the way Republicans are attacking the Obama plan now. They’re practically running their whole campaign on it, and they’re winning! And meanwhile, Democrats are not even mounting a defense on this. — Why? Because who wants to defend such a miserable compromise? Who wants to rally around a health care system in which working-class people are going to be fined if they don’t pay premiums, a system in which private insurance companies will still be calling the shots?

JoB, I remember how heartbroken and angry you were when you saw which way the wind was blowing on this. I felt exactly the same way you did then. And I still do.

So what happened to you? Are you now willing to just settle for “something”?

—David

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[JoB]

DP…

This plain speaking woman finds herselfself weary tonight… and perhaps just a touch short tempered.

I honestly don’t believe you are stupid enough to consistently misunderstand what I write..

or conversely that I am that unclear…

yet.. you leap to preposterous conclusion after preposterous conclusion…

in what appears to be some vain attempt to twist my words and paint me inconstant.

or perhaps just to create drama.

I’m not buying it.

And i doubt anyone else is either.

There is plenty of drama here without manufacturing it.

Yes i am still heartbroken over what was passed as health-care reform…

I worked tirelessly till the very last minute to convince our not so fearless leaders to put some real teeth in the reform bill.

I am crushed that we didn’t end up with single payer for everyone as base insurance.

I believe it was doable.

But I wasn’t there.

I expect politicians to cut the best deal they can.

That’s what we send them there to do.

Since McDermott was adamant about the public option…

i assume it wasn’t in any deal he could cut.

The most anyone can hope for is the best deal available.

To be perfectly honest..

if something or nothing is my only choice..

i will choose something every time.

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[JoB]

btw..

that philosophy is consistent with my political choices…

something is always better than nothing

and nothing is what the republican platform is offering the American people…

followed by a promise of nothing for the next couple of years…

I am clueless as to why anyone with any sense buys it.

McDermott looks good to me…

even without the added incentive of the alternatives.

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