Still Undecided? Take a Quiz

In the 2004 election, researchers discovered that voters weren't rational in their choice of presidential candidate: often, their personal views on issues were at odds with the candidate that they supported. If matching your views with all the candidates is an interesting exercise, consider one of these online matching services:

• USA Today: Match Game
  Voice your opinion on seven issues (11 questions) and see which candidates come to the top. You can find background on positions by rolling your mouse over the candidate's head. You can change the relative importance of any category. (I moved "experience" to its lowest setting, since I disagreed with the answers offered.)
• Select Smart Presidential Candidate Selector
  There are 26 questions in this quiz; answer all or only the ones important to you and prioritize (high/low) the questions that you do answer. Not as much nuance in the answers as the USA Today selector, but this is balanced by picking only the questions that are important to you.
• Minnesota Public Radio Select A Candidate
  This is my personal favorite because of the range of issues and possible answers; for political junkies! However, it needs a question on the national debt.
• VA Joe
  A plethora (24) of sound bites with yes/no/don't know answers. (Hint: click the short-hand phrase for more detail.) It's the only match service with Internet Neutrality as an issue. I was the 1,833,040th person to use this calculator!

These three conservative politicos interviewed by the Seattle Times clearly do not understand why they support the candidates that they support ... or else these issues (Iraq, immigration, education, health care, and so forth) aren't the ones they are using to select their candidates:

Alex Hays, head of the Mainstream Republicans of Washington, is a big supporter of Republican Sen. John McCain. While one game matched him with McCain, another said he aligned with three Democratic senators — Joe Biden, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton...

Logue got similar results: all conservative Republicans on one game, all liberal Democrats on another...

McCabe said he was surprised that none of the three games he tested asked, "Do you want someone who goes to church? Do you want someone who believes in God? ... And certainly in the primary, that drives people."

My personal favorites were reflected in the Minnesota Public Radio match up. The other three quizzes were consistent (the same top names) but not candidates that I think are electable. Tell me what you think of your results. Any surprises?