Do you vote for the issues or the label?

October 19, 1:36 PMCongress ExaminerIgor Derysh

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I think that it is safe to say that most voters in the United States vote based on party lines and perceived labels. Most people do not necessarily  vote based on the candidate they most agree with but rather who they like the most or who their party's candidate is. Let's try an experiment. Below is four candidate's platforms. These are shortened versions of the platforms of John McCain (Republican), Barack Obama (Democrat), Bob Barr (Libertarian) and Ralph Nader (Independent). Let's remove their names and all the the party and name associations that go with it and do a little poll on which candidate you would vote for based on the issues. And no cheating if you figure out which candidate is which.

++Update (10/19 1:34 PM): Let's do this for the whole week, with updates throughout the week and a final tally and revelation of the candidates for those who had not figured it out yet.

Candidate A:

Economy: Eliminate earmarks. cut wasteful spending. supports line-item veto. eliminate corporate welfare.
Taxes: lower taxes by "dramatically" cutting size of government. supports the fair tax and elimination of the income tax.
Iraq: Withdraw from Iraq ASAP 
Health Care: Supports cutting Medicaid and Medicare spending and instead subsidizing private insurance. tax exemptions of medical savings accounts.
Defense: commit to a non-interventional, non-occupying military system. repealing patriot act.
Energy: against energy efficiency standards, supports alternative fuel incentives. supports offshore drilling.
Environment: see above
Education: supports school vouchers.
Immigration: aggressively securing the borders, against worker visas for illegals.

Candidate B:

Economy: stronger regulation of corporations. eliminate capital gains taxes, tax breaks for companies cutting jobs, tax increases on corporations
Taxes: Tax increase for everyone making over 250k, tax cuts for everyone making under ??
Iraq: End all combat operations and pull out of Iraq by mid-2010
Health Care: Mandatory coverage for all children. require employers to share costs of employees insurance, use money from tax increases to cover $65 billion dollars that health care plan would cost
Defense: Cut wasteful military spending and instead invest in advanced military tech. increase size of the military.
Energy: Not opposed to offshore drilling. supports taxing largest oil companies to pay for energy rebates (windfall-profits tax)
Environment: 10-year, $150 billion program to produce climate friendly energy supplies that he would pay for by making companies pay for the amount of emissions the produce. cut emissions by 80% by 2050. better fuel efficiency standards
Education: $18 billion dollar plan to promote universal Pre-K, teacher incentive based pay, overhaul NCLB and promote more non-core subjects, tax credits for college students up to 4G a year
Immigration: Supports border plan

Candidate C:

Economy: Aggressive crackdown on corporate crime and corp. welfare. Repeal anti-union laws. Cut wasteful, mostly military spending. redirect most of federal money to social programs.
Taxes: increase taxes on wealthy and corporations.
Iraq: Rapid and responsible withdrawal as soon as possible.
Health Care: Single payer system
Defense: Cut much of the defense budget.
Energy: Stop subsidizing oil, nuclear and coal energy. first priority is promoting clean alternative fuels.
Environment: Raise fuel efficiency standards. focus on renewable energy sources.
Education: abandon standardized testing. increase spending on education. opposes school vouchers.
Immigration: supports amnesty and path to citizenship

Candidate D:

Economy: Ambiguous program to help those facing foreclosure. Promises to balance the budget, somehow, in his first term. Eliminate all earmarks.
Taxes: Wants to make the Bush tax cuts permanent when they expire in 2010 but would not rule out raising taxes in order to find a solution for SS. Wants to cut corporate taxes by 25%.
Iraq: Leave troops in Iraq until conditions on the ground warrant the U.S. withdrawing, which according to him could be as soon as 2013.
Health Care: Tax credits to help cover insurance but otherwise supports the current system.
Defense: Increased military size. Increased veterans benefits. More money for missile defense.
Energy: Offshore drilling. $300m prize for improved battery energy car. Clean coal. 45 new nuke plants. Tax credits for alternative energy producers.
Environment: Wants to cut emissions by 60% by 2050.
Education: Favors parental choice of schools, school vouchers.
Immigration: Secure the border with a fence, allow immigrants to stay and pay fines and taxes.