Thursday, September 25, 2008
Barack Obama Test
A friend of mine emailed me this test, thought ya'll would enjoy it. I disagreed w/Barack Obama on 46 out of 51 questions. Also, I am not ignoring the responses to the health care post I just haven't got the energy to respond right now, I guess that's what I get for dropping soda out of my diet.
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3 comments:
Okay, this is a technically poor test for the following reasons.
--It doesn't allow for many "Don't Know" or "Unsure" answers (1 out of 51). Being forced to choose a side on questions you feel you don't have enough information on skews the results.
--For all of the multiple-choice questions there is only one pro-Obama choice and up to four anti-Obama choices. This also produces skewed results because even partial-agreement equals disagreement.
--Most questions present the issue in a one-sided manner. For example, most of the tax questions focused on the taxes rather than what we need the taxes for. When presented with a choice of tax vs. no tax without explanation, most people would choose "no tax" Why do we need these taxes? What are the plans with this money? These sides are not presented. Social Values #13 references Obama's stepbrother who lives in a slum in Kenya without mentioning that his brother wants nothing to do with him and wouldn't accept help.
--Some questions are completely wrong/skewed. For example: Social Values #6 - Moral values vs. material concerns. The test claims that the Obama answer is "Material Concerns". Either party could show how the other side is concerned with Moral Values or Materialism (Examples: Environmentalism can be claimed as a Moral Value. The Republican party is the party of corporations--what's more materialistic than that?)
--Some questions present a false dichotomy. Ex: Social Values #7 is about Judeo-Christian Values vs. Secular Society, but these aren't necessarily mutually exclusive. Plus it touches tricky church/state issues.
--Questions are skewed toward issues that Rebulicans are more concerned with. There are 14 questions on social values and only one on health care. A whopping 10 questions were about abortion, just reworded. Abortion is an important issue, but is it 20% of the test important? (BTW, guess which one the Pres. will have more control over an therefore should influence our decision more?)
--No references sited! This was a huge problem with me. I would've liked to know more about these issues but there aren't any references, even in the "answers".
I hope that no one uses this test to determine their vote as it is terribly flawed in it's execution.
I don't have a response to you comment, I have to say I really appreciate you posting them though. it gives us another view/side to look at. It's really great to have you here commenting & keeping us on our toes. I decided a long time ago not to vote for Obama so this "test" didn't do anything for me really. I just thought it interesting.
Thanks for saying that. I don't want to give the impression that I'm trying to shoot down your opinion, but rather that I'm just trying to provide a rational counterpoint. I decided who I'm going to vote for a while ago too, but conversations like this help me to better understand and accept my choice, and the choice of others.
Cheers!
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