Another One Gone

Frankly, I thought it would be Rudy Giuliani out of the running on the Republican next, but alas, Fred Thompson called it quits today. From CNN's report:

Thompson played to the voters as a staunch conservative and a son of the South. While he did draw some evangelical voters from one-time Baptist preacher and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, it wasn't enough to pull him into contention for the nomination.

He finished with 16 percent of the vote. Sen. John McCain won Saturday's contest with 33 percent, followed by Huckabee with 30 percent.

"He's really been good lately, but it's too late," CNN analyst Bill Bennett said of Thompson after South Carolina returns started to come in. "If you're a Southern conservative and you can't make it in South Carolina, it's over."

Also, if you aren't running on anything distinct, like say a consistent set of ideas, and you aren't near the top, it's over. So far, Romney and McCain are getting away with a lack of the former.

So, now that the Republican field is down to five, what are the odds that the last place candidate (Giuliani) continues to get as much press as the front-runners? And the odds that the 4th place candidate continues to be consciously ignored? About the same.

Presidential Quiz

(Crystal Lake, IL) The Washington Post has an interesting quiz online right now, and it's worth taking if you're into this sort of thing.

You have to choose either the Democratic or Republican ticket. From there, you are faced with a number of issues and the positions of the candidates. You pick the statement that best matches your position, and then you rate it on a scale from being not important to you to very important. In this way, it weighs the outcome and steers you towards someone you are most likely to be interested in. The best feature is that you do not know who the statement is coming from when you cast your vote.

I took both D & R because I wanted to see if I would find any surprises. I did!

No surprise that I found myself most aligned with Ron Paul. No surprise also that I found almost no affinity for Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee, John McCain, John Edwards, or Hillary Clinton. I was surprised at having some affinity for Fred Thompson and Bill Richardson, and almost none for Barack Obama. Here are my scores, combining Ds & Rs in this tally:

Paul - 58 pts

Richardson- 27

Thompson - 20

Chris Dodd - 13

Mitt Romney - 9

McCain - 7

Obama - 5

Clinton - 4

Edwards - 4

Huckabee - 4

Giuliani -0 pts

There were some issues where I liked nobody's answer, so I picked the least intolerable, and called it 'not important' so as to give it as little weight as possible. It probably explains many of the points earned from Romney on down.

Among R's, Paul got points with me on Iraq, trade, taxes, and scope of government. Thompson got some on immigration and also scope of government. I figured Paul would get virtually all of my points, but alas. I'm going to have to look over Paul's positions on immigration!

As for the D's, there were several questions I just didn't want to cast a vote at all, but had to in order to get through the thing. For instance, there was a question on the ban on federal funding from stem-cell research. All of the Dems were in favor of repeal of the ban and getting funding going, shading it in their own ways. I'm opposed to any federal funding, but not in favor of banning research. I just don't believe scientific research should be the role of the federal government. I don't think there is any D or R candidate that I agree completely with on this issue, though.

Anyhow, Richardson got my points for Iraq and same-sex marriage issues, but also some tax issues. Dodd also got my points for tax issues. It was funny- I was guessing that Richardson was Dennis Kucinich for the Iraq items. I was surprised to see Kucinich left off the quiz, while Ron Paul was included. I take it as a sign that Paul is increasingly found viable by the MSM.

I got a stronger feel for the Democrats than I had before. So long as they are talking civil liberties and Iraq, I 'm kind of in there with them. As soon as they get to domestic fiscal policy, I want to run screaming. They are big on pointing out the fiscal disaster of the Bush Administration- which I agree with- but then they have huge programs they want to empower, all while claiming the mantle of fiscal responsibility. Sorry, raising taxes to the sky to cover the cost of these programs is nothing at all like fiscal responsibility. It may not leave a deficit, but neither will it leave an economy standing.

I'll give both Thompson and Richardson a look. I wouldn't have considered either of them worthy of even a look until taking this quiz. I'm still ardently backing Ron Paul until one of two things happens: a Libertarian candidate arises that makes me forget about Ron Paul; or, Paul fails to win the Republican nomination. He's not perfect by me, but he's the best of the bunch.