Delegate Summary

[Upchurch]

My wife found this (http://edition.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/) for me.

It is a summary of delegates that each candidate currently has, which I think is much more useful than who "won" what state.

As of this writing:

Obama: 25
Clinton: 24
Edwards: 18

Romney: 24
Huckabee: 18
McCain: 10
Thompson: 6
Paul: 2
Hunter: 1

[The Central Scrutinizer]

Paul: 2

:dl:

[timhau]

I think this (http://edition.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/primaries/results/scorecard/#D) is more accurate, because it includes pledged superdelegates.

[Upchurch]

Well, yes. I meant that whole section in general was more useful than who won what state.

[mrbaracuda]

:dl:

Can you feel it? The revolution is coming! :rolleyes: :p

[Upchurch]

So, I used their summary of issue positions (http://edition.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/issues/issues.abortion.html) and a spreadsheet to rate how I felt about each position. I used a scale of +++ to ---, with 0 as neutral, to judge whether or not I agreed with their position and how important it was to me. I did my best to ignore whose position it was and to be objective.

At the end, I totaled up pluses and minuses and got the following:

Clinton: +7
Edwards: +7
Gravel: +10
Kucinich: +10
Obama: +8

Giuliani: 0
Huckabee: -6
Hunter: -12
McCain: 0
Paul: -2
Romney: -5
Thompson: -9

Of course, that is based solely on the nine issues CNN provided summaries on and only on the summaries provided: Abortion, Guns, Health Care, Immigration, Stem Cell, Iraq, Gay Marriage, Social Security, and Taxes.

These totals don't take into account more fuzzy aspects like likability and how much I would instinctively trust them to lead. Obama, Huckabee, and McCain would have gotten extra points if I had and Kucinich, Giuliani, Paul, and Thompson would have lost points. It also didn't take woo'iness into account either. Kucinich, Huckabee, and Paul would have lost points.

I still think Obama is my candidate at this point, but if it comes down to, say, Clinton vs McCain, I'm going to have to revisit the issues and look in more depth.

[rtalman]

Next on the schedule is Michigan, which has far more delegates at stake than Iowa and New Hampshire combined. Does anyone know why the focus has already shifted to North Carolina? It seems like Michigan is getting about as much attention as the Wyoming Republican caucus.