WEBSITE: "SELECT A CANDIDATE 2008" - THE ELECTRIC COOL AID ASK-IT TEST

Website we find intriguing: "SELECT A CANDIDATE 2008." As they put it, "Answer the 11 questions below to find out which candidates are most aligned with your views and opinions." It's an electric (all online) cool (new approach to finding the best politician for your beliefs) aid (to the Presidential selection process and learning about candidate positions) via an ask-it test (they ask questions in multiple-choice test fashion).

http://www.wqad.com/Global/link.asp?L=259460

I like the idea behind this bottom up approach: start with your beliefs/goals/needs, as determined by your answers to certain questions, then let that determine what candidate would be the wisest choice for you. (Note: best for you, not necessarily for the entire country. But this is the "You" decade, right?)

The cool innovation here, I think, is that tests like this enable you to get around the PR-spin/image/emotional factors surrounding each candidate -- along with any preconceived or ill-conceived prejudices -- and get right to the heart of what really matters. What is really exciting is that a more advanced version of this test should not be that hard to build (e.g., imagine 100 carefully crafted questions, not just 11, etc.), which would presumably provide an even more accurate recommendation. At the very least, taking this test can help make folks more knowledgable about the issues being raised by various candidates.