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Online Quiz Matches Voters With Presidential Candidates

The free quiz takes an in-depth look at your stance on a range of issues, then compares them to candidates' responses.

 

Still on the fence about which candidate you'd like to vote for?

Try iSideWith.com, an online tool that matches your stance on various issues with those of Mitt Romney, Barack Obama or those running on other lines, such as Jill Stein, presidential candidate for the Green Party. 

The site was launched earlier this year to help voters match up with their ideal candidate, and it's quickly gaining popularity through social media channels. In fact, according to iSideWith.com's homepage, more than a million people have taken the free quiz to determine their ideal candidate since it went live in March.

The quiz covers everything from social issues to foreign policy. Answers can also be fine tuned: You can choose general or more detailed responses, and a scale allows you to set the level of importance for each issue. Your responses are then analyzed to determine your ideal candidate, complete with a breakdown of your response matches.

Seems to be a pretty handy tool, but does it work? You tell us. Take the free quiz on iSideWith.com and let us know what you think. Is the candidate it matched with you the candidate you plan to vote for?

Related Topics: Barack Obama, Jill Stein, Mitt Romney, and President Obama

Keith Best

6:30 pm on Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Think about this...What makes people think a First-Term senator who spent most of that First-Term running for another office, is qualified to oversee the world's largest economy?
Not only that, he was a First-Term state senator who spent most of that First-Term running for another office.
And you wonder why he was lost without TOTUS (teleprompter of the United States.

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stewart resmer

2:30 pm on Friday, October 12, 2012

Mitt Romney defended his belief that we "should consider a higher retirement age" for Social Security and Medicare to preserve tax breaks for corporations.

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I am Spartacus

12:22 pm on Sunday, October 14, 2012

Social Security and Medicare are not paid for with corporate taxes. They are paid for with the employer and employee contributions to the Social Security & Medicare trust funds. Both funds have been projected to go bankrupt in your lifetime and before most younger citizens start getting benefits and the only ways to save both programs are to cut benefits, raise taxes and raise the retirement age. Corporate taxes have nothing to do w/ either program and are used for a completely separate part of Federal spending. If you knew anything about the Federal budget or where various tax flows went, you'd know that.

And who is the 1 person running for President who actually cut Social Security taxes and sped up the impending insolvency of Social Security? The guy you vote for and spam this site on behalf of yet you say nothing.

Stop copy and pasting from a website already, it is annoying. You can discuss things w/o copying and pasting Obama talking points off some website.

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XJS

1:17 pm on Sunday, October 14, 2012

stewart, you are dumb. Please don't vote and please stop spreading misinformation.

Michele Guttenberger

7:21 pm on Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Cool Quiz it came up with Candidates I did not know were running. Maybe we are too focused on Obama vs. Romney as our only choices. Must it always come down to picking the red pill or the blue pill. I have HBO, Encore, and Showtime. Why can't this be a 3 way race like my movie cable channel choices. At least that would add spice to these Presidential debates. If we are in a useless situation of getting the US of A back on track from either party, we can at least be entertained before the train goes off the tracks and get to blow the whistle a few times. Why can't they throw in an Independent. Where are the Ross Perot's too rile these debates. Why not listen to a candidate who really has some out of the box ideas to fix things. Someone who throws off the scripted and rehearsed messages the candidates have been coached to stay on or stay away from.

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XJS

1:17 pm on Sunday, October 14, 2012

Excellent points, Gary Johnson 2012.

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Natalie Davis

10:33 pm on Wednesday, October 10, 2012

My result did not mention either of the two "major" candidates. I was not surprised. I was, however, very happy to see most of the announced third party candidates included.

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XJS

1:13 pm on Friday, October 12, 2012

I came out as decided Gary Johnson. As I was already thinking of voting for "The Libertarian Candidate" this helped me decide I will.

Davala Crofford

8:46 am on Friday, October 12, 2012

My 8th grader at FMS was told about this on-line survey/quiz in a class. It gave her a great introduction to the "issues"- she did not understand the implications of a lot of those issues ... This provided a great home discussion on things that will really matter to her one day - great job FMS for combining a major current event with your everyday curriculum.

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Gary

1:07 pm on Friday, October 12, 2012

How dare the system indoctrinate our children with objectivity, wisdom, and otherwise education. Sounds like the manifestation of socialistic society funded with my hard earned tax payer dollars....

The Good Guy

8:50 am on Friday, October 12, 2012

Wow, there was no clear candidate I matched with. Obama, Romney, and Stein all came up 72%.

I think I'll vote for Mickey Mouse. He can't do any worse of a job than the power hungry humans running our government now.

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Me

9:09 am on Friday, October 12, 2012

This is a cool quiz. NICE FIND!!

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Anonymous

10:07 am on Friday, October 12, 2012

Here's a cool cartoon that takes on the Romney vs Obama fight. http://youtu.be/2NqimnpTtxw

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splinter

10:07 am on Friday, October 12, 2012

Did I hear correctly? Last night, I heard VP Biden assert "Obamacare makes medicare solvent to 2024". Did he mean 2124? That's 12 years from now and based on likely rosey projections.

Why didn't Obamacare focus more on controlling costs vs insurance reforms? That is, malpractice reforms (reduce costly defensive medicine), consumer incentive for everyone, a ban on cost shifting (medicare/medicaid only pay 80% of COST so hospitals need to transfer the 20% cost to private insurers - Maryland banned this?). Healthcare is 18% of our economy and impacts 100%. Looking back, was it handled properly or rammed through sloppily.

I also heard Biden mention they would control health care costs by taking costs out of the systems by negotiation drug prices, extract cost from hospitals, etc.

Just like Romney/Ryan have been clear about what deductions they'd eliminate to pay for a reduced tax rate, Obama/Biden haven't explained where these trillions in "savings" come from.

Obama has previously "suggested giving the government power to directly negotiate drug prices and allowing medicines to be imported from abroad would be ways to lower prices."

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6837624

Cutting the profit margins in health industry would save money. But raises question: Should I start selling my pharma and biotech stocks?

Serious investor question.

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BellairBerdan

12:27 pm on Friday, October 12, 2012

"Romney/Ryan have been clear about what deductions they'd eliminate to pay for a reduced tax rate"

Could you please state those?

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Gary

1:46 pm on Friday, October 12, 2012

Yes you heard correctly, and yes he meant 2124 and, yes it's correct putting pressure on the unsustainable acceleration in costs is the only way to ensure solvency. And yes, you may want to consider a long term short on bio/pharma...not that they haven't done well enough already....

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I am Spartacus

2:06 pm on Friday, October 12, 2012

The Medicare claim by Biden is a lie and you know why it is a lie? They use the Medicare cuts to pay for Obamacare already when they used the cuts to make Obamacare deficit neutral. You can't spend the same dollar twice. It either helps to pay for Medicare solvency or Obamacare but not both. So sorry to burst your bubble folks. You need to pick. Does the Medicare cuts make Medicare more solvent and drive up the deficit or does it make Obamacare deficit neutral and make Medicare go broke in 2016.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/aroy/2012/04/23/trustees-medicare-will-go-broke-in-2016-if-you-exclude-obamacares-double-counting/

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stewart resmer

2:26 pm on Friday, October 12, 2012

Mitt Romney boasts a record for creating private-sector jobs, but as governor, state employment grew twice as fast as the private sector.

BwaterDad

5:33 pm on Friday, October 12, 2012

I took this quiz a few weeks ago. Some of the questions have an odd collection of choices for the answers. Some seem to be slanting one way or another, but there does not seem to be a consistent pattern. The results I got were probably more-or-less consistent with what I believe, and my top choice (by a very small margin) was a third party candidate. However, the plain fact is that the winner of this election is going be either the Democrat or the Republican. Voting for a third party candidate may make you feel better about having been consistent with your beliefs, but your impact on the election would be the same as if you stayed home.

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stewart resmer

10:32 am on Saturday, October 13, 2012

Mitt Romney's first act as president would be to allow all states to opt out of health reform through executive action, which would be illegal.

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Steve B

12:10 pm on Saturday, October 13, 2012

Really? Then how was is "legal" for ObamAA+ to change Bill Clinton's Welfare Reform through "executive action" ?

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Jack B Goode

11:19 am on Sunday, October 14, 2012

President Obama Instructs Justice Department to Stop Defending Defense of Marriage Act calls Clinton-Signed Law “Unconstitutional” ...
that ok with you?

Scott Terry

8:16 pm on Saturday, October 13, 2012

The danger to America is not Barack Obama but a citizenry capable of entrusting a man like him with the presidency. It will be far easier to limit and undo the follies of an Obama presidency than to restore the necessary common sense and good judgment to a depraved electorate willing to have such a man for their president.

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Gary

10:39 pm on Saturday, October 13, 2012

As opposed to a religious ideologue that wants nothing more than his orthodoxy to be legitimized by the presidency irrespective of the needs/benefits of the people the office serves...ya go figure...

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M.A.Dawson

11:26 pm on Saturday, October 13, 2012

You don't know what he would do if elected. It can't be anywhere near as bad and dangerous as the dummy we have now.

You people need to lose your little girl panties and let's deal with real issues in this country.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYGsadcBiFA

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Scott Terry

10:35 am on Sunday, October 14, 2012

Well actually Nancy, below is the complete quote. As usual, you liberals jump to conclusions. Intelligent people who would never vote for Obama are from all over the world.

A quote coming out of the Czech Republic states: “The danger to America is not Barack Obama but a citizenry capable of entrusting a man like him with the presidency. It will be far easier to limit and undo the follies of an Obama presidency than to restore the necessary common sense and good judgment to a depraved electorate willing to have such a man for their president”.

Another

The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money. -- Margaret Thatcher

Ridgewood Mom

9:24 pm on Saturday, October 13, 2012

I'm just curious as to why the author of this article included only one picture that places the two central candidates side by side, whereas it includes for photographs that either advertise Romny/Ryan or attack Obama.

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Ridgewood Mom

11:28 pm on Saturday, October 13, 2012

I see that one of the pictures has been removed now.

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Ojo Rojo

9:50 am on Sunday, October 14, 2012

Yeah, some little whiny crybaby probably complained online about it or flagged it is inappropriate.

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BellairBerdan

11:12 am on Sunday, October 14, 2012

There are some on the Right that seem to have the attitude that lying, cheating and stealing is an acceptable behavior to get even with those they perceive have done them wrong, right down to continually voting for Bristol Palin on Dancing with the Stars.

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Ridgewood Mom

12:16 pm on Sunday, October 14, 2012

Strange. There are now three pictures above.

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XJS

1:16 pm on Sunday, October 14, 2012

People on the left think they know everything. I can't stand the condescending attitude. They're the reason I'd never vote for a democrat.

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XJS

8:18 am on Monday, October 15, 2012

Oh no, he workouts and is healthy!!! The horror.

The photos were taken in December of last year - well before he was considered a VP candidate. Funny that they didn't run in Time until this month.

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Ridgewood Mom

1:03 pm on Monday, October 15, 2012

We are back up to the original five pictures I see.

Ridgewood Mom

10:20 am on Sunday, October 14, 2012

I am also curious as to how this quiz purports to match voters with Mitt Romney since he does not have clearly stated positions on many of the issues.

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BellairBerdan

11:03 am on Sunday, October 14, 2012

Romney has clearly stated his positions. It's just that he has held every position possible on any given issue, sometimes changing within hours.

interesting

10:34 am on Sunday, October 14, 2012

i heard anyone with common sense gets Gary Johnson when completing the quiz

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Scott Terry

10:37 am on Sunday, October 14, 2012

The deranged and malevolent left crucified GWB for being an adult and a statesman; they lionize Obama for being an adolescent demagogue.

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Gary

7:40 am on Monday, October 15, 2012

You mean after he took us into a meaningless war, that provided no positive benefit, and cost hundreds of billions of UNFUNDED tax payer dollars? I wonder what would have happened if he had done that as an African-American, oh wait the responsible one put the wars back "on the books". Your revisionist history of the malevolence appears to be quite in line with ideology. Did GWB get scrutinized for his citizenship? Did GWB get yelled at by members of the opposing party during State of Union speeches? Did GWB get castigated for his roots of origin?

Vote how you would like it's a beauty of democracy. However, please, don't compare the irrational, ignorant behaviors of those on the Right to philosophical differences in policy and perspective the Left purports.

stewart resmer

11:38 am on Sunday, October 14, 2012

Mitt Romney's Olympics office refused to give free or discounted tickets to family of firefighters who died in 9/11, though it provided tickets to Utah legislators.

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Gary

7:29 am on Monday, October 15, 2012

Did they have to Mormon?

stewart resmer

8:23 am on Monday, October 15, 2012

Romney’s Unraveling Claim That Six Studies Validate His Tax Plan
Of the six studies, two are blog posts by the conservative American Enterprise Institute; one is a report by the Republican-friendly Heritage Foundation; one is a paper by Princeton professor and former George W. Bush adviser Harvey Rosen; the fifth and sixth are a paper and Wall Street Journal op-ed by Harvard economist Martin Feldstein, an adviser to the Romney campaign.

In addition, not all the studies appear to reach the same conclusion as Romney. He contends they show that it’s possible to lower tax rates across the board by 20 percent and avoid adding to the deficit by unwinding deductions and credits for high incomes. That’s not the case.

Feldstein’s reports, for instance, conclude that the numbers add up if effective taxes rise on incomes between $100,000 and $200,000, even though Romney has ruled that out. Rosen, for his part, makes the math work by omitting part of the revenue losses and assuming huge economic growth effects from tax reform.

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Gary

8:47 am on Monday, October 15, 2012

Facts, schmacts. Please, don't disrupt my ideology with all this intellectual stuff. Let me exist in myopic, ignorant world so as to have to not think and read. Next thing I suppose you'll tell me is that removing something like the mortgage deduction unfairly taxes the middle-upper middle income people and not so much those with multiple houses and vast wealth.

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Gary

8:48 am on Monday, October 15, 2012

Hope you could feel my sarcasm dripping from the previous post. The article you reference was well written, clearly articulated the falacies of Mo Remoney's tax idea.

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BellairBerdan

10:25 am on Monday, October 15, 2012

Don't worry Gary. Everyone knows REAL Conservatives hate people that know words like "myopic".

BTW, HELLOOOOO moderators or @Zak Koeske. When will someone disable the picture uploader on this thread and remove the offending and one sided content?

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XJS

10:57 am on Monday, October 15, 2012

@BellairBerdan - As a fiscal conservative I find your post repugnant. While I believe that the republican party has lost track of its ideals: State's Rights & Fiscal austerity w/the federal government having limited powers and reach; I find that the constant lowbrow negativity directed at "conservatives" from democrats and/or liberals on this site to be hypocritically hilarious. For such an enlightened group of thinkers, you & the soccer mom (amongst others) really don't seem to have much informed input to add to these discussions. To be sure, you can regurgitate what you've read or seen on tv, but I've yet to see either of you post a coherent and well-thought out response to any point made against you. Instead you resort to platitudes, campaign literature and insult. All of which is fine and dandy if you're a robot, but let's get real - original thought and actual critical thinking, when applied to the current political situation in this country, would make it absolutely impossible to defend almost any of our currently elected officials, beginning with Obama and going all the way down to our local state representatives.

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stewart resmer

11:08 am on Monday, October 15, 2012

Ryan Falsely Denies Romney Plan To Raise Defense Spending $2 Trillion
Ryan claimed he and Romney do not propose to increase military spending by $2 trillion over the next 10 years

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BellairBerdan

11:18 am on Monday, October 15, 2012

XJS, did you or did you not say this:

XJS

1:16 pm on Sunday, October 14, 2012

People on the left think they know everything. I can't stand the condescending attitude. They're the reason I'd never vote for a democrat.

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XJS

11:31 am on Monday, October 15, 2012

Yep, and having read the discourse from you people since, I stand by that statement. You condescendingly bloviate thus making it hard to take you seriously. Especially in light of the fact that you regurgitate talking points without putting forth any thoughts of your own.

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BellairBerdan

12:17 pm on Monday, October 15, 2012

XJS so you mean you don't like us because we don't lower ourselves to name calling like you so often do in your posts. I get it. You're the big thinker because you call people dumb and stupid.

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I am Spartacus

12:29 pm on Monday, October 15, 2012

People who copy and past talking points nonstop from a website to Patch are not doing any thinking.

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XJS

12:34 pm on Monday, October 15, 2012

I've only called a person stupid when they literally can't comprehend what they just read. If that doesn't fit the definition of dumb, I don't know what does.

You, on the other hand, do not add anything to the discourse other than to disparage entire blocs of the voting public. If you want to go after one particular person or point, I'd get it. But your apparent disgust at anything not liberal is astoundingly shallow and cheap.

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stewart resmer

12:39 pm on Monday, October 15, 2012

Notice: New Jersey voter registration deadline is Tuesday

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BellairBerdan

1:27 pm on Monday, October 15, 2012

Yes XJS, calling me more names has proven you are the big thinker. Thank you for pointing that out to everyone. You did it without having to go to the dictionary to find condescending "college words" too.

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Gary

1:29 pm on Monday, October 15, 2012

XJS, for the record @stewart resmer was referring to a documented analysis provided to Bloomberg News by the Rob Me campaign. It was specific to Rob Me's discourse on the viability of providing a deficit neutral 20% tax reduction; fact of the matter is NONE of the six sources EACH of which was dissected (and discussed with the originating sources AEI, Heritage, and the Professors) and proved to just not be mathematically possible to achieve the objective of deficit nuetral unless taking away ALL meaningful deductions down to the $100K level. Now for the record if Rob Me wants to screw a family making $100K/yr by taking away $8K interest deduction on $250K mortgage, and another $22K for standard deduction for a family of 4, and another $8K for state income tax in total equating to approximately $10K (real tax benefit for individuals in the 25% tax bracket) and trade that for a $5K tax rate deduction (20% of 25%=5% or $5K on $100K) so be it; and if that $5K hit hurts people no problem. Just don't say you're not going to effect middle class families....

But don't call the observation "empty" or "condescending" neither of which it is, but simply information.

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XJS

2:01 pm on Monday, October 15, 2012

Gary- You do your analysis a disservice by calling him Rob Me. It's as lame as Obummer (and equally as silly). I don't think Romney is the answer any more than Obama is. The fact remains that both are killing the middle class slowly but surely.

I was not speaking to the points in the article. I was speaking to one specific comment made by Bellair (at first) and then moved on to his and RM's comments in general.

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XJS

12:35 pm on Monday, October 15, 2012

@Tee- you people was directed at Bellair & SoccerMom.

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