Sherry Chandler

Over at Windows toward the World, Helen Losse has a link to a Select a Candidate Quiz based on one designed by Minnesota Public Radio.

My candidate comes out Dennis Kucinich. It always does on these things. It’s because of Iraq and the death penalty.

My scoring sees no essential difference between Hillary and Obama, puts Bill Richardson above John Edwards, and puts John McCain at the very bottom of the list.

In point of reality, I’d probably rank the candidates very differently. This quiz is based strictly on issues and I suppose after all I may be a bit of a character voter. Mostly I think I’d be pragmatic and vote for the candidate I thought most capable of accomplishing some kind of progressive agenda in the jungle that is Washington D.C. That means I’d probably vote for the smartest politician, not the most sterling character or the closest match on the issues.

On the other hand, it’s all moot anyway because Kentucky still has it’s primary in May and by May it will all already have been decided.

So I’m not actually trying to choose a candidate. I’m just watching.

Click this link to take the quiz yourself.

Addendum: One thing I do have strong feelings about: this two-year Presidential campaign and the move toward earlier and earlier primaries. By next November, I’m going to be sick to death of the candidates, whoever they turn out to be.

Way back in June I pulled this quote from D. W. Fenza’s article Who Keeps Killing Poetry? in the Writer’s Chronicle with the intention of writing some sort of deep philosophical post around it.

I couldn’t do it right then because I had other matters to attend to.

I’ve looked at it from time to time in the interim but at this point I’ve totally forgotten what line of thought I wanted to pursue. Even the title I gave it, “Fishing for Leviathan,” gives me no clue.

It’s a nice quote, however, and I think it’s time I set it free. Make of it what you will:

The spirit that may lead you to an enduring literary accomplishment is an elusive, polymorphous spelunker, angel, flame, or leviathan. No one, of course, knows how to domesticate such a shape-shifter.