Select2008 Blog - Comparing and tracking the 2008 presidential candidates

Today’s top five hottest questions are:

- Lower corporate taxes from 35% to 27%

- Strengthen tax incentives for extending broadband Internet to underserved areas

- Oppose photo ID requirements to vote, because they disproportionately disenfranchise the poor, disabled and minority voters

- Expand affordable housing

- Congress should authorize any preemptive attack in the war on terrorism

Seeing the most selective and divisive issues for the 2008 elections gradually bubble up is a fascinating process of real time democracy!

Popularity: 16% [?]

The upcoming primaries are causing a stir on Select2008! As of today, the top five hottest questions are:

- Create second-chance schools for high school dropouts

- Maintain the current policy towards North Korea

- Oppose photo ID requirements to vote, because they disproportionately disenfranchise the poor, disabled and minority voters

- Allow States to devise their own path to universal healthcare

- Raise the tax rate on dividend and capital gains to fund tax benefits for the working class

The What’s Hot section on the Select2008 website tracks and updates in real time the most disputed questions within the Select2008 community. Select2008 identifies the hottest questions as the questions that are the most divisive within the community (the maximum being a 50/50 split) and that have gathered the largest number of votes. These questions provide an insightful look into the most debated issues among voters.

Popularity: 12% [?]

The three major Democratic candidates to the 2008 Presidential election – Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, and Barack Obama – have all recently released an economic stimulus package, as the softness of the U.S. economy comes into focus.

These plans include quite a few repurposed proposals, which are now being legitimized by the sudden worsening of the economy. Clinton and Edwards seize the opportunity to tout their “green” initiatives, as a way to boost the economy and convert blue collar jobs to “green collar” jobs.

There are three sets of differences between these plans: their respective size (from $25 billion to $75 billion without supplementals), their conduits (from tax cuts to direct hand outs) and their main beneficiaries among the working and the middle class, the retirees, the home owners hit by the subprime crisis, and the unemployed workers.

The charts below show that Clinton’s key measures focus on home owners impacted by the subprime crisis, as well as people hit by the rising cost of energy. On the other hand, Obama’s key measures are a large tax cut to the working and middle class and additional hand outs to retirees in need.

Popularity: 17% [?]