This is something I do when I have an important and/or difficult decision to make. It’s a method of examining my opinions and avoiding certain (but certainly not all) biases.
First, I give each issue a weight. The scale doesn’t matter, so I usually do a scale from 1 to 10. Then I rate each alternative (in this case, each presidential candidate) according to my judgment of their quality on this issue. The scale is, again, arbitrary, but “good” should always mean a higher number.
I probably forgot a few issues with this table, and I might go back through it again and tweak the numbers to make sure they are consistent with what I think, but I see that Obama looks like a clear winner in my head. This was my gut feeling, as well, so that’s a comforting thing.
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