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Candidates plead 5th on Courage Test

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by Tim Williams

Monday, January 21, 2008

There’s nothing news media loves more than good hypocrisy, so it’s surprising that one of the choicest bits hasn’t been trotted out now that Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., is making headlines again in the primary race.

Irony is a dish best served accidentally, as those who stumble upon Mr. McCain’s profile on Project Vote Smart’s website vote-smart.org find. The nonprofit, nonpartisan organization’s “Political Courage Test” asks candidates to indicate their stances on a wide range of issues. Those who fail to do so get a slap on the wrist-type message. Nothing to make a candidate cry out in the night, except perhaps in Mr. McCain’s case: “Senator John Sidney McCain III repeatedly refused to provide any responses to citizens on issues through the 2008 Political Courage Test when asked to do so by key national leaders of both major parties including: John McCain, Republican Senator.” That’s right, Mr. McCain is a founding member of Project Vote Smart.

Project Vote Smart may not be your first source (or, more to the point, a source) for information on presidential candidates, and thus Mr. McCain has little incentive to care about the organization. But you should care, and you should call on the Arizona senator to set an example for his fellow candidates. Project Vote Smart offers an invaluable service that is increasingly hard to find, buried among a seemingly unending avalanche of poll race analysis.

The Political Courage Test is unique in forcing candidates to clearly delineate their positions instead of burying them in anecdotes and vague references to past accomplishments. It’s little wonder that few Americans tune into the primary debates when candidates only differentiate themselves in how many canned quips they can get off.

The test is often of little use, however, as candidates in competitive races bow to the pressure of their campaign managers, wary of the results being held against them by opponents.

Former Sen. John Edwards is now the only frontrunner out of the 55 percent of the 202 registered candidates for the 2008 presidential election who completed the Political Courage Test, and Mr. Edwards only wrote in careful non-answers to each question instead of picking from the choices. Several leading candidates including Mr. McCain completed the test in past legislative elections where they were not in the media spotlight. It is easy to be courageous when you have nothing to lose.

Project Vote Smart strictly prohibits use of its information in negative campaign activity but offers no protection for candidates besides strongly worded press releases if its information is abused. There’s no reason candidates can’t make a pact to refrain from using Vote Smart’s information in their campaigning, however. Candidates also rightly should be concerned about their positions being reduced to answers on a multiple-choice test, but even Mr. Edwards’ write-in answers to every question were illuminating in what he chose not to comment on.

According to The New York Times’ “Caucus Blog,” the McCain campaign told Project Vote Smart’s president Richard Kimball that Mr. McCain’s reply was lost in the shuffle of hiring new campaign staff, and the senator would turn his survey in late. That was in November.

But Mr. McCain’s negligence is only outrageous in its extremity; it is a symptom of hundred-million-dollar campaigns and 24-hour media coverage that rarely rises above horse race commentary. Vote Smart boasts that more than 200 media organizations are on board to ask candidates to respond to the test, but few report when candidates refuse, or, more often, pledge support and fail to actually complete the test. But media silence could be hiding a steady loss of potential voters, as during the 2004 election season, Vote Smart’s website garnered 16 million hits a day.

But without a media witch hunt, it’s no surprise that only three mainstream candidates responded in this election season: Mike Gravel, Chris Dodd and John Edwards. It is a surprise that Project Vote Smart, with its consistent finger-shaking rhetoric, points out Mr. McCain’s unique position among the dishonored only incidentally. Whether out of propriety or embarrassment, the restraint is laudable. Let’s hope Mr. McCain, in return, makes good on his promise, and encourages his fellow candidates to follow suit.

Tim Williams (twilliams@badgerherald.com) is a senior majoring in English.

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Anonymous (January 22, 2008 @ 12:50pm):

Haha, you called Mike Gravel mainstream.

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