Choose your candidate tool

This link is floating around--you answer a few questions, click on something and voila, a list appears of how the candidates for president stack up on your important issues.

I took it and found (no surprise) that Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) is the best match for me (we agreed on death penalty, Iraq withdrawal and line item veto while none of the other candidates will even bring these subjects up with me anymore). I was a little more disturbed to find that the tool thought Clinton and Obama were slightly better matches for me than John Edwards, my preferred mainstream candidate.

But then I realized, even I don't choose my presidential candidate strictly on the issues. If I did, I'd be Kucinich all the way, blindly supporting him no matter how little chance he has in hell (which is another word for presidential campaigns).

Instead, I favor John Edwards principally for 2 qualities not measured on this quiz 1) my perception that he actually has the courage of his convictions and will fight for them (I think Hillary stands only for Hillary) coupled with my 2) belief that he can win the White House in the general election (I continue to believe that nothing will galvanize a disorganized Republican party like Hillary Clinton and I worry that Obama is too inexperienced a campaigner/operation).

I should also add that regardless of what the quiz says, I think that Edwards is the most progressive of the viable Democratic candidates because he is the only one to speak routinely to challenging entrenched corporate power (he has a career of fighting big corporations and winning in court), he is the only candidate who supports single payer health care, and he is the only candidate who campaigns against poverty and works across the country in poor districts to register voters and educate them about the issues.

But take this quiz and tell me what you think--I'm truly interested to know.