New political quizes!

- Both of these were recently blogged by Andrew Sullivan.

The first is an older test, which places you in a continuum between Jesse Jackson (1) and Ronald Reagan (40).

In other words, it's exactly the kind of political test I think is fatally flawed. The complexity of political opinion isn't something that can be charted on a line (and certainly not one that uses Ronald "Trees cause pollution" Reagan as exemplar of anything).

And I admit, I was a tad disturbed by the results - I scored 19 (a shade to the 'left' of Colon Powell), while my better half scored a mere 8 placing her between Hilary Clinton (1o) and (5) Ted Kennedy.

The second is the 'Vote Match' test.

(note: before taking the test you have to select 'political philosophy' from the choices or you simply get compared to Presidents)

A tad more sophisticated (which isn't saying 'more accurate'), it came out a little differently this time than the last test. It seems both I and the better half now score more or less equally as hardcore liberal by their definition (very much the same as 'classical liberal')

Curiously the test with more variance in its possibilities lumps us together, while the test with less differentiation spreads us further apart.