2012 General Election Presidential Candidate Scorecard
In November, voters will have the opportunity to select the person who will lead our nation for the next four years. This choice will have a profound impact on many areas of all of our lives, including the role of religion in government. In recent years, secular values have been under constant attack by religious leaders and political candidates. With the secular character of our nation's government being consistently threatened, voters must be aware of the positions of their elected leaders to better inform their decision at the ballot box. In addition to secular voters, a strong majority of Americans in general want a separation between religion and government: 54% of Americans believe that churches and other houses of worship should keep out of political matters and 66% say that churches and houses of worship should not endorse candidates.
To that end, the Secular Coalition for America presents the 2012 Presidential Election Scorecard which scores the positions of the candidates for the office of President of the United States in five areas and on 17 specific issues. The candidates who appear on the Secular Coalition for America's scorecard are those who appear on the ballot in enough states to amass the required 270 electoral votes to be elected President of the United States.
METHODOLOGY
Candidates were graded only on questions for which the Secular Coalition was able to identify the candidates' position—either through statements or previous actions. For each response, the candidates were given a grade of A, B, C or F based on the following metric:
A: Candidate's remarks and/or actions have consistently agreed with the positions of the Secular Coalition for America.
B: Candidate's remarks and/or actions have occasionally agreed with or been neutral with respect to the positions of the Secular Coalition for America.
C: Candidate's remarks and/or actions have been mixed, with both agreement and disagreement with the positions of the Secular Coalition for America.
F: Candidate's remarks and/or actions have consistently disagreed with the positions of the Secular Coalition for America.
N/A: The Secular Coalition for America was unable to identify the candidate's position on the topic.
Please see the full scorecard for more information, answers to individual questions and sources.
President Obama come in second with a lousy C.
Republican candidate Mitt Romney got a lousy F.
Green Party candidate Jill Stien didn't get a score because of all her N/A answers. From the long survey I suspect she would have gotten an A or B like Gary Johnson did if she answered all the questions.
Note the grading seems a little biased because it did not include a "D" for a score. A candidate can only get a "C" which most of us think as passing or an "F" which most of us think of as failing.