“Democracy is being allowed to vote for the candidate you dislike least.” – Robert Byrne

I took the text from the web pages of four presidential candidates’ web sites from their “issues” section, or the equivalent: Rick Santorum, Mitt Romney, Ron Paul and Barack Obama. I’ve omitted Newt Gingrich because, well, that just ain’t happening. Megadittos on Bachmann, Perry and Huntsman. Then I ran each set of text through Wordle to make these graphics showing the most frequent words.

There’s no interest on my part in making any observations, astute or otherwise, about these. I also have no interest in linking to any of these sites. The current political climate is so toxic and the characters are so lackluster, you can draw your own conclusions.

Ron Paul

Abortion
Health Care
Economy
National Defense
End the Fed
Taxes
Second Amendment
Workers’ Rights
Homeschooling
Immigration
Energy

Mitt Romney

Tax Structure
Regulation
Trade
Energy
Labor
Human Capital
Fiscal Policy

Rick Santorum

Defending 2nd Amendment Rights
Repeal and Replace ObamaCare with Patient-Centered Healthcare
Spending Cuts and Entitlements Reform
Made in America
Response to Iran
Executive Branch Actions
Champion of Faith & Families
Defender of the Taxpayer
Believer in American Exceptionalism
10 Steps to Promote our Interests Around the World

Barack Obama

Jobs and the Economy
Education
Energy and the Environment
Equal Rights
Health Care
National Security

I wish that tools like Wordle.net existed when I was studying political science at Le Moyne College and had papers to write and to research.