Grading Candidates' Websites: The Republicans
by Dave Tufts - November 7, 2007 / 1:35pm View more articles
Following last week's grading of Democratic presidential candidates' websites, here's a report card on the Republican candidates' websites.
Again, I'll cut right to the chase...
The Winners
Ron Paul & Rudy Giuliani had the highest ranking websites, followed by Fred Thumpson, Mike Huckabee, and Duncan Hunter.
In the report card for Democratic candidates, the winner was Joe Biden with 4 points. Ron Paul and Rudy Giuliani tied to lead Republicans with 8 points. Ron Paul is the only candidate in either party who implements valid HTML on his homepage.
And now for the details...
Grading
Each websites was graded on ten criteria. See the previous blog for a full description of grading criteria.
Ron Paul
Total Score: 8 points
| Splash Page | 1 |
|---|---|
| Doc Type | 1 |
| Strict Doc Type | 0 |
| Valid HTML | 1 |
| Lynx Friendly | 1 |
| Printer Friendly | 1 |
| Find An Issue | 1 |
| Video Issue | 0 |
| Favicon | 1 |
| Bonus* | 1 |
| * Ron Paul's site is very easy to navigation with CSS drop-down menus and an ample footer. Great design, professional look, and HTML that validates on the homepage. | |
Rudy Giuliani
Total Score: 8 points
| Splash Page | 1 |
|---|---|
| Doc Type | 1 |
| Strict Doc Type | 1 |
| Valid HTML | -1 |
| Lynx Friendly | 1 |
| Printer Friendly | 1 |
| Find An Issue | 1 |
| Video Issue | 1 |
| Favicon | 1 |
| Bonus* | 1 |
| * Rudy's site does an exceptional job at organizing content and presenting the candidate in a user-friendly manner. There are lots on contextually appropriate in-line videos and the issue overview page is very easy to scan. | |
Fred Thompson
Total Score: 3 points
| Splash Page | -1 |
|---|---|
| Doc Type | 1 |
| Strict Doc Type | 0 |
| Valid HTML | -1 |
| Lynx Friendly | 1 |
| Printer Friendly | 0 |
| Find An Issue | 1 |
| Video Issue | 0 |
| Favicon | 1 |
| Bonus* | 1 |
| * The flash feature on Thompson's homepage is one of the best. The "Register To Vote" feature in the main navigation is also pretty cool. | |
Mike Huckabee
Total Score: 3 points
| Splash Page | 1 |
|---|---|
| Doc Type | 1 |
| Strict Doc Type | 0 |
| Valid HTML | -1 |
| Lynx Friendly | 1 |
| Printer Friendly | -1 |
| Find An Issue | 1 |
| Video Issue | 0 |
| Favicon | 1 |
| Bonus* | 0 |
| * There's nothing outstanding (positive or negative) about this site. | |
Duncan Hunter
Total Score: 2 points
| Splash Page | 1 |
|---|---|
| Doc Type | -1 |
| Strict Doc Type | 0 |
| Valid HTML | -1 |
| Lynx Friendly | 1 |
| Printer Friendly | 1 |
| Find An Issue | 1 |
| Video Issue | 1 |
| Favicon | 0 |
| Bonus* | -1 |
| * Hunter's Core Principles page, uses dark blue underlined text for headlines...but underlined headlines aren't links. Duncan, if you don't know that underlines on the web should only be used for links, you certainly can't be expected to know how to run a country. | |
John McCain
Total Score: 1 point
| Splash Page | -1 |
|---|---|
| Doc Type | -1 |
| Strict Doc Type | 0 |
| Valid HTML | -1 |
| Lynx Friendly | 0 |
| Printer Friendly | 1 |
| Find An Issue | 1 |
| Video Issue | 1 |
| Favicon | 1 |
| Bonus* | 0 |
| * I was about to give McCain a bonus point his nice design – how refreshing to see a site that's not all blue. However, after viewing the site in Lynx... [spacer.gif] [nosurrender_sc_915.jpg] [spacer.gif]. 1 point for good design, -1 point for spacer gifs (not cool in 1998, still not cool in 2007). | |
Mitt Romney
Total Score: 1 point
| Splash Page | -1 |
|---|---|
| Doc Type | 1 |
| Strict Doc Type | 0 |
| Valid HTML | -1 |
| Lynx Friendly | -1 |
| Printer Friendly | 0 |
| Find An Issue | 1 |
| Video Issue | 1 |
| Favicon | 1 |
| Bonus* | 0 |
| * There's nothing outstanding (positive or negative) about this site. | |
Tom Tancredo
Total Score: -1 point
| Splash Page | -1 |
|---|---|
| Doc Type | 1 |
| Strict Doc Type | 0 |
| Valid HTML | -1 |
| Lynx Friendly | 0 |
| Printer Friendly | 0 |
| Find An Issue | 0 |
| Video Issue | 0 |
| Favicon | 1 |
| Bonus* | -1 |
| * This site looks amateurish and is held together with spacer gifs. Worst of all, I hope you don't want to view the videos for Tancredo's issues. His videos link to wmv files (is this 1999), plus all the links are broken. Tancredo, if you can't build an working link tag, how are you going to build you 2,000 mile fence? | |
Alan Keyes
Total Score: -1 point
| Splash Page | 1 |
|---|---|
| Doc Type | 1 |
| Strict Doc Type | 0 |
| Valid HTML | -1 |
| Lynx Friendly | -1 |
| Printer Friendly | -1 |
| Find An Issue | 1 |
| Video Issue | 0 |
| Favicon | 0 |
| Bonus* | -1 |
| * Alan crams ever 36 issues on a single page. Each issue has 1 – 2 paragraphs with a Back To Top link. Want to print out Mr. Keyes' position on Agriculture? I hope you have 20 sheets of paper and lots of ink in your printer. | |
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5 Comments
Republicans tend to hire better web developers and create better content.
Take out Gravel and Alan Keyes and...
Democrats averaged 2.29 points
Republicans averaged 3.13 points
Mainly because I may hire iMarc to build.