What is a Candidate's Stance?

With Fred Thompson's announcement today, I finally feel like I have the full array of potential candidates for the 2008 Presidential election. Given his announcement, I now want to know what he and the other candidates support and I want to understand their stance on various issues.


There are a couple of ways to go about finding out their opinions and beliefs.

1) Listen only to the media -- certainly the various news reports, blogs, and interviews will provide a small glimpse of what the candidate supports, but this will take a while and will provide an insufficient understanding.

2) Go directly to the candidate's website -- where else do you go when you want to know exactly how a person is feeling or what they have said? The problem is that it is subject to the candidate's spin and may not provide an analysis of every issue.

3) On The Issues -- fantastic website that provides the voting records of every politician in the U.S. (including several past candidates). It also provides several quotes of the elected official or candidate giving you the words straight from their mouths.

4) Vote Smart -- Similar to ontheissues.org, but seems to be more robust. For example, it listed 70 candidates as running for President on the GOP ticket.