Work in progress — cycles are added one at a time. Every quote is machine-verified against an archived source; follow the links to read it.
| Score | Cycle | Candidate | Issue | Position |
|---|
| 0.44 | 1932 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | Child welfare and schooling | Maintain the Children's Bureau; keep children in school to sixteen; expand vocational education |
| 0.38 | 1932 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | Local government consolidation and the tax burden on land | Presidential leadership to consolidate local governments and lift the tax burden on land |
| 0.35 | 1936 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | Working hours and labor standards | Revive the NRA's principles 'by one device or another' (imputed; the President would not say) |
| 0.35 | 1936 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | Old-age pensions and social insurance | Build on the Social Security Act toward economic security for all |
| 0.34 | 1932 | Herbert Hoover | Regulation of securities issuance and exchanges | No federal 'blue sky' law — securities regulation belongs to the states, and the President should not police booms |
| 0.32 | 1932 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | Child labor | No return to sweatshops or children working in factories |
| 0.32 | 1932 | Herbert Hoover | National Prohibition | Resubmit the Eighteenth Amendment so each state may decide, with constitutional guarantees against the saloon and against interference with dry states; enforce the law meanwhile |
| 0.31 | 1932 | Herbert Hoover | Federal responsibility for relief | Relief through voluntary mobilization and local responsibility, with RFC loans to exhausted states — no federal dole |
| 0.31 | 1932 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | Overall role and scale of the federal government | Government as a check on concentrated economic power — "individualism" redefined as equality of opportunity |
| 0.31 | 1932 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | Housing and slum clearance | Slum clearance and modern housing for the urban poor as a "human necessity" among public works |
| 0.31 | 1936 | Alf Landon | Overall role and scale of the federal government | Restore confidence by 'unshackling initiative': steady, open, non-partisan administration that stops 'fumbling with recovery' |
| 0.30 | 1932 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | Reorganization of the executive branch | Reorganize the Department of Agriculture as the machinery for national agricultural planning |
| 0.30 | 1936 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | Amending the Constitution to enlarge (or restrain) federal power | Meet constitutional obstacles by 'clarifying amendment' -- and say nothing about the Supreme Court |
| 0.30 | 1932 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | Public works as employment policy | Public works spending is only a stopgap, not a cure for unemployment |
| 0.30 | 1932 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | Level of federal spending | Cut the cost of the federal government by at least 25 percent |
| 0.30 | 1932 | Albert C. Ritchie | Federal responsibility for relief | States' rights and business-led recovery — no federal intervention in relief |
| 0.30 | 1936 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | Concentrated economic power vs. the average citizen (rhetorical framing) | Take power from the 'economic royalists': the mandate of 1932 is to end economic tyranny |
| 0.30 | 1932 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | Distribution of national income and purchasing power | A more equitable distribution of national income — higher reward to labor, lower to speculative capital |
| 0.29 | 1932 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | Income and inheritance tax progressivity | Raise revenue by graduated income, inheritance and profits taxes, not taxes on necessities |
| 0.29 | 1932 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | Farm prices and agricultural surplus | Raise staple farm prices by a tariff-equivalent benefit plus voluntary production control, at no cost to the Treasury |
| 0.28 | 1932 | Herbert Hoover | Adherence to the World Court | Join the World Court with reservations; make the Kellogg-Briand Pact an instrument for consultation — but no commitments to use force |
| 0.28 | 1936 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | Balancing the federal budget | Balance the budget within a year or two out of rising national income, without new taxes |
| 0.28 | 1932 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | National economic planning | Industry leaders to organize cooperatively for the common good; government regulates only as a last resort |
| 0.28 | 1932 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | International economic and monetary conferences | Convene international monetary and economic conferences to stabilize currencies and restore trade |
| 0.27 | 1932 | Alfred E. Smith | Overall role and scale of the federal government | War on any candidate who makes 'demagogic appeals to the masses' setting class against class |