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 |
|---|
| 0.60 | 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 |
| 0.53 | 1932 | Herbert Hoover | Public ownership of electric power | Federal regulation of interstate power; opposition to government operation of the power business |
| 0.49 | 1932 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | Federal responsibility for relief | Federal leadership in distress relief — federal credit to states whose resources are exhausted |
| 0.43 | 1932 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | Overall role and scale of the federal government | Remove government from private enterprise except public works and natural resources |
| 0.43 | 1936 | Alf Landon | Unemployment insurance | Leave unemployment insurance to State experiment; no federal tax to compel it |
| 0.42 | 1932 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | Level of federal spending | Cut the cost of the federal government by at least 25 percent |
| 0.41 | 1936 | William E. Borah | Antitrust and concentration of economic power | Drive monopoly and price fixing out of the system or face governmental regimentation |
| 0.41 | 1936 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | Old-age pensions and social insurance | Build on the Social Security Act toward economic security for all |
| 0.41 | 1936 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | Concentrated economic power vs. the average citizen (rhetorical framing) | 'I welcome their hatred': a second term in which organized money meets its master |
| 0.40 | 1932 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | Reorganization of the executive branch | Consolidate the seven federal farm-mortgage agencies under a single purpose |
| 0.40 | 1932 | Herbert Hoover | Federal responsibility for relief | Relief through voluntary mobilization and local responsibility, with RFC loans to exhausted states — no federal dole |
| 0.39 | 1932 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | Reorganization of the executive branch | Reorganize the Department of Agriculture as the machinery for national agricultural planning |
| 0.38 | 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 |
| 0.38 | 1932 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | Overall role and scale of the federal government | "A new deal for the American people" — work and security through liberal, planned government action |
| 0.38 | 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' |
| 0.38 | 1936 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | Direct relief for the unemployed | Provide useful work at prevailing wages for the needy unemployed rather than a dole |
| 0.38 | 1932 | Herbert Hoover | Farm prices and agricultural surplus | Farm prices can be restored only by general recovery and markets — no production control, no subsidies; repeal Farm Board stabilization |
| 0.37 | 1932 | Herbert Hoover | Public works as employment policy | Federal construction at three times normal and $1.5 billion of RFC loans for self-liquidating works — but no pork-barrel or non-productive projects |
| 0.37 | 1932 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | Campaign finance and lobbying | Continuous publicity of political contributions; stronger Corrupt Practices Act; curb paid lobbies |
| 0.36 | 1932 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | Public works as employment policy | Public works spending is only a stopgap, not a cure for unemployment |
| 0.36 | 1936 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | Civil service and patronage | Immediately extend the merit system to all non-policy-making federal positions |
| 0.35 | 1932 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | Public works as employment policy | 'Employment for all surplus labor at all times' through self-liquidating public works (the Shearon letter, as Hoover read it) |
| 0.35 | 1932 | Herbert Hoover | Philippine independence | Gradual Philippine independence — economic independence first, with duty-free sugar cut from 600,000 tons downward every year |
| 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 | 1932 | Herbert Hoover | Overall role and scale of the federal government | Preserve 'ordered freedom' and equality of opportunity; reject a state-controlled or state-directed economy as 'tyranny' |