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 |
|---|
| 0.46 | 1936 | Alf Landon | National economic planning | End federal regimentation: no revival of NRA or AAA controls, no more emergency powers over production, wages and hours |
| 0.41 | 1932 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | Public works as employment policy | Expand self-sustaining public works and temporary federal work (forests, flood control, waterways), with advance planning |
| 0.41 | 1936 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | Neutrality, arms embargoes and staying out of foreign wars | Keep the United States out of war: true neutrality, take the profits out of war, no political commitments |
| 0.39 | 1932 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | Federal responsibility for relief | Federal leadership in distress relief — federal credit to states whose resources are exhausted |
| 0.39 | 1932 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | National economic planning | National economic planning on the model of the 1917 war mobilization |
| 0.37 | 1936 | Alf Landon | Amending the Constitution to enlarge (or restrain) federal power | Wages, hours and child labor by State law and interstate compact -- and a constitutional amendment giving the States power if the courts forbid |
| 0.37 | 1936 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | Policy toward Latin America and the Western Hemisphere | The Good Neighbor: no armed intervention, no territorial expansion, reduction of armaments |
| 0.37 | 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) |
| 0.36 | 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 |
| 0.36 | 1932 | Newton D. Baker | League of Nations and international organizations | Do not make the League of Nations a party issue; no entry until a majority of Americans approve |
| 0.35 | 1936 | Norman Thomas | Public ownership of major industries | The New Deal 'has not worked'; build the cooperative commonwealth |
| 0.34 | 1932 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | National economic planning | Industry leaders to organize cooperatively for the common good; government regulates only as a last resort |
| 0.33 | 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' |
| 0.32 | 1936 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | Old-age pensions and social insurance | Build on the Social Security Act toward economic security for all |
| 0.32 | 1932 | Norman Thomas | National Prohibition | Repeal the Eighteenth Amendment — the candidate preferring a binding national referendum |
| 0.32 | 1936 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | Right to organize and bargain collectively | Guard the worker's right to organize and bargain collectively |
| 0.31 | 1932 | Herbert Hoover | Philippine independence | Gradual Philippine independence — economic independence first, with duty-free sugar cut from 600,000 tons downward every year |
| 0.30 | 1932 | Herbert Hoover | Federal responsibility for relief | Relief through voluntary mobilization and local responsibility, with RFC loans to exhausted states — no federal dole |
| 0.30 | 1932 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | International economic and monetary conferences | Convene international monetary and economic conferences to stabilize currencies and restore trade |
| 0.30 | 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' |
| 0.29 | 1932 | Norman Thomas | Unemployment insurance | Compulsory unemployment insurance funded by employers and by higher income and inheritance taxes |
| 0.29 | 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) |
| 0.29 | 1932 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | Reorganization of the executive branch | Consolidate the seven federal farm-mortgage agencies under a single purpose |
| 0.29 | 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 |
| 0.29 | 1936 | Frank Knox | How to finance old-age and unemployment insurance (contributory reserve vs. pay-as-you-go) | The Social Security Act is 'unworkable and unsound' -- 'lip service to security'; a Republican administration would offer its own legislation |