So who's the most liberal candidate? Obama? Edwards? Clinton?

This is the opinion of "ontheissues.org", a website dedicated to measure Candidates' ideology, accompanied by a chart representing their views. This is only one approach, but it may be an important tool. It seems that Obama is as liberal as Clinton, with Obama being a bit more of a populist and Clinton being a bit closer to the "libertarian" category. Edwards is only a little bit less liberal, but more populist, whatever that means.
I'm not sure if the promises are included in the graph, or if only past votes are included, although it appears both are included since quotes from these candidates as early as 2007 are included.

Barack Obama:


Hillary Clinton:


John Edwards:

To find out which candidate shares most of your views.
http://www.speakout.com/VoteMatch/quiz.asp?quiz=Pres2008

When I took this quiz, Kucinich matched my take on the issues. He's the most progressive.

wow.

They all pretty darn good in comparison with the throwbacks on the right!
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and power for the people in particular rights of the people are more important than the rights of corporations, for example.

Bush's regressive tax policy has taxed the working and middle class's out of the economy.

.... the third rising of a middle class occurred during the Great Republican Depression of the early 1930's.
FDR's New Deal brought forward tax progressivity, as well as labor rights earned thru the union movement,
such as the Child Labor laws passed in 1937 & 1938.

.... My Parents got thru the Depression with a progressive income tax, we won WW2 with a progressive income tax. The 12 million men & woman that served in the military in WW2 came home, the GI Bill sent vets to college, and they started families. This created the largest, most vigorous and the best educated middle class, in the history of the planet. Labor unions were at the zenith of their power, our eductaional institutions were the envy of the world, corporations made money, the wealthiest made money.

found here



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Populists tend to favor an active roll for government in the lives of people, while libertarians tend to favor a smaller role.

Any chart that puts Dennis Kucinich approximately in the center needs to have its head examined. Even if you were to compare him to the political spectrum outside the US (where positions most of the world takes for granted are considered far-left fringe here), he's way out in left field. And that's not meant as a criticism, I am too. I'd shift their entire chart significantly down and to the left.

On an economic left/right scale, DK and John Edwards are the most liberal.
On a social libertarian/authoritarian, it's Gravel and DK.

Both important, but one deals with life and death and should be given more weight.
Maybe this is why she does so well in political charts. She make up for her botched Iraq and Iran votes with liberal votes on other less important issues.

And see voting records, interest group ratings, etc.

I prefer to make my own assessment on which issues are most important to me.

http://www.vote-smart.org/election_president.php

For example, I am always baffled at how liberal Kuchinich is portrayed by some when he demonstrates support of the religious right and has a very unliberal voting record on women's rights in his past.

How is 'Populist' the opposite of 'Libertarian'?

I think the entire framework is questionable - have to wonder how they set their criteria.

The words have somewhat different meaning in political science than how the media portrays them. In political science, a populist tends to favor government intervention in the economy on behalf of the people, while libertarians tend to favor less government intervention in the economy.

The liberal vs. conservative/populist vs. libertarian thing is something that's been around in political theory for a fairly long time. I remember learning it back when I was a first-year poli sci major 20 years ago.

Do they mean Libertarian Party?

Here is a very good chart, the Political Compass. Left vs. Right, Authoritarian vs. Libertarian. Libertarian does not refer to the Libertarian Party, but the adjective, which can be either left or right. Most DUers are left and libertarian. But most candidates are right and authoritarian. Except for Kucinich and Gravel, but they're not "electable".



It shows John Edwards as closest to Kucinch and Gravel, as one would expect from a progressive. Hillary is more conservative. Obama is somewhat more liberal than Clinton, but more authoritarian, probably some of his views on abortion and strong military I suspect. Clinton has a reputation as being a war hawk.

on the far left edge of the U.S. political spectrum. It simply points out that the U.S. herself is right wing in comparison to the rest of the world.

Edwards, while clearly further "left" than Obama and Clinton, is still to the right of center. Of course, that's not based on his campaign platform, but on his record. Kucinich is the exact same distance from center as Edwards, except that he's in the libertarian left quadrant instead of the authoritarian right.