The 2008 US Presidential Candidates Quiz

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. Who among the following has never served in either the U.S. House of Representatives or U.S. Senate?

Answer: Mike Huckabee

Huckabee served as both Arkansas's Lt. Governor and Governor over a period of more than 13 years, though he has never held an elected office at the national level. Mike Gravel and Fred Thompson have served as U.S. senators from Alaska and Tennessee, respectively.

While he is arguably best known for serving as the governor of New Mexico, Bill Richardson in fact served his state in the U.S. House from 1983 to 1997; he also served as UN Ambassador and U.S. Secretary of Energy in former President Bill Clinton's second administration.

2. Who is the only major-party 2008 presidential candidate to have previously represented either the Democratic or Republican Party on a national presidential ticket?

Answer: John Edwards

Although former North Carolina Senator John Edwards lost the Democratic nomination in 2004 to Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, Kerry subsequently selected Edwards as his vice-presidential running mate. The two were ultimately unsuccessful in their White House bid, losing to Republican incumbents George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.

3. During the course of the 2008 US election, which of the following candidates did Independent Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut endorse in his or her bid for president?

Answer: John McCain

In an unprecedented move, the former Democrat from Connecticut effectively crossed party lines to endorse long-time friend and Senate colleague, Senator John McCain (R-AZ). Though Clinton, Biden and Dodd (the last of whom is the other U.S. senator from Connecticut) are also friends and Senate colleagues of Lieberman, Joe claimed that McCain was the only major candidate in either party to ask for his support explicitly. Senators Dodd and Biden both dropped out of the race after a disappointing showing in the Iowa caucuses in early 2008.

4. Prior to the announcement of his 2008 presidential candidacy, Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) had stated that he would not be seeking the White House in 2008.

Answer: True

After Obama's keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, the soon-to-be U.S. senator told reporters unequivocally that he had no intention of running for president in 2008. He officially reversed this decision after announcing his candidacy in February of 2007.

As of January 2008, he was one of the top three Democratic presidential contenders (the others being Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and former Senator John Edwards of North Carolina).

5. Like the late President Ronald Reagan, former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson spent much of his life in show business, even portraying the President of the United States on a few occasions. In which of the following films has Thompson NOT starred?

Answer: "Thirteen Days"

One of Fred Thompson's most notable recent roles was that of New York City District Attorney Arthur Branch in the popular "Law & Order" franchise. Like Thompson, DA Branch was written as a conservative character, in contrast to Branch's predecessors on the show. Another GOP presidential candidate, Rudy Giuliani, himself made a cameo appearance on "Law & Order" in 2000.

6. Which of the following candidates has openly admitted to seeing a UFO?

Answer: Dennis Kucinich

While the veteran Democratic U.S. congressman from Ohio did not specifically identify the UFO as extraterrestrial in origin, he expressed "feeling a connection in his heart" after the encounter. Interestingly, former President Jimmy Carter also reported a UFO sighting in 1969.

7. Shortly before he died in late 2006, former President Gerald Ford offered comments on the upcoming 2008 presidential race. Which two candidates did he anticipate would make for a particularly "great [general election] contest"?

Answer: Giuliani-Clinton

The 38th president predicted an all-New York showdown. Rudy Giuliani nearly ran against then-First Lady Hillary Clinton for Daniel Patrick Moynihan's U.S. Senate seat back in 2000, but the former mayor dropped out of the race after he was diagnosed with prostate cancer in the spring of that year. Clinton would ultimately face Rick Lazio, a New York congressman from Long Island, as her Republican opponent in the general election.

She won with a majority of votes, becoming the first First Lady of the United States to serve in the U.S. Senate.

8. Although U.S. Representative Ron Paul of Texas is running as a Republican in the 2008 election, this is not the first time he's sought the country's highest office. In 1988, Paul ran against George H.W. Bush and Michael Dukakis on which third-party ticket?

Answer: Libertarian

Paul placed third in the national election behind his major-party rivals, garnering 0.47% of the popular vote. While Paul supported the Reagan administration on a number of policy matters, his 1988 campaign was particularly vociferous in criticizing the national debt incurred under the late President. Rep. Paul has voiced similar concerns during the current campaign.

9. Former Governor Mitt Romney served as the chief executive of Massachusetts from 2003 to 2007. Romney is neither the first governor nor the first major-party presidential candidate in his family. His father, George Romney, was governor of which state?

Answer: Michigan

George Romney governed the state of Michigan, where Mitt was born and raised, from 1963 to 1969. The elder Romney ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 1968, although he lost this race to then-former Vice-President Richard Nixon. President Nixon nevertheless appointed Romney to his cabinet as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, a position which Romney held throughout Nixon's first administration.

10. Two of the country's major newspapers, the "Boston Globe" and the "New York Times," endorsed Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, respectively, for the Democratic nomination. Which Republican contender did these two papers both endorse?

Answer: John McCain

In its editorial endorsing Senator McCain, the "New York Times" offered a scathing rebuke of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, labeling him a "narrow, obsessively secretive, vindictive man" who exploited the tragedy of September 11, 2001 for financial gain.

At a Republican presidential debate held shortly after the article was published, Giuliani commented that "[he] probably never did anything the 'New York Times' suggested [he] do in eight years as mayor of New York City, and if [he] did, [he] wouldn't be considered a conservative Republican."

11. The major Democratic candidates campaigned diligently in the days leading up to the Nevada caucuses. Which Democrat won the most convention delegates at these contests on January 19, 2008?

Answer: Barack Obama

While Senator Clinton won the most votes in Nevada and was thus declared the winner of that state's caucuses, Senator Obama received 13 convention delegates to Hillary's 12. Former Senator John Edwards placed in a distant third, earning no delegates from the Silver State. For the GOP, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney easily defeated his opponents in Nevada to win 17 of the state's 34 Republican delegates.

12. The Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002, popularly referred to as the "Iraq War Resolution," has proven a major point of discussion (and often controversy) among the 2008 presidential candidates. Which of the following candidates did NOT vote for this bill in his or her capacity as a U.S. senator?

Answer: They all voted for it

29 of the 50 Democratic senators voted for the resolution, while it earned support from 48 out of 49 Republican senators. The Iraq War Resolution ceded the authority to declare war on Saddam Hussein's Iraq to President Bush, an authority the president ultimately exercised in March of 2003. All of the major Democratic candidates who voted for the resolution have since expressed, with various degrees of candor, regret for their votes. Republican supporters of the measure, like Senator John McCain and Representative Duncan Hunter, stand by their votes but have generally offered criticism of how the war's aftermath was handled.

13. Both major parties saw their fields of presidential contenders shrink in advance of the first nominating contests in 2008. Identify the correct chronological order of pre-2008 GOP drop-outs.

Answer: Jim Gilmore, Tommy Thompson, Sam Brownback, Tom Tancredo

Note that U.S. Representative Duncan Hunter (R-CA) did NOT withdraw his candidacy until January 19, 2008. Jim Gilmore, Tommy Thompson, Sam Brownback and Tom Tancredo are respectively the former governor of Virginia, former governor of Wisconsin and former HHS Secretary, U.S. Senator from Kansas, and U.S. Representative from Colorado.

14. Identify the speaker of the following controversial quote concerning Senator Barack Obama: "I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that's a storybook, man."

Answer: Joe Biden

Senator Joe Biden (D-DE) has earned himself a reputation over the years for making off-the-cuff, sometimes controversial remarks. Biden later apologized to Obama for his comments, insisting that he had nothing but respect for the Illinois Senator and did not intend to make any racial insinuations.

A number of the other current presidential candidates, including John McCain, Hillary Clinton and Ron Paul, have been criticized in the past for allegedly making racially insensitive remarks.

15. As of the 3rd quarter of the 2007 fiscal year, which of the following candidates had raised the most money for his or her campaign?

Answer: Hillary Clinton

Senator Hillary Clinton had raised over $90 million as of late June 2007, while the rival Obama campaign raised over $80 million. Among the Republicans, Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani had raised approximately $62.8 and $47.3 million dollars, respectively; the former MA governor has funded a significant portion of his campaign with his own wealth. Of the remaining viable candidates as of January 2008, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee has arguably enjoyed the greatest political success relative to his campaign budget (he had raised about $2.3 million dollars by the end of the 3rd quarter of the 2007 FY).

Source: Author frogthoven

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor trident before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

Are you a political junkie? Do you watch C-SPAN for hours at a time? Let's see how much you know about the major-party 2008 United States presidential candidates, both former and current!

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