No cheating. How many of these questions can you correctly answer?

Who favors allowing workers to invest some of their Social Security contributions in the stock market ? George W.Bush, John Kerry, both or neither?

Who favors eliminating tax breaks for overseas profits of American corporations and using the money to cut taxes for businesses that create jobs in the United States ? George W. Bush, John Kerry, both or neither?

Who favors completely eliminating the estate tax, that is the tax on property left by people who die ? George W. Bush,John Kerry, both or neither?

Who favors changing the recently passed Medicare prescription drug law to allow re-importing drugs from Canada ?George W. Bush, John Kerry, both or neither?

Who favors making the recent tax cuts permanent ? George W. Bush, John Kerry, both or neither?

Who wants to make it easier for labor unions to organize ? George W. Bush, John Kerry, both or neither?

Who favors federal funding of research on diseases like Parkinsons using stem cells taken from human embryos ?George W. Bush, John Kerry, both or neither?

Who favors laws making it more difficult for a woman to get an abortion ? George W. Bush, John Kerry, both or neither?

If you don’t automatically know the answer to these questions, you’re not alone :

Many adults in the U.S. misjudge where the presidential candidates stand on important public policy issues, according to recent data collected by the University of Pennsylvania?s National Annenberg Election Survey. A majority of adults still do not know which presidential candidate favors allowing workers to invest some of their Social Security contributions in the stock market, which candidate favors eliminating tax breaks for overseas profits of American corporations, or which candidate favors completely eliminating the estate tax.
. . .
?Many American voters have not learned the candidates? issue positions because the candidates have not stressed them and journalists have focused on the horse race. In the absence of good information, voters guess and often guess incorrectly,? said Kate Kenski, a senior research analyst at the Annenberg Public Policy Center. ?The presidential debates may fix that.?

Respondents in the survey were asked whether they personally favored or opposed several issue positions. They were then asked whether ?Bush, Kerry, both, or neither? favored those same issues. For this report, eight issue positions were analyzed ranging from making the recent tax cuts permanent to federal funding for human embryonic stem cell research.

Because many respondents did not know the candidates? issue positions, they often did not know when they actually agreed with the presidential candidates on issue positions. Out of eight policy positions, respondents actually agreed with Bush more than they thought they did on three issues. They actually agreed with Kerry more than they realized on five issues.

If you didn’t ace this quiz, then you’ve got some studying to do. Going here and here is a good place to start.