Every election year since 1992 Project Vote Smart, CNN and prominent national leaders from both across the political spectrum survey candidates for U.S. House & Senate, governor and state legislatures on key issues facing the nation. Called the National Political Courage Test, in fact what it revealed was an appalling lack of courage and a complete unwillingness to take a stand.

Only 17% of all 2010 candidates for U.S. House, Senate, governor and state legislatures are willing to tell voters their positions on key issues facing the nation. The rest are afraid of exposing themselves to their opponents.

I was kind of bowled over by that number. Perhaps one way of looking at it would be the way that Richard Kimball, Project Vote Smart President did in a piece he wrote today. In fact this number demonstrates that candidates for office have a great deal of courage. It takes guts to stand in front of a non-partisan public interest group, journalists, and voters themselves, and refuse to take a position, a fortitude that is new in politics, enabled by developments in media. He writes sarcastically:

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