Mind game pits Democrats, Republicans

Elections are just around the corner, and MyBrainTrainer.com is getting in on the party rancor by offering a contest measuring the cognitive reaction time of Democrats and Republicans. Sorry, Libertarians, Green Party members and others, no can play.

The site, which bills itself as "the world's first virtual mental gymnasium," has selected one of its 16 cognitive exercises for this lighthearted (and clearly unscientific) competition. The free exercise can be completed in about two minutes--far, far less time than it takes to get through the first few words of an average California ballot proposition. Scoring is based on accuracy, speed of response and participants' focus throughout the exercise.

When the mind game is done, MyBrainTrainer.com will display an overall score and a rating on the individual's score components (speed, accuracy and focus). Each person's overall tally will then be added to the site's database, with the average overall scores for Democrats and Republicans displayed in real time, together with a breakdown by age and gender.

People may compete as often as they like, which means the results are probably way more likely to ascertain whether Democrats or Republicans have more time to putter around the Web taking quizzes than what the future of Iraq or stem cell research will be.