“…they are clearly nowhere nearly as far apart as the Obama Campaign wants us all to believe.”
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Senator Obama loves to tell us, again and again, how Senator McCain voted with President Bush 90% of the time – and then asks whether or not we want to take only a 10% chance on change. Needless to say, the latter assumption doesn’t follow from the 90% voting record he’s quoting. It’s a joke to suggest that it does, but we’ll cut the Senator a break and chalk it up to what he thinks is clever writing. My problem is with the assumption that he (Senator Obama) must have voted substantially differently than Senator McCain.
And so it occurred to me… Forget about how often Senator McCain voted with President Bush. I’d like to compare the two Senators’ voting records to each other. Of course, Senator Obama hasn’t been in office for all that long, so what I’ve done is compare their voting records during the 110th Congress.
As you’re about to see in the enclosed spreadsheet, I went to a Washington Post website and compared their voting records with respect to 31 votes during the period Februay 10, 2005 through August 3, 2007 – votes which the Washington Post considered the “most important bills, nominations and resolutions that have come before Congress. …based on an analysis of the potential impact of the legislation on policy and politics.”
Here’s a summary of what I found. The enclosed spreadsheet has a complete list of the 31 votes. Please go to the Washington Post website showing in the spreadsheet for a detailed description of each vote.
Senator Barack Obama…
Voted on 29 of the 31 total votes.
Voted with the Republican (GOP) opinion 27.59% of the time.
Voted with Senator McCain 34.48% of the time.
Senator John “Maverick” McCain…
Voted on 25 of the 31 total votes.
Voted with the Democrat (DEM) opinion 40.00% of the time.
Voted with Senator Obama 40.00% of the time.
No question about, Senators Obama and McCain have differing points of view about legislation and how our government should be run – but they are clearly nowhere nearly as far apart as the Obama Campaign wants us all to believe. Not only that, these voting records data tend to support Senator McCain’s assertion that he is a “maverick” who has consistently demonstrated a willingness to vote his mind, for what he thinks is best for his country regardless of his party’s line. Presumably, the same is true for Senator Obama – except that, for some reason, he’s avoided making that point.
Here the link to the spreadsheet…
Obama and McCain Voting Records
WordFeeder 