According to a recent National Journal analysis, the answer is “yes.” The analysis also found that another presidential hopeful, John McCain, had gotten more liberal over the years. Via McClatchy:
WASHINGTON - The most liberal member of Congress running for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination isn’t Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio.
It’s Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois.
And the Republican candidate who’s grown less conservative over his years in Congress? Sen. John McCain of Arizona.
Those are among the interesting findings in a recent analysis of votes by all the members of Congress who are running for president. They cut to the heart of debates going on among activists in both major parties: Can a liberal Democrat win a general election? Which Republican is ideologically pure enough to win support from conservatives?
The study, released this month by the National Journal, a respected inside-the-Beltway research report, will help voters cut through the spin and hype of TV sound bites in coming months and judge these candidates for themselves.
Unlike TV commercials that focus on a single vote, these rankings are based on comprehensive voting records. The 2006 scores, for example, were based on as many as 95 votes on such issues as federal spending, tax cuts, the war in Iraq, embryonic stem-cell research and border security.
On the Democratic side, the analysis of “lifetime” voting records shows Obama as the most liberal with a score of 84.3 after two full years in the Senate. The most liberal score possible was 99.
I don’t think the fact that McCain has gone more liberal is a surprise to most of us, but the Obama being more liberal than Kucinich may be. That said, James Joyner sees what he believes are some flaws in the Obama analysis that don’t necessarily make Obama more liberal than Kucinich.
But whether or not Obama is techinically “more liberal” than Kucinich means very little, I think, in the scheme of things, because as I’ve noted here before, Senator Obama - contrary to the media trying to make him over as some moderate messiah-type - has a solidly liberal voting record, and we don’t need a study to prove it, either. He may sound centrist when he talks, but that’s, as they say, all part of the show.
And speaking of Senator Obama, have you seen the ad that has been put out in response to the clever anti-Hillary ad I blogged about last night? If not, check it out here:
In related Hillary/Obama news, the WaPo reports this morning that the two camps are sparring once again over the Iraq war. More on that via the NY Sun.
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I love that video!
Obama has even more ego than John Edwards, who at least waited until his first term was expiring before running for president.
Here is a man whose highest office before two years ago was as a state senator from Illinois, and now he thinks he has the experience to be President of the United States?
No board of directors would hire a CEO with that lack of experience unless it was a start-up and the founders appointed themselves.
God help this country in spite of ourselves.
It’s interesting to note the bad blood between Obama and Hillary. That will be hard to patch up no matter who wins the nomination, and I hope and pray neither of them does. Not because I’m afraid they will be president, though with this crazy bunch of nutroots, who knows? I hope and pray they are not elected because they are so liberal they don’t really care for the best interests of the country but would rather bring their socialism back to power and with a stronger dose of it.
They would sacrifice the very safety of our country for the sake of the vote of Code Pink or whomever happens to be the special interest du jour.
Comment by Jeanette @ 3/20/2007 - 10:46 am