Obama more liberal than Kucinich?

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.