Obama's electability

[N]o matter which way you slice and dice Obama's entire record, he comes up towards the bottom of the Democratic pack when it comes to being a liberal. That doesn't stop Republican shills from brainwashing the American public with their Big Lie and it doesn't ever cause fact checkers at CNN or MSNBC (Fox has no fact checkers, for obvious reasons) or at the networks to actually take a look.

But let's do that. Here is the comparative ranking of all 100 senators-- across the board on all votes, not pre-selected votes-- for the '07-'08 session. [my first link, above] As you can see, Obama comes in at #40, just ahead of conservative Max Baucus (D-MT) and moderate Jon Tester (D-MT) and not quite as good as moderates Tom Carper (D-DE) and Byron Dorgan (D-ND). Compared to a die-hard neo-fascist like Jim Inhofe (R-OK), Jim DeMint (R-SC) or John Cornyn (R-TX), Obama seems progressive but his voting record paints a clearly and unmistakably mainstream, moderate picture. By way of comparison, Hillary's rank is #29

OK, you may say, did he turn right in the last session because he wanted to trick Americans into thinking he isn't a flaming liberal? Take a look at his lifetime Senate voting record. [my second link] It's a bit better, but still very far from "the most liberal." He ranks at #24 (Hillary is #18). Most telling of all, however, since it cuts out party-line procedural votes, is the Chips Are Down score [my third link], which ranks senators based on substantive votes based on partisan divisions. This is the one that separates the liberals from the right-wing loons. I wish Obama were more liberal but this shows him to be a dead center moderate: #43, worse than Max Baucus, although at least somewhat better than McCain ally Joe Lieberman. Liberman's voting record-- which includes supporting every single Bush-Cheney policy item regarding endless war in Iraq-- is 7 points more conservative than Obama. Actual Democratic liberals like Dick Durbin (D-IL; who else represents that state?), Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) have more than 20 points of separation between their scores and Obama's, a chasm that even CNN's, CBS', NBC's, ABC's and MSNBC's research department's ought to be able to find... if they bothered to look, instead of allowing the public airwaves to be used in a systematic campaign to deceive the American public.

McGentrix wrote:

So who is the most liberal in the senate? Someone has to be, right?

Depends on whom you ask, then, apparently :wink:

I'd nominate Bernie Saunders, the self-proclaimed socialist from Vermont. He's not in the list Finn linked in yet, because that list is quite outdated (data from 2004-2005), and Saunders was elected in 2006.

I doubt that many conservatives would happily call themselves right- wingers. Right?

I notice the term, progressive, being used more often these days, which is not very apt at all, because liberal politics is really very regressive, returning to failed policies of the past. The most successful political philosophy in history has been that of conservatism.

and yet... should one step out of lockstep.... they are banned from the "liberal" club

I find it amusing that liberalism is apparently not something anyone would want to claim, such as don't dare label my candidate the most liberal senator, oh no, that would be a terrible label. I thought if a little of something is good, why not alot?

To be fair, I realize all those things could also be said about Hillary and her camp but to a lesser degree IMO.

self righteous and attach themselves to a person or opinion beyond what's reasonable