January 31, 2008
Breaking: Obama Ranked The No. 1 Most Liberal Senator
UPDATED.
Get your talking points ready, Republicans: Barack Obama is the No. 1 most liberal senator in National Journal's vote ratings this year.
The freshman senator from Illinois appears to have tacked farther left after declaring his candidacy for president of the United States. He zoomed to numero uno -- bypassing such liberal lions as Edward Kennedy and Patrick Leahy -- after placing 10th in NJ's 2006 ratings.
Hillary Rodham Clinton, meanwhile, is farther behind at No. 16 -- compared with No. 32 in 2006's 109th Congress. NJ hasn't released the full list yet; we'll post it here when it's available.
The other senator running for president, Republican John McCain, missed too many votes last year for NJ to calculate his composite score. He earned a moderate rating in 2006, and in 2007 received a conservative score of 59 on social issues (which include illegal immigration). With the Democratic majority in the Senate so slight, his presence on the floor is far less crucial than Clinton's or Obama's.
According to a breakdown, Obama took the liberal position on 65 of 66 key votes, while Clinton did the same 77 of 82 times. The last time NJ released its vote ratings during an election year was 2004. John Kerry also scored the top liberal spot then, but NJ didn't weigh the Democratic nominee's score for all the votes he missed while campaigning in '03. Controversy ensued, and NJ now factors in missed votes, as you can see from McCain's missing scores.
Since the L-word remains a problematic label in American politics, Republicans are taking up 2007's vote ratings as a talking point yet again.
"America is not going to elect a president who's more liberal than Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, and even the Senate's self-described socialist, Bernie Sanders," said RNC press secretary Alex Conant, reached by phone. "These ratings may explain his appeal on some left-wing campuses, but they also explain why he won't be elected president."
Before anyone starts associating Obama with the Sandinistas, keep in mind that Obama deserves credit for forcing the Democratic Party to re-evaluate how it talks about faith. That's hardly a characteristic associated with the far left. Moreover, he is viewed as more of a transpartisan coalition-builder than Hillary Clinton. Just ask Matthew Dowd, or any of the number of Republicans jumping on the Obama train.
The Obama campaign did not immediately return a request for comment.
In the fight for the Democratic nomination, at least, there may be more fodder here for Obama than for Clinton. On economic issues, Clinton sided with conservatives against an ethics and lobbying reform bill that would have established a Senate Office of Public Integrity. That measure was defeated. Clinton was joined by liberal Democrats Christopher Dodd, Dianne Feinstein and Patrick Leahy in her nay vote, along with Senator Majority Leader Harry Reid.
Democrats opposing the creation of the new office cited the existence of the Senate Ethics Committee, which already handles ethics violations.
Obama has been hitting Clinton on her willingness to sit down with lobbyists to discuss legislation and policy. While he and John Edwards promised to sweep the White House clear of lobbyists, it's difficult to see how they do so. Clinton shows a little more pragmatism when it comes to lobbyists. Rather than demonize them all, she says things like, "A lot of those lobbyists, whether you like it or not, represent real Americans. They actually do. They represent nurses. They represent social workers. Yes, they represent corporations that employ a lot of people."
Clinton has been trying to make amends with the angry left in her quest for the nomination, often while simultaneously running on her centrist record as proof she can win the general election.
"She moved up to become more liberal," the RNC's Conant said. "That speaks to the underlying concern voters have with Sen. Clinton. Voters think Sen. Clinton will do whatever she has to to win, and the National Journal's new ratings bear that out."
Obama's No. 1 placement here helps her in the argument that she is not the radical that conservative detractors make her out to be. Still, the difference between No. 1 and No. 16 isn't a whole lot, and Republicans may still lump her in with the Kennedy-Kerry crowd.
Regardless, voters have probably heard enough attacks on Obama from her camp for the time being.
Meanwhile, McCain spent a good chunk of another GOP candidates debate last night defending charges that he isn't conservative enough. It's not clear if his incomplete rating here is of any help to Mitt Romney or not.
Photo Illustration: Reuben Dalke
Posted at 2:30 PM
Posted to:
Barack Obama, Campaigns, Democrats, Hillary Rodham Clinton, John McCain, Mitt Romney, Republicans, WH 2008
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