Obama and McCain ‘Vote with Bush’

The Obama campaign likes to say that John McCain “votes with George W. Bush” 90% of the time. For one thing, they never, to my knowledge, tell us where that 90% figure came from. And secondly, how does a Senator vote with the President when the President has no vote in the Senate? That’s simply a bogus issue.

I read a very interesting article today at Obama2.com entitled Barack Obama Votes with President Bush that brought up this and some other great points. In this article the author assumes that voting “with Bush” means the Senator voted on the same side of a position clearly taken by the Bush administration before the Senate vote took place.  Using that definition and estimates from the Congressional Quarterly, the author points out that Senator Obama actually voted “with Bush” 40% of them time and Senator Biden 52% of the time. (No percentage is given for Senator McCain.) The estimates used covered yes or no votes only since other votes are calculated as not voting (“NV” means not voting, excused, absent, or present).

The Obama2.com article points out another thing that is very telling about Senator Obama and his “leadership skills.”  According to a Project Vote Smart study of Senator Obama’s voting record in the Senate since he has been there, Obama didn’t vote 228 out of 568 times (that amounts to skipping or passing on more than 40% of all his “votes”). But the particular issues he skips gets even more interesting as you’ll see below. I quote from the above referenced Obama2.com article:

Based on the Project Vote Smart records, some areas where Obama likes to avoid having an opinion:

• Abortion Issues – 75% NV
• Agriculture Issues – 86% NV
• Budget, Spending and Taxes – 54% NV
• Business and Consumers – 47% NV
• Civil Liberties and Civil Rights – 44% NV
• Defense – 29% NV
• Education – 55% NV
• Energy Issues – 35% NV
• Environmental Issues – 64% NV
• Family and Children Issues – 50% NV
• Foreign Aid and Policy Issues – 56% NV
• Gun Issues – 25% NV
• Health Issues – 67% NV
• Housing and Property Issues – 100% NV
• National Security Issues – 39% NV
• Reproductive Issues – 75% NV
• Technology and Communication – 33% NV
• Trade Issues – 38% NV
• Transportation Issues – 63% NV
• Veterans Issues – 34% NV
• Welfare and Poverty – 64% NV
• Women’s Issues – 67% NV

So much for Senator Obama showing us he can make the tough decisions that good leadership requires. That’s an appalling record and demonstrates how a Senator can skirt the tough issues that a mayor or a governor cannot by virtue of their executive role.  Let’s debate the experience, not-ready-to-lead question some more and see who comes up on top. Hands down the Republican ticket wins this one.