Obama the “most liberal” senator of 2007
January 31st, 2008 by Brendan SteinhauserBen Smith of The Politico writes that Barack Obama was the “most liberal” senator of 2007, according to National Journal.
National Journal rates Obama the single “most liberal” member of the Senate last year, spotlighting some policy differences, as well writing GOP attack ad if he’s the nominee, but perhaps also a helpful note in consolidating support on the left now.
January 31st, 2008 at 7:11 pm
I seem to recall this same publication saying that Kerry was the #1 liberal back in 2004. If you read the methodology, you’ll note that missed votes weren’t counted. Clinton actually voted the so-called “liberal position” 12 times more than Obama, but since she had more votes than Obama, her percentage of “liberal” votes was lower. Clinton voted liberal on 77 of her 82 votes. Obama voted liberal on 65 of his 66 votes. Obama missed a lot of votes in 2007 while campaigning, but made it back for what he thought were the most consequential.
The ranking are exclusively about votes cast in Congress in the past year. In 2005 Obama was no. 16, in 2006 he was no. 10. If the NJ were to look at ALL his votes, they’d probably come to a different conclusion. The NJ suggests that Obama went left to curry favor with the Dems in the primary season, but the alternative explanation that he just missed a lot of votes, hence the high ranking, is equally plausible and probably more likely. The same trend was observed when the NJ named Kerry the “most liberal” Senator after he, too, missed a lot of votes while campaigning.
January 31st, 2008 at 8:21 pm
Good point Sickle.