Obama A Uniter?

In Case You Missed It: Obama: A Thin Record For A Bridge Builder


From The Washington Post

By David Ignatius
Op-Ed
March 2, 2008


Hillary Clinton has been trying to make a point about Barack Obama that deserves one last careful look before Tuesday's probably decisive Democratic primaries: If Obama truly intends to unite America across party lines and break the Washington logjam, then why has he shown so little interest or aptitude for the hard work of bipartisan government?

This is the real "Where's the beef?" about Obama, and it still doesn't have a good answer. ...

But for voters to feel confident that he can achieve this transformation should he become president, they would need evidence that he has fought and won similar battles. The record here, to put it mildly, is thin.

What I hear from politicians who have worked with Obama, both in Illinois state politics and here in Washington, gives me pause. They describe someone with an extraordinary ability to work across racial lines but not someone who has earned any profiles in courage for standing up to special interests or divisive party activists. ...

[H]e also gained a reputation for skipping tough votes. The most famous example was a key gun control vote that he missed in December 1999 because he was vacationing in Hawaii. The Chicago Tribune blasted him and several other vote-skippers as "gutless." One Chicago pol says that "the myth developed that when there was a tough vote, he was gone." ...

[W]hat stands out in his brief Senate career is his liberal voting record, not a history of fighting across party lines to get legislation passed. He wasn't part of the 2005 Gang of 14 bipartisan coalition that sought to break the logjam on judicial nominations, but neither were Clinton or other prominent Democrats. ...

[O]bama bears no obvious political scars for fighting bipartisan battles that were unpopular with his party's base.

"The authentic Barack Obama? We just don't know. The level of uncertainty is too high," one Democratic senator told me last week. He noted that Obama hasn't been involved in any "transformative battles" where he might anger any of the party's interest groups. "If his voting record in the past is the real Barack Obama, then there isn't going to be any bipartisanship," this senator cautioned. ...

To View The Entire Article, Please Visit: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/29/AR2008022902784.html ...Read more!

McCain - Prepared To Lead

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Obama

They Said It!

State Sen. Dan Cronin (R-IL) On Barack Obama's State Senate Record

State Sen. Cronin: "You know, I hate to burst the bubble. There's been a lot of hype and, you know, when he [Obama] served down here, his career was not particularly distinguished. ... There were no bold solutions. There were no creative proposals to take on the establishment. He's a Cook County Democrat and he went along with the program."

ABC News' Terry Moran: "The program, Cronin and others argue, was a traditional liberal agenda and, in fact, Obama was considered a reliable liberal Democratic vote in Illinois. For instance, voting for most gun control measures, opposing efforts to ban so-called partial birth abortions and supporting hundreds of tax increases."

(ABC's "Nightline," 2/25/08)
And here is the rest of it. ...Read more!

GUTS

John McCain's newest TV ad.



This is why Citizens Against Government Waste call McCain a "Taxpayer's Hero. Maybe not as fun as the Woodstock ad but it gets the point across. ...Read more!

Senate Guts Earmark Reform

Amanda Carpenter over at TownHall has a great article on the senate's little 3 word change that guts earmark reform. And here is the rest of it. A three-word rule change quietly made to Congress’s newly-enacted lobby reform package was recently discovered that significantly reduces disclosure requirements for the earmarks each senator requests.
The new ethics bill, which was signed into law in September, purported to require members of both the House and Senate to make public a signed letter that included the name and address of the intended recipient, or location of any requested earmark.
U.S. President George W. Bush shows a pile of earmark papers that he said were wasteful special interest spending proposals that lawmakers often slip into legislation, during remarks about the economy at Micron Technology in Manassas, Virginia February 6, 2007. REUTERS/Jason Reed (UNITED STATES)
Related Media:
VIDEO: Murtha's Missing Earmarked Center
The final bill, however, contained an exception for members of the Senate. Instead, senators who request earmarks are only required to make public a letter that verifies he or she has “no pecuniary interest” their request

...Read more!