And Now the Politics of Mavickness
Sep. 17th, 2008 12:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mishalakBoth Sen. John McCain and Sen. Barack Obama are a lot more conventional in their positions than their reputations. By that I do not mean that there is no difference, but their positions are pretty unremarkable given what parties they have chosen for their affiliation.
This is why I think the advertisements by the Obama campaign about John McCain voting with Bush 95% of the time are quite fair. You see, President Bush isn't some sort of wacky outsider either. He's pretty close to the center of political gravity in the Republican Party. So most Republican Senators have a voting record that is largely in agreement with President Bush. According to Congressional Quarterly they range from a low of 73% support for Bush policies to a high of 94%.
Senator McCain is near the middle of his party during the whole of the last seven and a half years with 90% support for the president. The 95% quote used in the Obama ad only takes into account the last year when he has been most supportive of the president. This is similar to his cumulative number on bucking his own party, he's gone against the Republican party line in the Senate 19% of the time and voting with them 81% of the time. Therefore a lot of disagreement with his own party has been when he agreed more with President Bush. Thirty-One (31) Republican Senators disagreed with President Bush more often than John McCain and only seventeen (17) voted with the President more often.
For comparison Democrats in the Senate range in support for Bush from 24% to 71% with Obama at 40%. Because of his shorter tenure in the Senate his ranking on disagreeing with President Bush is probably higher than many of his colleagues. Only 7 Senators disagreed with the President's position more often. And Hillary Clinton ranked at at #23 despite having a very similar record to Obama with only 49% support. The answer there is both her longer tenure and the fact that they're both solidly in the middle of the Democratic party so only a small percentage change results in a very different ranking. To the left of Sen. Obama it drop off rapidly towards the Senates one self-described Socialist Bernard Sanders who voted with the president 23% of the time and to the right of Hilary Clinton it climbs as high as Ben Nelson a Democrat from Nebraska who voted with the president 71% of the time. And this, in my opinion, is why the primary contest really went on so long. There was not a huge amount of policy positions to separate them and so
So who then are the real mavericks in the Senate? They're an interesting bunch. The aforementioned Ben Nelson (D) who's agreement with President Bush gives him only 56% agreement with his own party. Then there is Olympia Snow (R) 59% and Susan Collins (R) 64% who are two of the last northeast Republicans who are socially liberal and fiscally conservative, the majority of that sort having been run out of the party in primaries or in areas that profoundly disagreed the the President. There there are Arlen Specter (R) of Pennsylvania with 66% and Max Bacus of Montana (D) with 76% who round out the top five real Senate maverics. Where does McCain rank? Well his 81% agreement means there are 12 Senators who disagree with their own party more often than he does. He's not even in the top five of his own party. Is someone who's not in the top 10% really a maverack? I think he isn't. He's a conventional Republican with a reputation due to his shooting from the hip speaking style.
Being liberal on social issues and conservative on spending ones that's not the sort of reform I'm looking for on the Republican side before I'll start to consider some Republican politicians as viable candidates for my vote. So I think it a fair hit to say that McCain's policies are the same as those of President Bush since they do agree most of the time on most of the issues. McCain wants to do the exact same things but is just promising to be different about how well he does them and a bit of tinkering here and there.
And also the Democrats would be fools not to use the gift McCain gave them by saying the "I vote with Bush 90-95% of the time," quote on live camera to a reporter during the course of the primary.
This is why I think the advertisements by the Obama campaign about John McCain voting with Bush 95% of the time are quite fair. You see, President Bush isn't some sort of wacky outsider either. He's pretty close to the center of political gravity in the Republican Party. So most Republican Senators have a voting record that is largely in agreement with President Bush. According to Congressional Quarterly they range from a low of 73% support for Bush policies to a high of 94%.
Senator McCain is near the middle of his party during the whole of the last seven and a half years with 90% support for the president. The 95% quote used in the Obama ad only takes into account the last year when he has been most supportive of the president. This is similar to his cumulative number on bucking his own party, he's gone against the Republican party line in the Senate 19% of the time and voting with them 81% of the time. Therefore a lot of disagreement with his own party has been when he agreed more with President Bush. Thirty-One (31) Republican Senators disagreed with President Bush more often than John McCain and only seventeen (17) voted with the President more often.
For comparison Democrats in the Senate range in support for Bush from 24% to 71% with Obama at 40%. Because of his shorter tenure in the Senate his ranking on disagreeing with President Bush is probably higher than many of his colleagues. Only 7 Senators disagreed with the President's position more often. And Hillary Clinton ranked at at #23 despite having a very similar record to Obama with only 49% support. The answer there is both her longer tenure and the fact that they're both solidly in the middle of the Democratic party so only a small percentage change results in a very different ranking. To the left of Sen. Obama it drop off rapidly towards the Senates one self-described Socialist Bernard Sanders who voted with the president 23% of the time and to the right of Hilary Clinton it climbs as high as Ben Nelson a Democrat from Nebraska who voted with the president 71% of the time. And this, in my opinion, is why the primary contest really went on so long. There was not a huge amount of policy positions to separate them and so
So who then are the real mavericks in the Senate? They're an interesting bunch. The aforementioned Ben Nelson (D) who's agreement with President Bush gives him only 56% agreement with his own party. Then there is Olympia Snow (R) 59% and Susan Collins (R) 64% who are two of the last northeast Republicans who are socially liberal and fiscally conservative, the majority of that sort having been run out of the party in primaries or in areas that profoundly disagreed the the President. There there are Arlen Specter (R) of Pennsylvania with 66% and Max Bacus of Montana (D) with 76% who round out the top five real Senate maverics. Where does McCain rank? Well his 81% agreement means there are 12 Senators who disagree with their own party more often than he does. He's not even in the top five of his own party. Is someone who's not in the top 10% really a maverack? I think he isn't. He's a conventional Republican with a reputation due to his shooting from the hip speaking style.
Being liberal on social issues and conservative on spending ones that's not the sort of reform I'm looking for on the Republican side before I'll start to consider some Republican politicians as viable candidates for my vote. So I think it a fair hit to say that McCain's policies are the same as those of President Bush since they do agree most of the time on most of the issues. McCain wants to do the exact same things but is just promising to be different about how well he does them and a bit of tinkering here and there.
And also the Democrats would be fools not to use the gift McCain gave them by saying the "I vote with Bush 90-95% of the time," quote on live camera to a reporter during the course of the primary.