Was Barack Obama Really The Most Liberal Senator?
Coming home from work this evening, I was speaking with a colleague, neighbor, and friend and mentioned Thought Docket. I tried to describe some of the themes and mentioned this post about what I considered to be an unusually rapid re-writing of history by an esteemed academician (i.e. The Nutty Professor).
I mentioned that the Nutty Professor had stated this
A close look at Obama’s development since 2004 suggests centrism should have been expected. There is little evidence beyond his history as a community organizer to indicate Obama is left of center.
And I mentioned that I thought there was much evidence to the contrary, including this
Didn’t Obama have the most liberal voting record of anyone in the Senate? And wasn’t his running mate up there on the podium with the Bronze Medal?
My friend and neighbor dismissed this characterization, stating that he felt that such ratings should be considered unreliable and meaningless since they were produced by “conservative” groups. He suggested that even groups self-described as “independent” were secretly “conservative”.
So just who are the groups offering up ratings of senators and congressmen? Here are a few:
- American Civil Liberties Union
- American Conservative Union
- Americans for Democratic Action
- Children’s Defense Fund
- League of Conservation Voters
- National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
- National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League
- National Parent-Teacher Association
- Service Employees International Union
Obviously, the American Conservative Union is conservative. According to their site, ACU rate senators based on voting for
- economic and budget matters
- social and cultural issues
- defense and foreign policy
Here are the votes used by the ACU for their 2007 ratings.
The remaining groups are liberal. Of these groups, the one that I closely associate with ratings is Americans for Democratic Action. According to their site
Since ADA’s founding in 1947, the Annual Voting Records have served as the standard measure of political liberalism. Combining 20 key votes on a wide range of social and economic issues, both domestic and international, the Liberal Quotient (LQ) provides a basic overall picture of an elected official’s political position.
Wow, that’s mighty macrocephalic of them, isn’t it. I bet they have trouble shopping for hats and ear muffs. ADA refers to politicians with high LQ as “heroes” and politicians with low LQ as “zeroes”. You can find the 2007 ratings in this pdf file. The file lists the house and senate votes on which the ADA bases their ratings.
Here are the ratings of the liberal groups listed above for 2005 and 2007. It is interesting to note that taking the composite rating of the liberal groups, Obama showed as most liberal in 2005 but was nowhere near the most liberal in 2007. Barack must have done something to really tick off the Children’s Defense Fund in 2007, for example.
So, returning to the assertion about Obama as “Most Liberal Senator”, this was put forward by the National Journal. The National Journal is purported to be independent. It is certainly no National Review, American Spectator, Human Events, or Weekly Standard. Here are the votes used by the National Journal to determine their ratings.
So, there you have it. I will allow that the ratings are not completely aligned among the various groups, even among groups on the same side of the political spectrum. That much is for sure. And, taken as a whole, I have to admit that the “Most Liberal Senator” label must be qualified and limited to the National Journal. Even the ACU rating does not have Obama as most liberal. There is some evidence that Obama moderated some during 2007, possibly in preparation for the campaign and election. I have read that of the 267 measures on which Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton both cast votes, they voted the same on all but 10. No wonder Obama has entrusted Hillary with the coveted Secretary of State position. Like two peas in a pod.
Two Peas