Acting White: How Liberal is Obama?

I keep hearing how Obama is the second most liberal Democrat in all of Washington, a bad thing, and how John McCain is a 'maverick' within the Republicans. Now being labeled as very liberal is suppose to taint you with bloated government, ear-mark spending, over-regulation, and bureaucracy. Being a maverick, on the other hand, is suppose to mean that you somehow do not run with the big-business, special-interest crowd, whether to right or the left of center.

So with all of this, I searched and found this interesting graph prepared by Keith T. Poole PhD., Professor of Political Science, University of CA, San Diego. Poole presents that Obama, McCain, and Clinton, are all much closer to the average voting ideology of their respective parties, compared to what they, or others, want us to believe. His work utilizes DW-NOMINATE, a system which measures Congressional legislators’ ideological locations over time.

If McCain was the maverick that he claims, we would expect him, over time, to be on either end of his party's ideology, rather than near the middle. If Obama was the flaming liberal-socialist his opponents say he is, why does he not show up at the far left of his party voting?

This is just one small exposé of the magic show we are watching called election 2008. Food for thought.

James C. Collier

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