McCain

[Michael J. Merino]

Originally Posted by kpierce

Anyone care to comment?

look at the same section for Obama

[kpierce]

I'll pretend you didn't say it too.

[kpierce]

Originally Posted by mmerino

look at the same section for Obama

I think everyone is more than clear about Obama's voting record as we are more than clear McCain is a war hero. However, no one seems to say anything about McCain's voting record, which apparently has many NVs as well.

[Michael Larson]

Originally Posted by kpierce

I think everyone is more than clear about Obama's voting record as we are more than clear McCain is a war hero. However, no one seems to say anything about McCain's voting record, which apparently has many NVs as well.

Let's be careful not to assign equal weight to every vote in the Senate.

The reason Obama is being criticized for voting is his propensity to vote "present" instead of yes or no when he was in the IL legislature.

Now why would he do that? That is the question that is relevant. hth

[Michael J. Merino]

Originally Posted by kpierce

I think everyone is more than clear about Obama's voting record as we are more than clear McCain is a war hero. However, no one seems to say anything about McCain's voting record, which apparently has many NVs as well.

for the section you spoke of, the budget spending and taxes. out of 89 possible votes Obama has 48 "NV" or 54% of the time he didn't bother to vote.

McCain had 139 chances to vote. He chose not to vote 58 times, or 41% of the time he didn't bother to vote.

But it took McCain since 1995 to reach that percentage, Obama has done it in less than 4 years.

[Michael J. Merino]

Originally Posted by kpierce

Good idea deleting that message.

I rewrote that post, see above.

[kpierce]

Originally Posted by mmerino

for the section you spoke of, the budget spending and taxes. out of 89 possible votes Obama has 48 "NV" or 54% of the time he didn't bother to vote.

McCain had 139 chances to vote. He chose not to vote 58 times, or 41% of the time he didn't bother to vote.

But it took McCain since 1995 to reach that percentage, Obama has done it in less than 4 years.

Really, that's not that huge of a percentage difference IMO. Especially given the amount of bashing that Obama is getting for it. If it was more like 20% to 80% I would understand.

[kpierce]

I'm sure if you broke in down year by year for McCain it would fluctuate up and down also. As would Obama's.

[William J. Decker]

Many votes, in the Senate, are non-partisan, i.e., both parties agree and there is no real contest. Case in point, the recent nuclear non-proliferation bill. For bills like this, many choose to just not vote and spend their time doing other things.

Check this out. Look up the bills that were in contention. The voting percentage for all Senators is much higher for those votes.

I would not, so much, compare McCain to Obama, but rather check on the total percentage voting. If many chose not to vote (as in not being present, as opposed to voting present) then the vote was just pro forma.