Is McCain a Bush clone? Did he vote with Bush 90% of time? Big Surprise!

RK

You heard for the millionth time," John McCain represent a third Bush term" Obama claims the two are almost indistinguishable. It was the mantra during the Democratic convention, and it is the theme of new ads Barack Obama is running. The ads claim that McCain is "no maverick when he votes with Bush 90 percent of the time." " there is "not a dime worth of difference" between Bush's and McCain's views. "

What the Media is NOt telling you:

McCain drove Republicans nuts on campaign finance, the environment, taxes, torture, immigration and more? He has crossed swords with his own party?

As it's being used, the 90 percent figure, from Congressional Quarterly, is nonsensical. As Washington Post congressional reporter Jonathan Weisman explained, "The vast majority of those votes are procedural, and virtually every member of Congress votes with his or her leadership on procedural motions." Oh, you weren't told, were you?

Obama might want to be a little careful with these attacks, as the same measure has him voting with Democrats 97 percent of the time! That's NOT bi-partisan! How can we solve the problems by being SOOOOO Partisan?

There are a number of organizations on the left and right that provide useful evaluations on how congressmen and senators vote each year. These conservative and liberal groups pick the votes they care about most and figure out how often lawmakers match up with their positions.

Well-known ones include American Conservative Union (ACU) on the right, Americans for Democratic Action (ADA) on the left, and the nonpartisan National Journal in the middle. The League of Conservation Voters also ranks politicians from an environmentalist position.

These groups' rankings from 2001 to 2007 paint fairly similar pictures, putting McCain to the left of most Republican senators and to the right of most Democratic senators - though usually much closer to the average Republican.

The American Conservative Union finds that the average Republican senator voted conservatively 85 percent of the time, and that the average Democrat voted conservatively 13 percent of the time. McCain voted conservatively 74 percent of the time.

Although it's at the opposite end of the political spectrum, Americans for Democratic Action essentially agreed. It found that the average Republican senator voted liberally just over 12 percent of the time, and the average Democrat voted liberally 89 percent of the time. McCain voted liberally 24 percent of the time - twice as frequently as the average Republican.

In 2006, these four groups ranked McCain as the 47th, 46th, 44th and 51st most conservative member of the Senate, respectively.

So how could he be with Bush 90% of the time?
it is patently FALSE to claim he is a Bush clone.

Don't believe everything you hear from the Mainstream Media!