While Barack Obama has looked appealing to independent voters and a few Republicans, the National Journal has released a study that indicated that Senator Barack Obama of Illinois was the most liberal senator of 2007.
Barack’s chief and now only rival Hillary Clinton also aiming for the Democratic nomination was held as the 16th most liberal senator in 2007. This was conducted in a non-partisan survey of 99 major Senate votes.
The National Journal’s study also revealed that both Obama and Clinton moved to the left compared to the last few years. During Obama’s first year in the Senate during 2005, he was ranked as the 16th. In 2006, Obama came in at 10th.
In the case of Hillary Clinton, she made her debut on the list in 2001. She had ranked 25th in 2001. In 2006, she was ranked as 32nd.
Massachusetts Senator John Kerry and 2004 Democratic candidate for US President who supports Obama had held the same distinction back in 2003. This was also used by Bush’s reelection campaign to paint Kerry as a liberal that is out-of-touch.
“Ted Kennedy is the more conservative of the two senators from Massachusetts,” Dick Cheney, Bush’s Vice President would often say on the campaign trail.
But the details suggest that the voting records of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are not as far apart as they seem in the rankings.
Obama spokesman, Bill Burton responded by saying: “Only in Washington can you get falsely attacked for being like Reagan one week and labeled the most liberal the next. The tendency of Washington to apply a misleading label to every person and idea is just one of many things we need to change about how things operate inside the beltway.”
March is the month were the full study should be released.