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Sen. Obama and Sen. Clinton in the Senate

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Too often Sen. Obama gets easy pass in Media and Debates. You have to look no further than to review their Senate records. Despite 20 debates and a long campaign, his senate record or accomplishments are not analyzed in media. Sen. Obama talks about unity and working with Republicans, Independents. His senate record shows otherwise. If you actually look into their Senate record, It is Sen. Clinton who worked across the aisle and sponsered legislation with Republicans. Ask Republican senators such as Sen. Graham etc.. Her Senate voting record is relatively more moderate than Sen. Obama. His voting record is in line with most liberal members of the Senate. It comes to light that Sen. Obama never held a hearing for the Sub Committee he chaired. Contrast that to Hillary. Her Senate reputation for working hard and doing nitty gritty work and not pulling celebrity card after entering Senate. Talk of Unity is fine in theory. But, in reality can anyone expect Republicans to change their views on Pro Life, Gun Rights, Tax policy etc.. just because someone says that we should unite. It never works that way. Franklin Roosevelt, a great President, had to fight hard for all his presidential accomplishments. He was a great communicator too. People ignore history at their own peril. On the issues, talk of unity will vanish the moment you start discussing them. Obama's campaign has used his paltry 2 year senate tenure to claim that he is not divisive. If he had been a 2 or 3 term senator, he will have a record that would be no less divisive than Sen. Clinton or Sen. McCain. It is the nature of the politics. You are expected to fight for your issues that you believe in and when you do that, you upset some people. Lack of experience, Lack of record leaves no one upset. This campaign seasons great farce is that a great talker is propped up without being asked tough questions. When did paying your dues or having experience become a liability ? I wanted someone to fight Sen. Clinton for the nomination. I cheered when Sen. Biden, Sen. Richardson, Sen. Obama announced. I feared that Sen. Clinton will be handed the nomination instead of earning it. The truth is that she is dealt rather unfairly and that is not good for the party.


Comments (11)

So what you're really saying is that Senator Clinton is getting a pass for not being the liberal that most of her supporters think she is, right?

(There are two sides to every story.)

But, in reality can anyone expect Republicans to change their views on Pro Life,…

So, what exactly are you suggesting?

Please peruse this:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/2/20/201332/807

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Obama introduces rational discourse into the nattering of the Washington nabob set. The issue is not uniting politicians, it is uniting the folks who pay those politicians.

Hillary has believed since her college days that it is possible to effect change from the inside. That's what she tried to do as a board member at WalMart, to cite one example. Obama's message is that the impetus for change has to come from outside, thus his choice to learn about grassroots organizing. That these two have crossed paths at this juncture makes for a profound historical contest. Will the people continue to cede their power to a bureaucracy that's primarily concerned with its own continuance? Or will we start taking responsibility as citizens to ensure the continuance of our constitutional democracy?

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I do believe you're right that it takes a grassroots movement to push for change, but it often takes a highly placed politician with the experience and knowledge of political arm twisting to bring the change to fruition. That is what Hillary was trying to say, in a rather muddled way, with her comment about MLK and LBJ. For a take on that particular and wonderful change from a reliable eyewitness, check out what Bill Moyers had to say:

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011908A.shtml

As Moyers pointed out, it was the work of two very different men, one an idealistic fighter for social justice and one a politically hardened pragmatist, that brought about the historical change.


Laughable.

Clinton's Senate record in a nutshell, first term:

First term, junior Senator appointed to a bunch of committees, most notably Armed Services, which surely had nothing to do with her name.

Voted for Iraq war without reading the Iraq NIE (and ignoring the insistence of UN inspectors that Iraq had largely been defanged) along with the Byrd amendment, which allows the executive to basically renew the authorization for the use of force automatically every year without oversight and the only thing the President has to do is declare the continuation of the war vital to national security. During her speech announcing her support of AUMF Iraq, she said that this was the most important decision of her political career. Most people show more discretion in a grocery store than she did as a US Senator on the issue of going to war. But wait, there's more...

Voted for USA PATRIOT Act without reading it.

Took on GTA: San Andreas for adult content.

During the campaign for her second term, perhaps an indicator of campaign blunders to come, Clinton spent more than any other candidate running for office in 2006 in a race that was largely uncontested due to the withdrawal of early opposition front-runner Jeanine Pirro.

Second term:

Clinton finally begins acting like she's actually opposed to war. Opposed the troop surge, opposed continuing open-ended war funding and, to her credit, basically told David Petraeus he was full of it.

Called for the resignation of Alberto Gonzalez.

Supported Immigration Reform Act, which fails to gain traction.

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Second term obviously looks a lot better than the first, but as a legislator she's a lightweight, but there's no evidence of any of this reaching across the aisle that she's good at. The DLC philosophy, to which she is adherent, went off the rails long ago when they mistook reaching across the aisle with packing their shit up and moving there.

Now, as for Barack Obama:

Active early on in some immigration reform legislature, including working with Senator John McCain, which fails to go anywhere.

Works with Senator Dick Lugar to introduce Lugar-Obama to increase conventional weapons disarmament.

Works with Senator Tom Coburn on Coburn-Obama to increase transparency of government fund allocation and use by publishing this information on the web.

Primary sponsor for Congo Relief Act.

Member of Senate Foreign Relations committee. Travels to Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Africa to continue work on disarmament as a preventative measure against terrorist activity. I can't stress this enough. Instead of rubber stamping an illegal war he was out on the ground, doing his foreign policy homework and being proactive on the issue of terrorist threats.

Works with Russ Feingold on "Honest Leadership and Open Government Act" to restrict lobbyist gifts.

Works with Kit Bond on amendment to "Defense Authorization Act" to introduce safeguards for military discharges based on personality disorders.

Works with Chuck Hagel to introduce Obama-Hagel to help reduce the risks of potential nuclear terrorism.

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So that's four concrete examples in Obama's column of legislature where he worked with a Republican to, and here's the key, actually get something done.

I can't say the same thing for Hillary.

Of course, you don't have to take my word for it. You can go to thomas.loc.gov like anyone else and compare the records for yourself.

But why do that when you can just keep trying to sell Clinton's story for her?

To paraphrase Benjamin Disraeli, there are three kinds of untruths: lies, damned lies and Hillary Clinton's 35 years of aisle-crossing experience.

Good day, sir! I said good day!

I forgot to point out the absolute lack of any legislative progress on health care, supposedly her top issue.

LOL you said:

You have to look no further than to review their Senate records.

And then proceeded to talk about anything but their records except for the HRC-approved talking points. Hmmm, I'm thinking that maybe you should, ah...actually look at their Senate records. And you can also look at Obama's full record as an elected official (that's a little longer than Clinton's).

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gudman,
It is Senator Clinton who has gotten a pass, especially, I guess, from you. Did you not even bother to check for facts about the Senate records of these two contenders?

It is precisely because I spend several days last June on the thomas government site and thoroughly studied those records that I lost respect for Hillary Clinton. After all that work, I realized that her official web sites, Senator site and press release site, were full of fluffy sounding words that intentionally obscured the unwelcome truth. Nearly 80% of her so called 'successful' legislation was renaming NY buildings or road sections or resolutions to honor individuals. The only piece of legislation she accomplished that in any way had the least significance nationally was to get health benefits extended to family caregivers. Compare that record to just three pieces of successful legislation Obama achieved by 'working across the aisle' with Coburn, Lugar and Feingold, all of which are critically important for the whole nation.

Yeah, she's awesome when it comes to naming things after people.

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Haha, and tell me, why do most of her signature bills she always talks about introducing have ZERO co-sponsors and have moved nowhere? Oh, is it because she introduces legislation on helping kids or old people or whatever, just to be able to say she did it, and then let them sit forever in a file? No way!

How about you actually look at their records. I'm sick of you idiotic Hillary supporters. It was annoying and pathetic when they were actually in a race, but now that he is clearly going to be our nominee, it is deplorable. How about you either start going after McCain, or shut up, because right now your lies aren't helping Democrats at all.

Hey, take it easy, guys. You can cite as many facts and truths as you want, but you aren't going to convince anyone of anything by venturing into personal remarks and insults.

Let's keep it positive, and just educate those who don't know differently. The facts speak for themselves, all we have to do is point skeptics and non-believers in their direction.

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