Obama has been serving on Capitol Hill more than four of the past five White House occupants

[zulchzulu]

Only George Herbert Walker Bush served more time on Capitol Hill than Obama.

That was succinctly stated with the Dallas Morning News and their endorsement of Obama for President.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/editorials/stories/DN-demprezrec_23edi.ART.State.Edition1.36adeae.html

[Adsos Letter]

1. I have nothing in particular against Obama...

...but it isn't about the amount of time served...it is about how that time is used.

[WCGreen]

5. I'd second that...

But I better just say present...

[journalist3072]

7. Precisely..and I don't think that missing 80% of the Senate votes

is a good look...Neither is voting to report Condi Rice's nomination out of the Foreign Relations Committee, and sending it to the full Senate.

[ClarkUSA]

16. Who missed "80% of the Senate votes"? Linking to a source would be helpful.

Unless you have none?

[journalist3072]

19. Obama has.....here's the sourcing

Obama making less than a quarter of Senate votes

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sen. Barack Obama has missed the most votes of any Democratic presidential hopeful in the Senate over the last two months, including a vote on an Iran resolution he has blasted Sen. Hillary Clinton for supporting.

The Illinois Democrat has missed nearly 80 percent of all votes since September.

The other Democrats in the Senate running for president have missed a high percentage of votes as well.

Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware has missed 68 percent of the votes during the same period, Sen. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut 65 percent and Clinton of New York 63 percent.

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/11/02/obama.missed.votes/index.html

[ClarkUSA]

34. Thanks, but that story is a month old and only covers a 2 mo. period. It says Hillary missed 63%.

Is that good? I was hoping for a lifetime average of missed votes. Is there anything out there like that?

I agree with the following, though:

Stu Rothenberg of the Rothenberg Political Report said...

"I think most Americans understand that if you're running for president, you're going to have to be in Iowa, New Hampshire,
and you're not going to make all the votes and they give candidates slack," Rothenberg said.

[FogerRox]

12. Exactly the Experience frame is bullshit

A candidate who "gets it" is far more important than experience.

The experience frame is crap

[JackORoses]

32. you mean misused...like voting for IWR, maybe?

[alteredstate]

2. Thanks for pointing this out.

Great endorsement!

[zabet]

3. I have no issue with Obama's

experience. I have an
issue with the numerous
votes of 'present' though.

[zulchzulu]

9. Do you understand how senatorial procedures work in state legislatures?

In Illinois, voting "present" is done a lot in order to further amend bills before they get passed.

Let's say you are a Senator and want to pass a Clean Air Bill when at the last minute, a Republican adds a "poison pill" piece of legislation to the bill, such as making abortion illegal.

Do you vote for the bill and have that poison pill enacted?

Do you vote against the bill and be open to the opposition saying you voted against clean air?

If you're intelligent, you vote "present" and go back and get rid of the poison pill legislation and try again.

On the so-called issue about Obama's use of the "present" vote while a State Senator, it amounts to about 3.25% of all the votes he cast (130 out of 4,000+).

Is a pattern of voting about 3% of the time in a particular way a big issue to raise about Obama? If you're Hillary Clinton with falling poll numbers and a collapsing campaign, it is.

For reasonable people, I would suggest it's not an "issue".

[zabet]

10. You assume a lot...

I know how it works.
It is the failure
to take a stand. It
bothers me, so what?
I am not unreasonable
for the way I look at
things just because they
are different from the
way you see them. I am
still a largely undecided
voter and attacks instead
of reasonable discourse make
me wonder if people like that
support him, should I.

[zulchzulu]

13. Do you understand how a "present" vote works to stop bad legislation?

Surely you read the example I illustrated.

This isn't Cartoon World where some guy just raises his hand and says "Present!" when asked what his vote is. It's a strategic move to usually stop bad legislation from getting passed. It is NOT the failure to take a stand...it's taking a stand that the law needs to be amended before being passed.

When people like Hillary Clinton try to bring up the issue of voting "present" as something negative, she is assuming you are too uninformed to figure it out.

Add the fact that Obama's use of the vote "present" was a little over 3% of the time. Is that something that should even be considered an issue?

[zabet]

17. Yes.

I have watched Obama
closely since the last
election. I thought then
he would be running either
this election or the next
one. I could list reasons
why I am wary of supporting
him and I could list reasons
why I should. It is that way
with the majority of the Dem
candidates for me. Making a
choice will come down to the
little differences for me.

[zulchzulu]

20. Good luck

There are many mean spirited supporters of Hillary Clinton that always try to raise non-issues (like the kindergarden paper, his race, his background...) about Obama to make him look less than he is. I think it's good to measure your choice and hope you vote or caucus in a state where your vote counts.

[zabet]

24. Thank you. nt

[ruggerson]

14. Don't worry, CJ

you're not alone. There is a contingent of his supporters here who are the most mean spirited people on DU. He also has some good backers. I wouldn't let them affect your view of him one way or another, as I'm sure you won't.

[zabet]

15. Thanks ruggerson!

:pals:

[ClarkUSA]

18. So for you, 130 (i.e. 3%) of 4000 votes in 8 years is "numerous" huh?

What BS. All those votes were on GOP "gotcha" bills, too. Obama was very wise to use a common procedural measure to avoid
being snared.

[ElizabethDC]

4. But those folks had executive experience as governors. n/t

[journalist3072]

8. Bingo!

[calteacherguy]

40. Why does that matter? nt

[ClarkUSA]

22. The entire population of AR is mostly rural and is less than the city of Chicago.

Hardly executive experience for leading a nation. But it sounds good to say "governor," doesn't it. :eyes:

[Carrieyazel]

26. It didn't stop Bill Clinton, though. And he is easily the best President of the last 50 years.

[ClarkUSA]

29. Hmm... I'm not a big fan of NAFTA, DOMA or the massive expansion of media deregulation

But I do enough history to know it didn't stop Bill Clinton. It would stop him today, though. By the way, this is no reflection
on Bill Richardson's many accomplishments. He's clearly got a great resumé, much more varied than Bill's when he ran for
the first time. It's hard to compare then and now, though.

[ElizabethDC]

28. It's less the size of the population than the duties required.

That's why people go on and on about executive experience. And Bill had 11 years of executive experience.

[ClarkUSA]

30. Yeah, I guess that's why Bush I and Cheney were considered good bets

Too bad experience does not often mean candidates have good ethics, fine morals, and uncorrupted judgment.

[ElizabethDC]

33. No, I don't think that a candidate should be elected on experience alone, either

you can't base a candidate on their resume alone, though it is an important component. For example, I think that Bill Richardson probably has the best resume among the candidates right now, with his combination of Washington experience, executive experience, and foreign policy experience, but that's not enough to make him my candidate, because he's missing certain other elements I consider important in being a candidate.

When I'm voting for someone, I think it's important that they have good experience, good ethics, good morals, and good judgment. I try to choose someone with the best combination thereof.

[cali]

44. It's not the size of the state, it's what you do as governor

Howard Dean was governor of an even smaller state, but VT is a laboratory of innovative governanace.

[AtomicKitten]

6. Sadly he lacks First Lady experience.

;-)

[David Dunham]

11. This paper also endorsed Huckabee. Yuck!!!!!!!!!

[ClarkUSA]

27. The paper also endorsed Bill in the '90's.

Huckabee will be the expected choice of any Southern paper.

[ClarkUSA]

23. Oh, if only!

;-)

[Skip Intro]

21. He took office in Jan., 05, yes? Less than four years ago, yes? How has he served more time

than recent one-term presidents, who served four years?

Do facts mean anything in the Obama bubble?

[ClarkUSA]

31. Write to the newspaper editors with your questions.

And be sure to add, "Do facts mean anything in the Obama bubble?"

I'll await their answer.

[Skip Intro]

37. Obama - the insider outsider.

feel free to use that

[Carrieyazel]

25. Serving on Capitol Hill with no executive experience does not get you to the White House, though

Only JFK did it for the Democrats in the modern era.

[ClarkUSA]

36. And Ted Sorenson thinks Obama is the man most like JFK so it may happen again.

Ya never know.

[JackORoses]

35. Ted Stevens has served nearly 40 years, but who would want him for President?

Experience isn't everything.
Especially when that experience consists of an endless repetition of age-old mistakes.

[Bitwit1234]

38. If they are that damn stupid no wonder they are endorsing Obama

[calteacherguy]

39. Are you sure it's not "nitwit?" nt

[Tactical Progressive]

41. Right-wing rag pretending Obama is experienced?

Scared of Hillary much, DMN?

[Didereaux]

42. Finally! someone tripped up on the ploy...

The DMN is a major Texas newspaper, i.e. a voice of the Republicans. Now who would you want your candidate to run against? The strongest opponent? No, for whatever reasons the Texas repugnants have decided that in this state Obama is a weaker candidate than even Clinton. I would expect more suthrin' repugnant rags to start endorsing who they consider the weakest Democrat in the near future.

Old, old tactic, but it still works. More subtle is the bias shown on local TV and radio news.

[AtomicKitten]

43. Polls consistently show him to be a much stronger candidate.

I think you confuse "weakness" for the fact that people actually prefer him.

[Beacool]

45. The paper is being disingenuous!!

Of course that, even with his tiny time served, Obama has been in the senate more time than the previous four presidents. The reason is very simple, THEY WEREN"T SENATORS!!!!!!

Does the Dallas News think that people are stupid enough to not know that 3 of the previous presidents were governors and one was the CIA Director???????


:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[Perry Logan]

46. Obamites are tying themselves into knots over this experience thing.

[Major Hogwash]

47. KA-BOOM! There it is - Obama has more experience at national politics than Bill did!!

Oh, that's going to give Bubba indigestion.

LoL