Government Dirt

The Obama campaign keeps claiming McCain has voted with President Bush 95 percent of the time. Is this true? Is this significant?

Yes, it's true, according to Congressional Quarterly's assessment of McCain's voting record.

Sen. Barack Obama has attempted to use the Arizona senator's voting record against him in statements like this:

Barack Obama (June 3): It's not change when John McCain decided to stand with George Bush 95 percent of the time, as he did in the Senate last year.

The claim is true. According to Congressional Quarterly's Voting Studies, in 2007 McCain voted in line with the president's position 95 percent of the time – the highest percentage rate for McCain since Bush took office – and voted in line with his party 90 percent of the time. However, McCain's support of President Bush's position has been as low as 77 percent (in 2005), and his support for his party's position has been as low as 67 percent (2001).

Democrats are, of course, attempting to make the case that a vote for McCain is a vote to continue the policies of Bush, whose approval ratings are, to put it charitably, not a political asset for McCain.

Is 95% "Significant"?

As for whether voting with Bush 95 percent of the time last year is "significant," that's a matter of opinion that we leave to readers to determine for themselves.

When doing so, they may wish to consider that Obama's votes were in line with the president's position 40 percent of the time in 2007. That shouldn't be terribly surprising. Even the Senate's Democratic leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, voted with Bush 39 percent of the time last year, according to the way Congressional Quarterly rates the votes.

By Dr. Joel Strom

The internet is full of op/ed written by opinion leaders who with both clarity and certainty believe that Barack Obama will be either good or bad for America, good or bad for Israel, and good or bad for our standing in the world. As for this commentator, I can no more predict whether Barack Obama will be a good President, a mediocre President or a poor President than the weatherman can predict tomorrow’s weather. I have no idea whether he will be good or bad for Israel for that matter. And with all due respect to thoughtful people who dot our political landscape, I just don’t see how they can be so certain about their convictions. After all, Barack Obama has no record in foreign policy by which we can remotely evaluate his abilities, tenacity or accomplishments. Contrasted to a Hillary Clinton, an Evan Bayh, Sam Nunn or even Joe Biden, Obama is a foreign policy neophyte whose professorial rhetoric might sound promising on the campaign trail. But when the chips are down and there is no time for thoughtful rumination, what will he do? Will he rise to become the next Harry Truman or fester in indecision to be the second term of Jimmy Carter?

The responses of Barack Obama and John McCain to the economic crisis today tells you all you need to know about the choice in this election.

One the one hand, in Barack Obama we've got a statesman who wants to work together to get things done for all Americans. On the other hand, in John McCain we've got a yipping little dog (apologies to canine lovers everywhere) who will tear anything down to get ahead.

Here's a short video Jed Report put together to illustrate the contrast:

By United Steelworkers International President Leo W. Gerard

John McCain should not be traveling in a bus called the Straight Talk Express. No, that equivocating multimillionaire who kowtows constantly to the wealthy should be riding in one of those private, gilded railroad cars.

That would be symbolically appropriate as well since he is trying to railroad the middle class on taxes.

He is actually proposing a brand new tax on the middle class.

This has gotten so little attention it is astounding. And frightening, frankly, as television reporters and commentators focus instead on inane incidents like the lipstick-on-pigs remark.

McCain intends to tax workers for the value of health insurance that they receive from their employers.

Really.

Although it’s not included in the description of his plan on his web site. It is, however, on the site of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, a non-profit organization that specializes in health policy.

I understand McCain neglecting to mention this new tax on the middle class. If I were proposing this shocking tax increase, one that will cost the average American worker an additional $110 a month in taxes out of the blue, I would conceal it as best I could too.

So let me provide you with some clarity. This comes from the Kaiser Foundation evaluation of the McCain and Barack Obama health plans. It says McCain would “reform the tax code to eliminate the exclusion of the value of health insurance plans offered by employers from workers’ taxable income.”

By Alan B. Katz

The essential difference between McCain and Obama is one of judgment. Often, judgment comes with experience. Sometimes it does not. For example, Lyndon Johnson was considered to be one of the most qualified VPs to succeed to the White Office. The depth of his experience was profound. And his social programs have no equal. But, his judgment on Viet Nam will forever define his presidency.

Similarly, Joe Biden has experience galore. But I am troubled by his judgments. Even after the experience of Gaza, he and Obama are in favor of turning the West Bank over to the Palestinians. There is little doubt that if done, Hamas would have Abbas assassinated within days. From there, Hamas would stage another violent coup in the West Bank the consequence of which is that Israel would have an Iranian armed-to-the-teeth proxy attacking her on the east and the west. Not to mention that at its narrowest point, only 9 miles separates the West Bank and the Mediterranean Sea. The entire West Bank would be mobilized against Israel and missiles placed only miles from her major population centers and airports.

by Rabbi Arnold Jacob Wolf
Special to the Jewish Week

Not everyone can claim to be the neighbor of a Presidential candidate - I can, though, because I am.

Barack Obama's Chicago home is across the street from KAM Isaiah Israel, the Hyde Park synagogue at which I've served for 27 years. He spoke to our congregation as an Illinois state senator; more recently, his Secret Service agents have made use of our, shall we say, facilities.

But it's not neighborly instinct that's led me to support the Obama candidacy: I support Barack Obama because he stands for what I believe, what our tradition demands.

We sometimes forget, but an integral part of that tradition is dialogue and a willingness to disagree. Certainly many who call me their rabbi have taken political positions far from mine - just as Barack Obama's opinions have differed from those of his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

... Obama's strong positions on poverty and the climate, his early and consistent opposition to the Iraq War, his commitment to ending the Darfur genocide - all these speak directly to Jewish concerns. If we're sidetracked by Wright's words, we'll be working against these interests. After all, a preacher speaks to a congregation, not for the congregation.

Many people remain concerned that Obama isn't committed to Israel. Some want him to fall in line behind the intransigent, conservative thinking that has silenced Jewish debate on Israeli policy and enabled the Bush Administration's criminal neglect of the diplomatic process.

"Senator Biden has tremendous amount of experience. I think he was first elected when I was like in second grade."

Sarah Palin

By Greg Sargent and Eric Kleefeld

A group of civil rights lawyers is launching what it bills as the largest voter-protection effort in American history, planning to raise and spend millions of dollars to station hundreds of lawyers and thousands of volunteers at polling places across the country to help voters having trouble with the polls on Election Day.

The non-partisan group, called Election Protection -- to be announced at a press conference later this morning -- is being headed up by the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, a legal group established in 1963 in the heat of the Civil Rights Movement.

While the group ran a similar effort in 2004, the new effort will be on a far grander scale, reflecting a growing sense that private efforts to combat the bureaucratic ineptitude and premeditated shenanigans that continue to mar the voting process just haven't been up to the task.

"This will be the largest voter protection effort in the history of the country," project head Jonah Goldman, a longtime civil rights and election reform lawyer, insisted in an interview yesterday with Election Central. The backbone of their effort is a hotline, 866-OUR-VOTE, that voters can call to have their questions answered, and to report problems.

Goldman says that the Lawyers' Committee has already raised $2.5 million for the effort, coming from individual donors and foundations like the Open Society Institute and the Tide Foundation, along with pro bono work from law firms.

Election Protection 2008 vows to employ hundreds of lawyers and law students at call centers across the country on Election Day. "We've expanded our volume, our capacity from 2004, and we expect to be able to handle over a quarter of a million calls this time," says Goldman, who's also director of the National Campaign for Fair Elections.