Obama has voted with Bush _____% of the time

cited in body | 10/17/2008 | sandlady

[sandlady]

Headline readers are swayed by the Obama rhetoric, "McCain voted with Bush 95% of the time." What's important is NOT the percentage of agreements but rather the CONTENT of both the agreements and the disagreements.

Commentary: Obama and Bush not so far apart--Tara Wall

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/13/wall.bush-obama/index.html?iref=newssearch

[sandlady]

And this excerpt is interesting:

Many voters find it useful to know where each candidate stands in their party, in terms of being on the far left or far right. For example, a candidate such as McCain who votes with Bush 90% of the time, surely must be one of the staunchest Republican supporters of Bush? Actually, no. Of the 49 Republicans in the Senate, there are 17 who voted more often with the President, 25 who voted less often, and 6 Senators who voted with the President the same percentage of the time as McCain. About half of the Senate votes with the President the same amount as McCain or more, and about half vote with the President less, placing McCain around the middle of the Republicans in the Senate. Rather than being an exceptionally Bush-loyal Republican (or a huge maverick, for that matter), McCain has voted with the President about as often as other moderate Republicans.

Obama’s votes with the President, relative to the rest of his party, have a different tendency. Of the 49 Democratic Senators, only 6 have voted with the President less than Senator Obama. 42 have voted with the President more often than Senator Obama, who is at the far left edge of his party in terms of agreement with the President.

http://www.bloggernews.net/117673