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Jake Tapper is ABC News' Senior National Correspondent based in the network's Washington bureau. He writes about politics and popular culture and covers a range of national stories.
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Obama Pushback on National Journal Rankings
January 31, 2008 8:17 PM
The Obama campaign is taking serious issue with the National Journal rankings of him as the most liberal Senator in 2007.
Spokesman Bill Burton points out that because Sen. Obama was campaigning for much of 2007, he missed 32 out of the 99 votes the NJ used for its rankings.
Of the remaining 67, Obama and Clinton (who also missed many votes because she was campaigning, as did John McCain, etc), were both there to vote for 65.
They voted the same way on 63 of them.
On one where they differed, Obama voted with an amendment from Sen. Joe Lieberman, Ind - Conn., to create an Office of Public Integrity and Clinton voted against it.
On the other, Obama voted for an amendment from Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-NM, allowing "Y" visa holders to stay in the U.S. while renewing their visas, while Clinton -- who has staked out a more conservative position on illegal immigration -- voted against it.
And yet somehow he becomes the most liberal Senator, and she the 16th most.
Odd.
"Only in Washington can you get falsely attacked for being like Reagan one week and labeled the most liberal the next," Burton says. "The tendency of Washington to apply a misleading label to every person and idea is just one of the many things we need to change about how things operate inside the Beltway."
What say you?
- jpt
January 31, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (21)
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You seem to care sincerely about honest, fair judgment in regard to Obama. I am not sure from your article, however, whether this ranking was simply an analysis of voting in the senate during 2007 or whether anything else about those being ranked was taken into consideration.
It certainly would have been nice if you and the rest of the news media had been so conscientious in reporting and drawing conclusions about Hillary. Your self-rightious indignation about Hillary not immediately announcing Obama's victory Tuesday night when the super delegates had not cast their votes and there was no legal end to the race, certainly showed your prejudice.
Somehow the media doesn't realize that their strong bias against Hillary and tendency to treat Obama like a Pied Piper does not do him or the nation any good in the long run.
Posted by: Sara | Jun 10, 2008 5:36:59 PM
I love the idiot Clinton supporters here who attack Obama for missing votes while campaigning, even though the article said clearly that they had missed the same number of votes. How ignorant can you get?
Oh, and after all this was calculated, Hillary skipped out on an important FISA vote that Obama showed up for.
Posted by: Veritas | Mar 15, 2008 5:42:33 PM
1. You Clintonistas waiting for Rezko to bite Obama get over it. If there were something to it besides the smoking mirrors the press and Billary are trying to present it would have been uncovered by now.
2. Obama stands for change and Billary does not. They stand for business as usual. How much more money are they going to sell their souls for?
3. I will NEVER vote for another Clinton, period. Obama can pick her if he wants to but I will stay home. I figure if we survived 8 years under the Shrub hell we might as well let them destroy the rest of the world and fulfill the Republican wingnuts prophecies.
3. Everybody keeps trying to find some dirt on Obama yet the dirt on Billy Bob keep on coming--the latest being the Kazakhstan mining deal. It will only continue.
4. Congress folks have been missing votes for years but no big deal. Now you want to make a big deal out of it get over it.
5. Headlines like these are designed to grab attention. It won't work.
Posted by: Yurdelite | Feb 2, 2008 2:37:57 PM
If Obama truly wants to change this country he can start by spending more time in the Senate and run for Office when he is ready.
Posted by: J Hudson | Feb 2, 2008 2:12:58 PM
"You say po-tay-to and I say po-tah-to./You say to-may-to and I say to-mah-to./Po-tay-to,/Po-tah-to./ To-may-to,/To-mah-to." etc., etc.
Posted by: chuck | Feb 1, 2008 2:22:37 PM
Maybe what we should be asking Obama is why he felt he needed to miss this many votes in order to campaign. Hillary did not miss anywhere close to what he missed.
Posted by: Eric | Feb 1, 2008 12:47:40 PM
Obama is always pampered and promoted by the media in some way or other, I see no strength there. The media usually doesn't treat Hillary with favor, on the other hand.
Posted by: GT | Feb 1, 2008 11:36:31 AM
Why are we not talking about Rezko. Let the truth out yhe American people has a right to know.
Posted by: shirley | Feb 1, 2008 7:37:19 AM
Their policies are very similar but the approach is different, that's why I am inclined to vote for Sen.Obama, besides the fact that he has really started a new political era in the USA, rallying Americans to work together towards a common cause and to be more politically involved, that can just be good for this country!
Posted by: carmen | Feb 1, 2008 5:05:07 AM
Jake, I posted a comment on the earlier post you did about this subject which pointed out the absurdity of the National Review...excuse me, National Journal "liberal" methodology. That comment was deleted. I posted it again, and it was deleted again. Why? There was no cursing in it, and no personal attack on you or anyone else. Yet, somehow, it got deleted, not once, but twice. A person would get to thinking that maybe Jake Tapper didn't really like to hear his reader' opinions. Say it ain't so, Jake. Tell me that you support the First Amendment and are interested in hearing other people's opinions, even if they aren't the same as yours.
'Cause, you know, it would just be too sad if ABC News was actually deleting comments from this blog simply because they didn't like what the commenter said. Just too, too sad.
Posted by: commie atheist | Feb 1, 2008 12:45:58 AM
I wonder why Nat. Journal would misrepresent voting records to rate Obama as much more liberal then Clinton right before super Tuesday. It could be they think this info may sway votes to Barack and they prefer to run against him in the general (or NOT) Kudos for giving blog space to Obama pushback.
Posted by: laurie | Feb 1, 2008 12:20:44 AM
I thought reporters were more awesome than bloggers because they were "accountable"? Your hit piece is quite the "hit" over at Drudge.
Posted by: flounder | Jan 31, 2008 11:27:30 PM
WE LOVE OBAMA IN NYC!
this is best pro-obama article i've read so far, "goodbye to all that" by andrew sullivan.
Posted by: Alex K | Jan 31, 2008 10:31:09 PM
Just one novel observation on the Democratic debate: Senator Clinton made seven grammatical errors as opposed to only two for Senator Obama.
Posted by: don seeger | Jan 31, 2008 10:10:27 PM
lol Max...
point taken.
don't let it get into your head.
anyway, if i recall correctly that comment really didn't belong in here.
-dc
Posted by: washingtonian | Jan 31, 2008 9:49:08 PM
Washingtonian, what comment are you talking about?
Posted by: Max Thrax | Jan 31, 2008 9:23:24 PM
Max, why did you post that here?? why not post it under the blof entry that your comment is about?
sheesh.
Posted by: washingtonian | Jan 31, 2008 9:14:52 PM
Another person arrested in the Obama scandal. This is going to get good. The person is a Iraq-born billionaire Nadhmi Auchi with ties to REZKO and Obama
Posted by: j0hn edwa | Jan 31, 2008 9:01:45 PM
just wanted to reiterate my comment on your previous entry regarding the so-called survey:
According to CNN, the only 2 votes that Obama and Clinton differed on were 1) imposing "...a measure...to establish an Office of Public Integrity to handle ethics complaints (Clinton voted no, Obama yes)..."
and 2)"...a measure that sought to allow certain immigrants to stay in the united states while renewing their visas (again, Clinton voted no and Obama yes)".
-dc
Posted by: washingtonian | Jan 31, 2008 8:47:42 PM
I say that you are supposed to be a reporter. Maybe you could a little work. Report what their rankings were in 2005 and 2006 when they were not on the campaign trail missing votes.
You could also point out the way this "smear" was done by same "journal" against Kerrey.
You could point out the bias this journal has.
You could do a little investigating and work yourself.
Posted by: DrSteveB | Jan 31, 2008 8:44:53 PM
Thanks for the update.
Posted by: washingtonian | Jan 31, 2008 8:30:43 PM
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