Read all the way down....According to this rating, John McCain is more conservative than Obama and Hillary but look at who you are comparing him to.
This is from:
http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/...u_ratings.html
Senator John McCain's lifetime rating of
82.3% from the American Conservative Union is often cited as proof that he is conservative. Here is a closer look at that 82.3 rating.
First, a rating of 82.3
is not really that high. It puts Senator McCain
in 39th place among senators serving in 2006, the latest year for which the ACU has its ratings posted online.
For that most recent year in particular, McCain scored only 65, putting him in 47th place for that year. Ben Nelson (D-NE) and Chuck Hagel (R-NE), for example, scored 64 and 75, respectively, in 2006.
Generally, McCain has voted less conservatively in more recent years. His average for 1990-97 was 88, but was only 74 for 1998-2006. Below are his yearly ratings since 1990.
Year
ACU Rating
2006
65
2005
80
2004
72
2003
80
2002
72
2001
68
2000
81
1999
77
1998
68
1997
80
1996
95
1995
91
1994
96
1993
83
1992
85
1991
86
1990
87
So where did McCain differ from the ACU? The big areas were taxes, campaign finance reform, the environment and, most recently, immigration. There was also a smattering of support for trial lawyers; federal intervention in health, education, safety or voting issues; internationalism; and some social issues. He was more consistently conservative on spending and defense issues. The list below summarizes all his votes since 1998 that differed from the ACU's position.
Year and Issue
Vote Margin
2006, Taxes
50-50
2006, Immigration
50-49
2006, Immigration
62-36
2006, Social: Same Sex Marriage
49-48
2006, Native Hawaiian Govt.
56-41
2006, International: Iran sanctions
54-45
2006, Immigration: Border Fence
71-29
2006, Social: Embryonic Stem Cells
63-37
2005, Taxes
51-49
2005, Environment: Climate Change
60-38
2005, Environment: mercury emissions
51-47
2005, Environment: ANWR
51-48
2005, Taxes: Oil & gas development
51-48
2004, Spending/Social: School vouchers
65-28
2004, Regulation: seat belts
57-41
2004, Legal Reform: Gun manufacturers
70-27
2004, Spending: Unemployment
58-39
2004, Taxes
51-48
2004, Spending: Education of disabled
56-41
2004, Legal Reform: Torts
44-43
2003, Taxes
50-50
2003, Taxes
50-50
2003, Taxes
51-49
2003, Environment: Kyoto
55-43
2002, Voter fraud, state control
55-40
2002, Regulation: SUV fuel efficiency
56-44
2002, CFR
60-40
2002, Taxes: death tax
55-44
2001, CFR
69-31
2001, CFR
60-40
2001, CFR
57-43
2001, Taxes: marriage penalty
73-27
2001, Taxes: capital gains
51-47
2001, Taxes
58-33
2001, Taxes/Health: med. savings accounts
53-45
2001, Legal Reform: torts
54-42
2000, Taxes
56-44
2000, International: Troops in Kosovo
53-47
2000, CFR: Brad Smith on FEC
65-35
2000, CFR
57-42
1999, International: Troops in Kosovo
N/A
1999, Health: managed care
N/A
1999, Spending
N/A
1999, CFR
N/A
1998, Health: surgeon general confirm.
75-23
1998, CFR
50-47
1998, CFR
50-48
1998, CFR
51-48
1998, Taxes: tobacco
72-26
1998, Taxes: tobacco
57-42
1998, International: Troops in Bosnia
65-31
1998, International: IMF lending
74-19
Another piece of information from the list above is that many of the votes were close. In one third of these votes, a swing of only two senators would have changed the outcome. In over two thirds, a swing of ten senators would have changed the outcome. As someone remarked, McCain is like a baseball player who gets all his hits after two outs and no one on base, and all his outs with men in scoring position.
As might be expected, ACU ratings essentially reflect party affiliation. At the halfway point, ranking 50th, we have Richard Shelby (R-AL, formerly D-AL) with a lifetime score of 74.2. But Robert Byrd (D-WV) ranks just slightly lower at 58th, with a score of only 29.6. By the time you get to 66th place, all scores are below 20.
What this means is that McCain's ACU ratings since 1998 put him on the liberal side among Republicans. The few Republicans consistently more liberal than McCain would be Chafee (formerly R-RI), Collins (R-ME), Snowe (R-ME) and Specter (R-PA). One could expect senators from northeastern states to be more liberal since their constituencies demand it, but McCain represents the fairly conservative state of Arizona. (Arizona's other senator, Kyl, has a lifetime rating of 96.9, and half the representatives from there have ratings of 94.7 or higher.)
How much more liberal would McCain vote if his constituency put even the slightest pressure on him in that direction?
On the other hand, Senator Clinton (D-NY) has a lifetime ACU rating of 9 (83rd place) and Senator Obama (D-IL) has a rating of 8 (86th place).
Not much the cheer about here.
I will vote for Hillary before I would vote for him.
George - as in curious
Linear Mode
