Thanks for offering the link. It does show what he has worked on but if you notice, very few of the items can actually be considered 'accomplishments'. Maybe 'works in progress' would be a better phrase?

I see that he has missed 23% of the votes and won't bother to question that, but there is something aobut the other 77% of the votes that I would like to know. What percentage of the 77% did he simply vote "present"? I did not see that information in the link that you provided but perhaps I missed it.

Jemison

I'd rather have someone show up to their job and vote present on bills he doesnt agree with - that he thinks needs refining

than someone who has missed more votes than any other senator in history

McCain is up to...what...?

almost 67% ?


and has missed EVERY SINGLE vote on the environmental issue policies

[edit on 8/31/2008 by Andrew E. Wiggin]

Originally posted by Andrew E. Wiggin
I'd rather have someone show up to their job and vote present on bills he doesnt agree with - that he thinks needs refining

than someone who has missed more votes than any other senator in history

McCain is up to...what...?

almost 67% ?


and has missed EVERY SINGLE vote on the environmental issue policies

[edit on 8/31/2008 by Andrew E. Wiggin]

I agree with you on this.

The sad thing is how many do the same thing to a varying extent.

I'd rather have someone show up to their job and vote present on bills he doesnt agree with - that he thinks needs refining

I disagree, mainly because Obama himself has claimed that his 'present' votes were errors based on the way the State Senate does their voting. But, if you want to dismiss the explaination that Obama gave, then once again, I would have to disagree with his 'present' vote being a preferable alternative to a yea or nay vote. Obama had a problem with committing to issues because he knew he would be running for President and he didn't want to have to justify votes on controversial issues that could come back to be bothersome down the road. Take your pick, either he's ignorant on the way that one goes about voting in the Senate or he's remaining uncommitted so that it can't bite him in the behind ... either way, it's not impressive IMHO.


As for McCain, his voting record may appear confusing until one takes a look at the actual bill being voted on. Things that McCain supports he may have voted against, not because he didn't believe and back the actual ISSUE, but because he paid attention to the last minute special interest earmarks that were thrown in and the only way to stand against those was to vote against the bill as a whole. He made a lot of people VERY angry because of that but THAT is the kind of change that we need in Washington and he WILL NOT tolerate earmarks and pork.

Obama hasn't been in office long but I'll be fair and give credit where credit is due. I believe he managed to get somewhere between 40 - 80 million dollars in earmarks through for his special interest groups. So let's all agree to put THAT on his list of accomplishments.

Jemison