Soccer Dad

Across the aisle

In explaining why his liberal voting record doesn't portend that he will be a partisan as President, Sen. Obama responds (via memeorandum):

"The only votes that come up are votes that are purposely designed to divide people," he said. "It's true that if I'm presented with a series of votes like that, I'm more likely to fall left of center than right of center. But as president, I would be setting the terms of debate."

And what sort of agenda would he be setting as President?

This answer seems a bit too pat and not entirely convincing. The legislature is where laws are made to implement policies that the majority of the legislature agrees with. To be sure there are some symbolic votes to define oneself ideologically, but there'd have to be some number of votes that are setting policy and those would not be ideological.

On the other hand, Sen. McCain has a history of bipartisanship, and how is that portrayed? (via memeorandum)

Senator John McCain never fails to call himself a conservative Republican as he campaigns as his party’s presumptive presidential nominee. He often adds that he was a “foot soldier” in the Reagan revolution and that he believes in the bedrock conservative principles of small government, low taxes and the rights of the unborn.

What Mr. McCain almost never mentions are two extraordinary moments in his political past that are at odds with the candidate of the present: His discussions in 2001 with Democrats about leaving the Republican Party, and his conversations in 2004 with Senator John Kerry about becoming Mr. Kerry’s running mate on the Democratic presidential ticket.

There are wildly divergent versions of both episodes, depending on whether Democrats or Mr. McCain and his advisers are telling the story. The Democrats, including Mr. Kerry, say that not only did Mr. McCain express interest but that it was his camp that initially reached out to them. Mr. McCain and his aides counter that in both cases the Democrats were the suitors and Mr. McCain the unwilling bride.

It's possible that McCain or someone in his camp did the reaching out, but that doesn't change the fact that, despite a generally conservative voting record, he has reached out across the aisle. In fact it appears that his dalliances with the Democrats were more personal than political. (It is true that in recent years that his voting record has become more liberal. His 82 American Conservative Union rating is weighted more towards the beginning of his career.)

Still it's interesting that Sen. Obama runs a centrist who has rarely reached across party lines and that Sen. McCain has run as conservative who has actually reached across party lines.

I do believe that actions speak louder than words.

UPDATE: Big Lizards explicates the McCain story.

john mccain, barack obama.