How They Compare
Both Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama have promised change from the policies of the Bush administration. Each has tried to paint the other as out of touch with “mainstream” America. But how do they really compare?
Based on their votes in the Senate, the two were most alike on social issues but far apart on economic and foreign policy. McCain and Obama voted the same way on four of 12 “key” votes identified by the National Journal for the 109th Congress (2005-06). Both voted in favor of funding for embryonic-stem-cell research and immigration reform that would have allowed undocumented immigrants to earn citizenship. They both opposed drilling in the Alaska Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and a constitutional amendment to prohibit same-sex marriage. They differed on estate taxes, entitlement spending, the minimum wage, abortion, free trade, terrorism, Iraq and the nomination of conservative Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court.
Overall, National Journal ranked Obama as the most liberal senator in 2007, after ranking as the 16th- and 10th-most-liberal during his first two years in the Senate. The magazine said McCain missed too many votes (voting on only 44 of 99 votes used in the ratings) for it to rank him in 2007.
In 2006, before he began campaigning for president, McCain ranked slightly left of center on social issues (more liberal than 53 percent of his colleagues) while Obama ranked in the 77th percentile on the liberal scale, according to National Journal rankings.
McCain was more conservative than 64 percent of his Senate colleagues on economic issues, while Obama voted more liberal than 87 percent. On foreign affairs there also was a big gap: McCain was more conservative than 58 percent while Obama was more liberal than 85 percent.
The National Journal ratings rank lawmakers on how they vote relative to each other on a conservative-to-liberal scale. For example, a Senator in the 30th percentile of liberals and the 60th percentile of conservatives on economic issues voted more liberal than 30 percent of the Senate and more conservative than 60 percent of Senators on those issues, and was tied with the remaining 10 percent. The scores do not mean that the member voted liberal 30 percent of the time and voted conservative 60 percent of the time. For more information on how the ratings were compiled click here.
Another way to compare the candidates is to see how they were ranked by interest groups.
For example, Obama ranked higher than McCain with the liberal Americans for Democratic Action (ADA), the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) and the League of Conservation Voters (LCV). McCain, in turn, ranked higher in ratings of the National Taxpayers Union (NTU), the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the American Conservative Union.