What Obama’s record tells voters

Tom Curry National affairs writer • Profile • E-mail

WASHINGTON — “The rock star Obama is fun to think about, but does anyone really know what he stands for?”

That’s what Tim LaPointe, a Mason City, Iowa attorney who has long been active in Democratic politics in his state and who supported Howard Dean in 2004 wrote to me last month.

Democrats, and Republicans too, are curious about Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., — curious not merely about the Obama allure, but about his voting record and where he’d try to lead the country if he were elected president.

Obama’s record as a United States senator and as an Illinois legislator shows him to fit comfortably into the Democratic mainstream of sympathy for lower-income people (he voted to raise the minimum wage), support for the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision on the right to get an abortion, support for phased withdrawal of troops in Iraq war but continued funding of those now there, and wariness about laws that might impose what he sees as an undue burden on racial minorities.

Low rating from conservatives
If you’re a conservative, there’s no surprise here: Obama isn’t one of you, except on his support for more disclosure of earmarks, targeted federal spending for local projects.

The American Conservative Union, a right-of-center group that issues a report card on the voting records of members of Congress, gives Obama an 8 out of 100 lifetime rating.

If you’re eco-friendly and want to see certain places kept off limits to oil and gas exploration, Obama is one of you.

Last March he voted against a bill that would have paved the way to oil and gas exploration in part of Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Last July he voted to filibuster a bill that would have opened eight million acres in the Gulf of Mexico to oil and gas drilling.

The confirmation vote on Chief Justice John Roberts provides a good case study in how Obama places himself on the political spectrum: he aligned himself with West Coast and Northeastern liberals in his party such as Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein of California and Sens. Charles Schumer and Hillary Clinton of New York, all of whom noted against Roberts.

Obama was at odds with western and southern Democrats, most of whom who voted for Roberts: Sens. Max Baucus of Montana, Ken Salazar of Colorado, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and others.

Praise for John Roberts
In explaining why he voted against Roberts, Obama told the Senate that he was “sorely tempted” to vote for him. Why?

• “There is absolutely no doubt in my mind Judge Roberts is qualified to sit on the highest court in the land,” Obama said.
• “He seems to have the comportment and the temperament that makes for a good judge. He is humble, he is personally decent, and he appears to be respectful of different points of view.”
• “He does, in fact, deeply respect the basic precepts that go into deciding 95 percent of the cases that come before the Federal court: adherence to precedents, a certain modesty in reading statutes and constitutional text, a respect for procedural regularity, and an impartiality in presiding over the adversarial system.”

So what’s not to like?

Explore Chief Justice John Roberts' Supreme Court

Obama said he was skeptical of Roberts’s “deepest values,” his “broader perspectives on how the world works” and his “empathy.”

According to Obama, the chief justice nominee told him that “he doesn't like bullies and has always viewed the law as a way of evening out the playing field between the strong and the weak.”

But Obama didn’t believe it.

“He has far more often used his formidable skills on behalf of the strong in opposition to the weak,” Obama said.

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