Maverick Kadabra

(Opinion alert)

Before I get back to focusing on some issues, I'll post once more on some Obama propaganda. As always, I hope you know I don't think it matters. However, since my friend Sparky insists on using every Obama ad as fodder for his argument when we debate, I decided it would be appropriate to look at this voting-record conundrum.

In his latest smear ad, Obama claims that John McCain and Sarah Palin are "anything but mavericks" and are just "more of the same". Let's go over some of its key points.

Point: "Sarah Palin was for the bridge to nowhere before she was against it"

Counter 1: Remember when the outspoken political pundit Kanye West said that George Bush hates black people because he failed to respond to Hurricane Katrina? He was right about Bush's lackluster response, but maybe he should have said something about Barack Obama's, too. Barack Obama and Joe Biden were for the bridge to nowhere, always. Even when a Republican senator compromised by suggesting the funds be transferred to Katrina relief, Barack Obama said no. Voting records

Counter 2: Attacking Palin's position on this is the oldest political trick in the book, just more of the same. Rather than giving Sarah Palin credit for standing up to congress and stopping the project when it became too costly, Obama chooses to mudsling and attack her apparent "flip flop". More of the same, Mr. Obama? Look in the mirror.

Point: "Seven of his top campaign advisers are Washington lobbyists"

Counter 1: Seven? McCain has thirty-six advisers just on his economic team. He also appears to have about thirty-five foreign policy advisers as well as a slew of at least thirty more advisers in other miscellaneous categories. As Obama points out, seven out of more than a hundred happen to be lobbyists. Looks like Obama's advisers did a good job counting. After all, more than seven of them are media consultants (pollsters, campaigners, media managers).

Counter 2: One of Obama's key campaign points has been that McCain refuses to focus on the issues. Maybe Obama should practice what he preaches. Of course, if he did, he would realize that those policies that the evil McCain came up with beat the pants of his policies, some of which have been proven to fail.

Point: "He's no maverick when he votes with Bush 90% of the time"

Counter: Barack Obama is not fooling anybody when he cites that statistic. McCain has always stood for what he thinks is right. He voted against Bush on at least these teensy-tiny issues:

• McCain supported stem cell funding when Bush opposed it
• McCain voted against a constitutional ban on gay marriage when Bush supported it
• McCain voted against Bush's tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy (though he later admitted that they had worked the way Bush planned)
  
  NPR link

One time when McCain was famously in favor of Bush's policy was on the Iraq troop surge. Although it was a highly unpopular opinion, maverick McCain supported a surge he knew would work, and it has.

Anything but a maverick: Barack Obama

The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste, an independent organization, gave each member of congress a score as to how much they stand up against wasteful earmarks.

John McCain scored 100%. Barack Obama scored 10%. Joe Biden scored 0%. Sarah Palin is not a congresswoman, but I am sure such a score on her part would be neither as high as McCain's nor as low as Biden and Obama's.

CAGW Ratings (intro)
CAGW Ratings (listing)

So there you have it. John McCain, "anything but a maverick" according to Barack Obama. Barack Obama, the exact opposite of a maverick according to an independent study.