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Politics : John Kerry for President? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tejek who wrote (574)	8/3/2004 6:48:12 PM
From: TimF	Respond to of 3515

You have? I suspect they don't do their own ratings but rather use the National Journal's rating system and extrapolate what they want from it. The ADA on the left and the ACU on the right use the candidates voting record. They pick 10 to 40 votes a year that they consider a good baromiter of the candidates conservative or liberal leanings and see where the candidate voted on each one. Kerry has scored a bit less on the ADA ratings in recent years but he is still solidly on the liberal side even on the liberal side of the Democratic party. And part of the reason for his lower ADA ratings is that he has missed more votes. From your own link - "The results of the vote ratings show that Kerry was the most liberal senator in 2003, with a composite liberal score of 96.5. But Edwards wasn't far behind: He had a 2003 composite liberal score of 94.5, making him the fourth-most-liberal senator." "In those years -- 1986, 1988, and 1990 -- Kerry did not vote with Senate conservatives a single time out of the total of 138 votes used to prepare those ratings" "A separate analysis showed that of the votes that Kerry cast in the two categories in which he did not receive scores in 2003 -- social policy and foreign policy -- he consistently took the liberal view within the Senate. Edwards did not receive a score in the foreign-policy category; he sided with the liberals on five votes in that area, and with the conservatives on one vote." " To be sure, Kerry's ranking as the No. 1 Senate liberal in 2003 -- and his earning of similar honors three times during his first term, from 1985 to 1990 -- will probably have opposition researchers licking their chops. As shown in the accompanying chart, Kerry had a perfect liberal rating on social issues during 10 of the 18 years in which he received a score, meaning that he did not side with conservatives on a single vote in those years." But then there is - But interestingly, during Kerry's second term, from 1991 to 1996, he dropped back into the pack of Democratic senators and voted more moderately. In those years, he earned composite liberal scores in National Journal's vote ratings ranging from 78.2 to 85.8." --- So in 1 of the 18 years in which Kerry recieved a score he managed to get as low as 78.2 (still not exactly middle of the road), and in 10 of the 18 years he had a perfect 100% liberal voting record. The truth is that Kerry is not very liberal......certainly not as liberal as Ted Kennedy or Kerry's core supporters. The truth is he is very liberal, one of the most liberal senators and at least in terms of voting record the most liberal Democratic nominee of US president in recent years, more so then Carter, Clinton, Gore, apparently even then Dukakis but there votes are on different issues (Dukakis wasn't in congress). Kerry even has a 2 point higher lifteime ADA rating then Mondale (and 5 points higher then Ted Kennedy). For the past 4 years, the GOP has worked diligently to make the word, liberal, a dirty one. If you like the word, why fight so hard to say that Kerry is not liberal. His record is liberal. If you think that is good then just say "yes he is very liberal and its a great thing too". and are spinning it completely out of control in order to paint Kerry a friend of Castro. You have a quote saying Kerry is a friend of Castro? BTW please tell shortie that Kerry is left of Stalin becuase Stalin was a rightie! Why would I want to lie to Shortie? Tim