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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bearcatbob who wrote (72928)	6/18/2008 11:08:41 PM
From: epicure	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 542941

Why? Are you under the impression those are the only kinds of accomplishments? You are changing the argument. First you say he's done "nothing"- now you want to say your "nothing" is real quite a limited kind of idea. What you SHOULD say is "Yeah, you got me; it was hyperbole on my part." Oh well

To: Bearcatbob who wrote (72928)	6/18/2008 11:10:57 PM
From: Rambi	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 542941

I didn't know the answer so went googling- I would think as a junior senator, Obama wouldn't have been in much of a position yet to have much influence, but he seems to have worked on a lot of stuff. McCain, despite many years in the Senate seems to have a surprisingly thin record of real accomplishment- the only bill I could find was mCCain-Feingold. I really did think I would find this long list for McCain, but I didn't. Feel free to post more! The Illinois Senator sponsored or co-sponsored 63 bills this year. As with Hillary, some of them would have immediate practical effect--such as S. 1306, the Lead Free Toys Act of 2007-- and some are less urgent--such as S. Con. Res. 5 which honors the life of Percy Lavon Julian, the first African American to be inducted into the Academy of Sciences. Of Obama's proposed legislation, 3 bills passed in 2007. 1. a resolution celebrating the life of Bishop Gilbert Earl Patterson. 2. the designation of July 12, 2007 as "National Summer Learning Day." 3. a condemnation of Zimbabwe's governmental oppression of its citizens. The takeaway from all of this? It's much easier to pass non-binding, symbolic laws than ones that actually do much to change the world. Congress is a team sport, after all. One could do a similar treatment of John McCain's past year, too. What' is really instructive about all of this is the list of items each Senator sponsored. Both Clinton and Obama are very progressive. Both have introduced bills to protect the middle class, aid veterans, and increase public safety oversight. In terms of getting things done, what’s John McCain ever accomplished? Beyond a minor, years-old procedural reform to the campaign finance system — nothing. And he’s had much more time in Washington in which to get something done. But in McCain’s past 25 years in congress he’s managed to author not a single piece of legislation that’s been signed into law that helps any real people with any real problems. He’s spent a lot of time posturing on the Sunday shows, and affiliated himself with a few pieces of modestly progressive legislation that didn’t get passed, and then disavowed all those bills.