For quite a while, you have been reading in the press how either candidate has experience. Even copy and paste diaries show how one may have more experience, but is the comparison honest?
Is it really fair to compare 8 years in the Illinois state senate with 7 in the U.S. senate? Can you really compare being the first lady with a community organizer? Well, in this diary, I will attempt to give an accurate comparison of the two Democratic nominees and their history of service to our country.
In starting this diary, I want to first set up some working ideas. These will run the basis of this diary.
- Experience is experience. That means that any professional experience in the world of politics will count in this diary.
- You can, in fact, learn through observation. You do it every day.
- You can learn through failure. You do not have to pass a bill to gain experience.
- I'll attempt, in this comparison, to be as factual as possible. I will qualify my interjections.
- Unless found guilty of wrong doing, there will be no scandals in this post. Neither candidate has been found guilty of anything, therefore we will not discuss this matter.
So what does this mean? This means that we will examine Obama and Clinton going back to their earliest claims of experience. As a matter of point comparison, we will start with both after their college educations.
We will start with Hillary Clinton's post-graduate, pre-first-lady experience.
- Following graduation, came defense attorney for Child's Defense Fund
- Worked on the Nixon impeachment "consideration".
- Organized Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families
- Appointed, by Carter, to the United States Legal Services Corporation
- Served on the board of Arkansas Children's Hospital.
- Served on other boards including Children's Television Workshop
- Worked with the ABA's Commission on Women in the profession
- Twice named one of the 100 most influential lawyers.
- Served as editor to Yale's Review of Law.
Source: www.hillaryclinton.com
Now, from Obama's own website, we will cover his post-graduate, pre-senate experience
- He worked as a community organizer with a church-based group seeking to improve conditions in poor neighborhoods.
- First African-American president of the Harvard Law review.
- Taught congressional law while practicing as a civil rights attorney.
Source: www.barackobama.com
Interjection: This comparison, of course, may not be entirely fair due to the nature of the two websites. Hillary Clinton has given many more details on her website, but Mr. Obama has fewer details. While I could go to their various books, I feel as if we will be getting into questions of which information is important tot his campaign. As such, I chose to stick to their websites for this pre-service history. This portion is not meant to be an entire report of their histories and should not be used as "Clinton did more!" or "Obama did less!" Instead, it should be what it is -- information gleaned from their biographies given on their websites.
Now we will detail their state-level public service. This will be comparing Ms. Clinton's first lady status in Arkansas to Mr. Obama's senator status in Illinois. We must remember, by one of our working concepts, that experience is experience. I will qualify, however, that Hillary Clinton was not elected to this post. Mr. Obama was elected as Senator. I will be including her First Lady of the U.S. experience with Senate experience, but I will qualify that as such.
We will start, again, with Hillary Clinton (simply by virtue of the first letter of her last name). Scandals will not be covered.
- While first lady of Arkansas, worked on various boards including charing the Arkansas Educational Standards Committee. The also served on the various boards above during her time in Arkansas.
- Worked on the boards of TCBY, Wal-Mart, and Lefarge. Interjection: Many critics will cite her work on the Wal-Mart board as a negative. Sam Walton viewed her as a thorn in his side due to her constant demands of more women in higher positions.
- While charing the Arkansas Educational Standards Committee, she fought for teacher raises and better testing for teachers to insure competency.
- While First Lady of Arkansas, Clinton championed HIPPY (Home Instruction Program for Preschool Youth) which, according to About.com, became a model for other states.
Source: http://littlerock.about.com/...
Now we will detail Barack Obama's state senate experience. It should be noted that he held this office for approximately 8 years. We will detail bills he passed, both positive and negative. We will also talk committees and other information relevant to his state service. Scandals will, again, not be covered.
- Elected in 1996 - 2004. He attempted a U.S. Representative run in 2000. He resigned in 2004 to pursue the Senate seat.
- According to the New York Times, his service was during Republican control.
- In blog comments, some information is given concerning Obama's time in Illinois. Interjection: This blog post, I've yet to find information to back it up. I do not doubt it has some basis in fact, but it should be noted that statistics have yet to turn up, including on the Illinois senate page which only returned 3 bills with Obama's name upon search. No bill numbers are given, nor are we given how many of these actually passed. The next point will detail this post.
- During eight years of his Illinois state service he sponsored over 820 bills. He introduced 233 regarding health care reform, 125 on poverty and public assistance, 112 crime fighting bills, 97 economic bills, 60 human rights and anti-discrimination bills, 21 ethics reform bills, 15 gun control, 6 veterans affairs and others.
Interjection: Once again, I cannot find independent information to back up these 820 bills. It comes from a blog post. If you have a place where these bills are detailed, along with information on their adoption, please comment. One thing, however, should be clear -- both worked for good causes. Clinton worked, clearly, for children and women. Obama, clearly, worked for health care and the poor. I cannot, however, find much on Obama's state senate career. I do find a less-than-flattering New York Times article with some information, but I'm hesitant to use it as it paints Obama as a shrewd politician -- which this diary isn't about.
So now we'll move on to national service. I want to qualify, I will be including Clinton's experiences as First Lady. This is included under the premise that experience is experience. I will, however, separate the senate numbers from the information of Clinton as first lady. We will not, again, cover scandals or investigations. Again, this is about their experience, not about their dirt.
Clinton as first lady:
- Chaired the Task Force on National Health Care, which ultimately failed but, according to Clinton, gave her great insights into how our process worked.
- Worked on making adoptions easier, increase funding for breast cancer research, and helped created the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997.
- Was "instrumental" in forming SCHIP -- States Children's Health Insurance Program.
Source: HillaryClinton.com
Clinton as Senator:
- Clinton has served as U.S. Senator for 7 years. She has a 60% approval rating from the state of New York.
- Clinton has missed 152 of 2406 votes (6%), increasing significantly in Q3 of 2007.
- Clinton served on: Senate Committee of Armed Services, Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works -- chairing the Subcommittee on Superfund and Environmental Health, Senate Committee on health, education, labor, and pensions; and on the Senate Special Committee of aging.
- Clinton has sponsored 345 bills in 7 years, of which 307 haven't made it out of committee -- 2 have been enacted. She has co-sponsored 1,723 bills.
Ten of the bills that she has sponsored include:
- Nursing Home Quality and Transparency Act
- Improved Vaccine Supply Act
- Influenza Vaccine Security Act
- Congressional Oversight of Iraqi Agreements Act
- Protection against HIV of youth and women Act
- Quality Child Care Act
- Korean War Vet Recognition Act
- Nuclear Terrorism Prevention Act
- 21st Century GI Bill of Rights Act
- Nursing Education and Quality of Health Care Act
5 Votes/Positions chosen at random (w/ Obama absense/opposition if any)
- S1927 - Extended eavesdropping - No. - Passed.
- HR976 - Expand SCHIP $60b over 5 years - Yea. - Passed. - Obama not voting.
- HR1 - Implementing 9/11 commission - Yea. - Passed. - Obama not voting.
- Vote 207 - Rebuking Alberto Gonzalez - Yea. - Passed.
- Cloture on Comprehensive Immigration Reform - Yea. Failed.
Source: http://www.govtrack.us/...
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/...
Now we move to Obama's senate information.
- Obama has served as a U.S. Senator for 3 years. No approval rating is given.
- Obama has missed 185 of 1097 votes. Most of these beginning in Q1 of 2007.
- Obama has served on: Senate Committee for Foreign relations (chaired European Affairs subcommittee), Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions; Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, and Committee of Veterans Affairs.
- Obama has sponsored 129 bills in 3 years, 120 of which haven't made it out of committee. 1 has been enacted. Obama has co-sponsored 545 bills.
Ten of the bills he has sponsored include:
- Global Poverty Act of 2007
- Nuclear Release Notice Act
- Positive Behavior for Effective Schools Act
- Military Family Job Protection Act
- Teaching Residency Act
- Predominately Black Institution Act
- Deceptive Practices and Voter Intimidation Act
- A resolution designating July 12th, 2007 as "National Summer Learning Day"
- American Fuels Act of 2007
- Transparency and Accountability in Military and Security Contracting Act of 2007
5 votes/positions chosen at random (w/ Clinton absences/opposition if any):
- Vote 181 on war funding, $120b - Nay. - Passed
- HR1591 - Troop readiness, Katrina Funding, Accountability for appropriations w/ benchmarks - Yea. - Passed
- HR1591 - Bill calling for withdraw as well as the above - Yea. - Passed
- HR 6061 - Secure Border fence - Yea - Passed.
- HR 110 - Stem Cell funding - Yea - Passed and Vetoed.
Source: http://www.govtrack.us/...
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/...
Interjection from here on out:
As we look at this information, one thing should be clear -- both Obama and Clinton have experience. Clinton clearly has spent her professional life working for children and women -- especially education and health care. Obama, on the other hand, clearly has dedicated his professional life to minorities and the poor. Both have a clear, extensive resume that branches back over 20 years. While Clinton may, through simple information dissemination, have a larger appearing experience advantage, Obama cannot be called inexperienced -- merely less so in a very, very minor way.
Both have served on a large amounts of committees. Both have been instrumental in passing laws. If both candidates are present, they seem to closely mirror each other's votes. In fact, of the random samples I grabbed...I didn't see Obama and Clinton on the opposing side of any vote.
However, I would be remiss in my commentary if I did not point out Obama's truancy. Though both have been absent from their jobs, Obama's absense starts much sooner than Clinton's, and continues to increase. Clinton's started much later, but is becoming much more common as the campaign continues. Both, however, clearly have emptied their seats for the campaign.
While Clinton can claim she has accomplished much more by the senate numbers, some could argue that this is simply a product of being in the Senate a little longer. Of course, an easy reply here could be that Obama would often have to double his current work rate to match Clinton.
In either case, numbers do not cause one or the other to be "more experienced". That comes down to a lot more than just mere numbers of passage and presence. It comes from application of their knowledge, and I would say that both candidates have clearly applied their knowledge, their beliefs, and their experiences in life to their respective histories.
And, yes, the three bills they've passed per the website? Fluff.
Obama's passed resolutions/bills per govtrack:
- S. Res. 133: A resolution celebrating the life of Bishop Gilbert Earl Patterson
- S. Res. 268: A resolution designating July 12, 2007, as "National Summer Learning Day"
- S. Con. Res. 25: A concurrent resolution condemning the recent violent actions of the Government of Zimbabwe
The final is the one passed bill of Obama's.
Clinton's passed resolutions/bills per govtrack:
- S. Con. Res. 63: A concurrent resolution expressing the sense of the Congress regarding the need for additional research into the chronic neurological condition hydrocephalus, and for other purposes.
- S. Con. Res. 27: A concurrent resolution supporting the goals and ideals of "National Purple Heart Recognition Day"
- S. Con. Res. 26: A concurrent resolution recognizing the 75th anniversary of the Military Order of the Purple Heart and commending recipients of the Purple Heart for their courageous demonstrations of gallantry and heroism on behalf of the United States.
- S. Res. 222: A resolution supporting the goals and ideals of Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month
- S.Res. 141: A resolution urging all member countries of the International Commission of the International Tracing Service who have yet to ratify the May 2006 amendments to the 1955 Bonn Accords to expedite the ratification process to allow for open access to the Holocaust archives located at Bad Arolsen, Germany.
- S.Res. 92: A resolution calling for the immediate and unconditional release of soldiers of Israel held captive by Hamas and Hezbollah.
- S.Res. 21: A resolution recognizing the uncommon valor of Wesley Autrey of New York, New York.
Most of both of their passed bills are resolutions that end in Congress.
Addition! Either I missed this one, or it wasn't covered:
S.2125 A bill to promote relief, security, and democracy in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Funny enough, it was sponsored by Barack Obama and guess who is the second co-sponsor? Hillary Clinton! So this may be a less fluffy bill, but I think the most interesting part is that both current, major candidates signed together to get it passed!
Link courtesy of DemocraticLuntz: http://thomas.loc.gov/...
Another update:
This entry gives you one result from a bill passed by Obama in the form of a website to keep track of spending!
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Thank you, barath, for showing me your entry. It's something I hadn't heard of, and is another example of the fact that Obama has experience much like Clinton does.