You may hear a lot about Barack Obama being "the most liberal senator". But really, how liberal or conservative are Obama and McCain? Luckily, the resourceful folks at http://www.electoral-vote.com have done an independent objective study to answer this question. According to the Ratings Table below, out of 100 Senators, with #1 being most liberal and #100 being most Conservative:
Barack Obama is rated #42 - 8th closest to middle!
John McCain is rated #96 - 4th most conservative!
*note: Joe Biden is rated #48 - 2nd closest to middle
Source: http://www.electoral-vote.com/...
The "Obama is the most liberal Senator" myth comes from this questionable National Journal study: http://nj.nationaljournal.com/... They also named John Kerry "Most Liberal Senator" in 2004. They change their rating scale to fit the democratic nominee... Coincidence? It is suspect at best.
How Liberal Interest Groups Rate the Senators (2007)
Many interest groups rate senators on how they vote. Well-known groups that issue such ratings include Americans for Democratic Action (a progressive group) and the American Conservative Union (a conservative group). In the table below, we give the ratings of seven such groups and the mean value for each senator. However, the ratings are not completely independent. Usually senators who get a good rating from the ADA get a bad rating from the ACU and vice versa. If we used four progressive groups and four conservative groups, every senator would probably get a score of 50%--not very interesting. To avoid this problem, we have only used (relatively) progressive groups. If you are a progressive, a senator with a high score is a good senator (supports everything progressive). If you are a conservative, a senator with a low score is a good senator (opposes everything progressive). In this way the differences between the senators stand out clearly. The table below is sorted on mean rating. Additional ratings from other interest groups can be found at http://www.vote-smart.org.
The seven groups used in this study are:
ACLU - American Civil Liberties Union
ADA - Americans for Democratic Action
CDF - Children's Defense Fund
LCV - League of Conservation Voters
NAACP - National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
NARAL - National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League
SEIU - Service Employees International Union
| Senator | Mean Rating |
1 | Ben Cardin (D) | 96% |
2 | Russ Feingold (D) | 96% |
3 | Bob Menendez (D) | 96% |
4 | Jack Reed (D) | 96% |
5 | Daniel Akaka (D) | 94% |
6 | Jeff Bingaman (D) | 94% |
7 | Sherrod Brown (D) | 94% |
8 | Dick Durbin (D) | 94% |
9 | Tom Harkin (D) | 94% |
10 | Frank Lautenberg (D) | 94% |
11 | Patrick Leahy (D) | 94% |
12 | Patty Murray (D) | 94% |
13 | Sheldon Whitehouse (D) | 94% |
14 | Maria Cantwell (D) | 93% |
15 | Charles Schumer (D) | 93% |
16 | Ron Wyden (D) | 93% |
17 | John Kerry (D) | 92% |
18 | Herbert Kohl (D) | 92% |
19 | Bernard Sanders (I) | 92% |
20 | Carl Levin (D) | 91% |
21 | Harry Reid (D) | 91% |
22 | Bob Casey (D) | 90% |
23 | Amy Klobuchar (D) | 90% |
24 | Debbie Stabenow (D) | 90% |
25 | Byron Dorgan (D) | 89% |
26 | Barbara Boxer (D) | 88% |
27 | Barbara Mikulski (D) | 88% |
28 | Thomas Carper (D) | 87% |
29 | Edward Kennedy (D) | 87% |
30 | Bill Nelson (D) | 87% |
31 | Jon Tester (D) | 87% |
32 | Evan Bayh (D) | 86% |
33 | Diannne Feinstein (D) | 86% |
34 | Ken Salazar(D) | 86% |
35 | Daniel Inouye (D) | 85% |
36 | James Webb (D) | 84% |
37 | John Rockefeller (D) | 83% |
38 | Hillary Clinton (D) | 82% |
39 | Claire McCaskill (D) | 82% |
40 | Max Baucus (D) | 81% |
41 | Robert Byrd (D) | 81% |
42 | Barack Obama (D) | 80% |
43 | Kent Conrad (D) | 78% |
44 | Joseph Lieberman (I) | 78% |
45 | Christopher Dodd (D) | 76% |
46 | Mark Pryor (D) | 75% |
47 | Olympia Snowe (R) | 75% |
48 | Joe Biden (D) | 74% |
49 | Blanche Lincoln (D) | 74% |
50 | Susan Collins (R) | 72% |
51 | Mary Landrieu (D) | 70% |
52 | Ben Nelson (D) | 66% |
53 | Arlen Specter (R) | 63% |
54 | Tim Johnson (D) | 56% |
55 | Gordon Smith (R) | 54% |
56 | Richard Lugar (R) | 49% |
57 | Norm Coleman (R) | 44% |
58 | Lisa Murkowski (R) | 44% |
59 | Ted Stevens (R) | 39% |
60 | John Warner (R) | 38% |
X | Craig Thomas (R) (d. 2007) | 34% |
61 | Orrin Hatch (R) | 33% |
62 | John Sununu (R) | 33% |
63 | Charles Grassley (R) | 30% |
64 | George Voinovich (R) | 27% |
65 | Lamar Alexander (R) | 26% |
66 | Bob Corker (GOP | 25% |
67 | Pete Domenici (R) | 25% |
68 | Chuck Hagel (R) | 25% |
69 | Kay Bailey Hutchison (R) | 24% |
70 | Kit Bond (R) | 22% |
X | Trent Lott (R) (resigned) | 20% |
71 | Robert Bennett (R) | 20% |
72 | Judd Gregg (R) | 20% |
73 | John Thune (R) | 20% |
74 | Larry Craig (R) | 18% |
75 | John Barrasso (R) | 15% |
76 | Mel Martinez (R) | 17% |
77 | Richard Shelby (R) | 17% |
78 | Elizabeth Dole (R) | 16% |
79 | Pat Roberts (R) | 16% |
80 | Jeff Sessions (R) | 16% |
81 | Saxby Chambliss (R) | 15% |
82 | Jim Bunning (R) | 14% |
83 | Thad Cochran (R) | 14% |
84 | Mike Crapo (GOP | 14% |
85 | John Ensign (R) | 14% |
86 | Lindsey Graham (R) | 14% |
87 | Johnny Isakson (R) | 14% |
88 | Michael Enzi (R) | 14% |
89 | Mitch McConnell (R) | 13% |
90 | Sam Brownback (R) | 11% |
91 | Wayne Allard (R) | 11% |
92 | John Cornyn (R) | 11% |
93 | Richard Burr (R) | 10% |
94 | David Vitter (R) | 10% |
95 | Jon Kyl (R) | 9% |
96 | John McCain (R) | 9% |
97 | Tom Coburn (R) | 8% |
98 | Jim DeMint (R) | 8% |
99 | James Inhofe (R) | 8% |
100 | Roger Wicker (R) | 3% |