Is Obama the most liberal Senator... and why doesn't McCain show up?

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/01/31/625886.aspx

I think the Republicans are cherry picking this statement when it only reflects the most recent year, a year when Obama was only present for 2/3rds of the votes due to his campaigning.

In fact, this article goes on to say "Indeed, while Obama ranks as the magazine's most liberal senator of 2007, his ranking was 16th in 2005 and 10th in 2006." These ratings come from the National Record magazine.

Seems as though the Republicans central argument of late isn't really all that accurate from a comprehensive perspective.

And for those that question why Obama wasn't present for a third of the votes, let's take a look at McCain's record.

"As for McCain, the magazine says that he didn't vote frequently enough in 2007 to get an overall rating. Per National Journal, "He missed more than half of the votes in both the economic and foreign-policy categories. On social issues, which include immigration, McCain received a conservative score of 59."

Notice how McCain missed over half the votes on ECONOMIC and FOREIGN-POLICY categories, probably the two biggest issues facing our nation right now. It makes it pretty hilarious that the Republicans keep using the Obama 'present' votes in the Illinois legislature (which is a very common practice) as some kind of slight against him while McCain has clearly been shirking his responsibility in the Senate this year.