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The only meaningful comparison is VOTES while both were U.S. Senators, wheeling and dealing in the same environment. Under this standard, Obama and Clinton are twins, with Clinton actually a nano-inch to Obama's left (Tort Reform, Peru Trade).

 

 

Books by Barack Obama

Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance  / The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream

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Clinton and Obama Legislative Records
 
I am not sure what to make of this comparison/contrast. I'll have to take the word of the author, Margo Bouchet, who places more emphasis on DOING than TALKING. Since she does not deal with the consequences of Obama's DOING, and I have no ready means of checking out the aftermath of his DOING, I thus place more weight on his TALKING, for there I can be my own judge. . . .
 
But I put it before you to make your own judgment. Anyhow in this comparison contrast, Obama wins hands down over Mrs. Clinton. But lately that is much to be expected—Rudy

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Clinton and Obama Legislative Records

Who is more qualified?

Let's take a closer look at who's really qualified and or who's really working for the good of all of us in the Senate. Obama or Clinton. 
Records of these two candidates should be scrutinized in order to make an informed decision.
 
Senator Clinton, who has served only one full term—6yrs.—and another year campaigning, has managed to author and pass into law 20—twenty pieces of legislation in her first six years.These bills can be found on the website of the Library of Congress
www.thomas.loc.gov  

Clinton’s Twenty Pieces of  Legislation

1. Establish the Kate Mullany National Historic Site.

2. Support the goals and ideals of Better Hearing and Speech Month.
3. Recognize the Ellis Island Medal of Honor.
4. Name courthouse after Thurgood Marshall.
5. Name courthouse after James L. Watson.
6. Name post office after Jonn A. O'Shea.
7. Designate Aug 7, 2003, as National Purple Heart Recognition Day.
8. Support the goals and ideals of National Purple Heart Recognition Day.
9. Honor the life and legacy of Alexander Hamilton on the bicentennial of his death.
10. Congratulate the Syracuse Univ. Orange Men's Lacrosse Team on winning the championship.
11. Congratulate the Le Moyne College Dolphins Men's Lacrosse Team on winning the championship.
12. Establish the 225th Anniversary of the American Revolution Commemorative Program.
13. Name post office after Sergeant Riayan A. Tejeda.
14. Honor Shirley Chisholm for her service to the nation and express condolences on her death.
15. Honor John J Downing, Brian Fahey, and Harry Ford, firefighters who lost their lives on duty. Only five of Clinton's bills are, more substantive. 16. Extend period of unemployment assistance to victims of 9/11.
17. Pay for city projects in response to 9/11  

18. Assist landmine victims in other countries.
19. Assist family caregivers in accessing affordable respite care.
20. Designate part of the National Forest System in Puerto Rico as protected in the wilderness preservation system.

 Obama Legislation in Illinois and WashingtonNow, I would post those of Obama's, but the list is too substantive, so I'll mainly categorize.
 
During the first—8—eight years of his elected service he sponsored over 820 bills. He introduced

 

 

233 regarding healthcare 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 many others.
 

His first year in the U.S. Senate, he authored 152 bills and co-sponsored another 427. These included  

 

**the Coburn-Obama Government Transparency Act of 2006—became law.

*The Lugar-Obama Nuclear Non-proliferation and Conventional Weapons Threat Reduction Act—became law.

**The Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act, passed the Senate.

**The 2007 Government Ethics Bill—became law.

**The Protection Against Excessive Executive Compensation Bill, In committee, and many more.


In all, since entering the U.S. Senate, Senator Obama has written 890 bills and co-sponsored another 1096. 

He's not just a talker.  He's a doer.
 
Law Office of Margo Bouchet
400 Corporate Pointe, Ste. 300
Culver City, California 90230
  
www.MargoBouchet.net <
http://www.MargoBouchet.net>  
(310)412-7058 (o)  (323) 292-7038   775.257.9412 (f)

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Wow! His record is very impressive.—Miriam

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Rudy,

This is an apples-and-oranges exercise, if I ever saw one. Obama shouldn't be given points for his Illinois legislative work - an entirely different political environment - any more than he should be called a "peace" candidate because of a 2002 campaign speech that he would soon bury in 2003 after the actual war began, and partially disassociate himself from in several interviews in 2004. Clinton shouldn't be allowed to cherry-pick her husband's record, either.

The only meaningful comparison is VOTES while both were U.S. Senators, wheeling and dealing in the same environment. Under this standard, Obama and Clinton are twins, with Clinton actually a nano-inch to Obama's left (Tort Reform, Peru Trade).

If folks want to support Obama because he's a "brother," or because he lies more beautifully than Clinton does, they should just say so. But the relevant data are what they are.

Watch him tack even further to the Right in the general election. They always do. But, of course, most of our folks will find a rationale for that, too. Sincerely, Glen

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If folks want to support Obama because he's a "brother," or because he lies more beautifully than Clinton does, they should just say so. Glen


If there was ever any veil, I now pull it down. That is where I am, on both accounts: He's black and he speaks beautifully. So you got me pegged. And I don't feel shamed. 
 
I am not able to measure the issues or his political behavior with your exactness. I wish I could. But status quo elections, by voters on the ground, never work on the basis of the "issues," unless they are extraordinary. The extraordinary issue before us is that white people of America, including those in Wisconsin, Texas, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina are voting a black man into the presidency. And he's no Condi Rice.
 
At this point nothing else is relevant, other than I like the way the man talks the issues. So for me, again, it is not a matter of DOING, but rather TALKING. I like the way the man talks and the more I listen to him the more I like the way he talks. I like so much the way he talks I am going out and acquire one of his memoirs . . .
 
Let it be known Rudy is not politically astute: When it comes to Obama, he votes much like the rabble.
 
Obama's election is just as improbable as the election of Abe Lincoln, of which little was expected, for he too had very little experience on the national level—a railroad lawyer who spent one term in the House; lost the race for the Senate from Illinois. He had less legislative work than Obama. But now he's counted as one of the greatest of American presidents.
 
Still I do not mind your critiques of Obama as an outside observer with a unique perspective. I embrace you for keeping us informed, where Obama might be if he were in some other governmentRudy

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Hear!  Hear!   I agree!  - Wilson 

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I'm voting for Obama because he's a brother, no two ways about it. How could it be otherwise? I was a Kucinich guy, UFO sightings or not, until he dropped out. Been a Kucinich admirer ever since he took on Cleveland's banks as a twenty something mayor decades ago.

I've been enjoying reading Glen's oppositional musings about Obama; good discussion is always relevant. But I'm unclear on who Glen is supporting-the Green Party? I wish I could support the Green Party but I witnessed too much in-fighting and racial turmoil during the candidates forum in San Francisco recently to go in that direction.

If Obama should get elected, perhaps it will take the experience of a Black presidency to convince masses of Americans that not even so drastic a change as voting a Black man into the White House will result in any meaningful change.

On the other hand, maybe comparing Obama to Abe Lincoln isn't so outlandish a comparison as it first may seem. Lincoln was thrust into extraordinary circumstances that had been preceded by inter-territorial warfare for a number of years.

Someday, when America's escalating crime rates are more realistically interpreted as urban warfare, as we now can safely say to be the case in Darfur, as opposed to genocide, perhaps Obama, or whomever is subsequently elected president either next year or in later years, will find themselves in unusual circumstances that will force them to oversee significant and substantial changes in the way the US is administered.

Stranger things have happened.  Peace Damu

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The Senate has held 645 roll-call votes during their shared tenure, and more than 90 percent of the time the two senators stood with other Democrats. They opposed John G. Roberts Jr.'s nomination as chief justice, supported increased funding for embryonic stem cell research and backed the same nonbinding measure that urged President Bush to plan for a gradual troop withdrawal from Iraq. Clinton-Obama Differences Clear In Senate Votes (Washington Post, 2007)

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Now let's look more closely at Obama. I was blown away as I started going through his record.  I've already mentioned his bills on health care and energy. In addition he had introduced bills on Iran, voting, veterans, global warming, campaign finance and lobbyists, Blackwater, global poverty, nuclear proliferation, and education. Dailykos

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* Ethics Reform: Obama was the Senate's point person on ethics reform, and sponsored or co-sponsored the bills that made up what the Washington Post called "the strongest ethics legislation to emerge from Congress yet." I'm also a fan of this bill, which I think of as the Journalists, Bloggers, and Citizens' Muckraking Empowerment Act: it creates a searchable database of recipients of federal grants and contracts.

* The Lugar-Obama initiative to strengthen the Nunn-Luger framework for securing loose nukes, and to extend it to securing and destroying stockpiles of conventional arms. (For instance, shoulder-fired missiles that could be used against passenger airlines, fired at our forces, or used to make any number of ongoing conflicts more deadly.)

* Various bills concerning the response to Hurricane Katrina, including an amendment putting strict limits on the use of no-bid contracts after disasters, requiring planning for the evacuation of people with special needs and senior citizens, creating a National Emergency Family Locator System, etc. There are also a lot of good bills he worked on that did not make it. . . .The Atlantic

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posted 19 February 2008

 

 

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