Politico: Obama accepts "most liberal" rating by National Journal

[usregimechange]

JH: Senator, you were ranked recently by National Journal as having the most liberal voting record as having the most liberal voting record in 2007. That prompts a question from Politico reader Don Mousch (sp.?) or Norwell (sp.), Mass. He wants to know what they liberal record should give us confidence that you can reach across the aisle and get things done in Washington.

BO: Well, first of all, not to grouse against the National Journal, but let me give you an example of why I was rated the most liberal was because I wanted an office of public integrity that stood outside of the Senate, and outside of Congress, to make sure that you’ve got an impartial eye on ethics problems inside of Congress. Now, I didn’t know that it was a liberal or Democratic issue. I thought that was a good government issue that a lot of Republicans would like to see. So that’s the problem with some of these ratings – how they score things. It uses categories that I think don’t make sense to a lot of Americans.

LH: Well, are you proud of that designation? To be known as the most liberal voting senator?

BO: I don’t think you heard what I just said, which is that the designations don’t make sense

JH: Michael Dukakis said, “Yes, I’m proud to be a liberal.” Bill Clinton said, “No we can’t cast ourselves as liberals.” Are you comfortable with the liberal label?

BO: This is what I would call old politics. This is the stuff we’re trying to get rid of. Because the problem is, when we start breaking down into conservative and liberal, and we’ve got a bunch of set predispositions, whether it’s on gun control, or its’ on health care, any attempt to do health care is socialized medicine. Any discuss about taxes ends up being, are you raising them or lowering them, as the opposed to the question I ask – are we raising them for high income individuals that can afford it, and lowering them for lower income people who really need help. Those old categories don’t work, and they’re preventing us from solving them problems.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0208/8457_Page2.html

[sloppyjoe25s]

1. Great summation in his last answer

why we need to get beyond labels

K&R

[ElsewheresDaughter]

2. Politico is a RW machine own and operated...and you are being p'wnd...too sad