Farah's Post

This is actually a comment on Farah's post, but old Gus just can't figure out how to put hyperlinks into comments... Anyway, Old Gus was struck by the odd idea that Hillary Clinton would be a move toward the median voter. Can this be?? Is Mrs. Socialized Medicine reeeelly more conservative than John Kerry? Well, Old Gus hasn't had a chance to keep up with Hillary's roll call votes in the Senate (with all my prospecting). So I had to do a little research. There are several groups that track roll call votes of legislators and then tally them for a liberal-conservative ranking. Two of the most prominent are the Americans for Democratic Action (ADA), and the American Conservative Union (ACU). The ADA website is too grumpy for old Gus, so I looked up the ACU ratings for Hillary and John Kerry for the four years that Hillary has been in the Senate. These ratings go from zero to 100, with 100 being the most conservative. So, if Hillary is a move to the center, as is claimed in The Economist article, her ACU ratings would be higher than John Kerry's. Here are the ratings... Year Kerry Clinton 2003 13 10 2002 20 10 2001 4 12 2000 12 0 Lifetime 5 11 Well, crawdads and crayfish! Old Gus is onto something! If Hillary is a move toward moderation, her roll call votes over the past 4 years do not bear that out! On the other hand, perhaps Kerry has been moving himself over the past few years, in anticipation of his run for the Whitehouse (his lifetime rating is only 5). Anyway, Old Gus really liked your post, Farrah. I am just not sure that Hillary is a true move toward the median voter. If the Democrats really want to move over and try to pick up a few red states, they ought to nominate someone like Joe Lieberman.