“Obama in Senate: Star Power, Minor Role” (New York Times:
Excerpts:
Mr. Obama took few bold stands and diverted little from the liberal orthodoxy he had embraced in the Illinois Senate. His voting record in his first year in Washington, according to the annual rankings by National Journal, was more liberal than 82.5 percent of the Senate (compared with, for example, Mrs. Clinton’s 79.8 percent that year).
He worked with Senator Tom Coburn, Republican of Oklahoma and one of the most conservative in the chamber, to establish a public database to examine government spending after Hurricane Katrina.
But for the most part, he stuck to party lines; there were few examples of the kind of bipartisan work he advocates in his current campaign.
He disappointed some Democrats by not taking a more prominent role opposing the war — he voted against a troop withdrawal proposal by Senators John Kerry of Massachusetts and Russ Feingold of Wisconsin in June 2006, arguing that a firm date for withdrawal would hamstring diplomats and military commanders in the field.
He was running for president even as he was still getting lost in the Capitol’s corridors.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/09/us/politics/09obama.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2
