Truman's Conscience

Encouraging News From Sen. Obama's campaign

Two things have happened since Tuesday, January 29th that are important to me as a former Edwards supporter. Though I know I'm going to continue to have issues with Senator Obama's tendency to use GOP talking points and rhetoric, I feel slightly more comfortable because of these two events. First, there was his speech in Atlanta before parishinors in a predominantly black church where he lectured them on homophobia and the propensity for them to scorn gays:

"[...]We have scorned our gay brothers and sisters instead of embracing them," he said during the speech at Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Dr. King served as co-pastor with his father.Joe Solmonese, the president of the Human Rights Campaign, a gay lobbying group, said he thought Mr. Obama’s speech was the first time a presidential candidate had brought up gay issues in front of a nongay audience without being prompted
to do so."

Then there was yesterday's news about National Journal's 2007 Vote Rankings with the Illinois Junior Senator ranked as the most liberal Senator of 2007 while Sen. Clinton ranked number 16. In Mr. Obama's first two years as a Senator he scored 16th and 10th respectively:

"Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., was the most liberal senator in 2007, according to National Journal's 27th annual vote ratings. The insurgent presidential candidate shifted further to the left last year in the run-up to the primaries, after ranking as the 16th- and 10th-most-liberal during his first two years in the Senate."

Though I know I will always have issues with his propensity to never have met a GOP talking point he didn't like, I am somewhat relieved to hear/read this. These two events make me more comfortable supporting Sen. Obama and actually gives me some much needed breathing room.

Chris Bowers over at Open Left reminds us that out of the 267 votes Obama and Clinton both cast together in 2007, they only differed on 10 of those votes. This makes their differences at worst marginal and at best non-existent to the average voter. Actually this is good news from the Hillary camp as well. Yes, that debate last night left a pretty good taste in my mouth from both candidates.