Even for a man who made the cover of Newsweek before he was sworn in, it’s an impressive achievement. Senator Barack Obama, according to last week’s Tribune/WGN-TV poll, wins the approval of 72 percent of Illinois voters.
If that weren’t enough, state Republicans
give the new Democratic senator a 57 percent approval rating.
These
results will generate more speculation about his placement on the
national ticket in 2008 or 2012. They will also fuel, if more
fueling were needed, the media swoon over the junior senator.
He
is, we’re told constantly, a star. That message has come from
the New York Times, USA Today, CBS News, the Christian Science Monitor,
NBC’s Andrea Mitchell and many other news outlets and talking heads.
OK, so the guy’s gotten phenomenal press coverage and that influences
public opinion to some degree. Other than that, what has Obama
done since election that’s made him so popular?
We know he’s
extremely visible, shows up at town hall meetings, provides liaison
with Federal agencies to constituents and turns out reams of self-serving
press releases.
That’s pretty typical though.
So
is what he says in the Congressional Record. Statements from
Obama, such as the ones he made commending the Congressional Black
Caucus on its work on behalf of Afro-Colombians and congratulating
Northwestern University’s women’s lacrosse team, are routine fare.
As
is the senator’s inflated ego. In Time magazine this summer,
he compared himself to an American icon:
“In Lincoln’s rise
from poverty, his ultimate mastery of language and law, his capacity
to overcome personal loss and remain determined in the face of repeated
defeat - in all this, he reminded me not just of my own struggles.”
That’s right. Lincoln’s challenges remind him of not justhis own struggles, but even other people’s. You know, those
common folks who aren’t superstar senators.
Maybe the reason
Barack Obama is so popular with Illinoisans is the way he’s representing
them in Washington. Perhaps he votes on issues the way we want
him to.
When this session of Congress ends, assorted groups will
compile the votes related to their special interest and issue a rating
for each member of Congress. Organizations from both Left and
Right and everywhere in between do this. The ratings are helpful
in identifying where elected officials stand on particular issues.
Mr.
Obama hasn’t been in Washington long enough to be ranked by most of
the groups. That doesn’t mean, however, that he hasn’t established
a record.
Since the senator was sworn in, there have been 255
recorded Senate votes. He’s missed seven.
Of the remainder,
he’s voted the same as Senator Edward Kennedy well over 90 percent
of the time. I selected Kennedy’s record to compare for a reason.
Say
whatever you want about Teddy – and I have - there’s little doubt
that he is a liberal’s liberal.
Unlike many of his colleagues,
Kennedy doesn’t conduct an opinion survey to decide how he will vote. He is philosophically pure and unyieldingly dogmatic.
Kennedy
can afford to be. Bay Staters have repeatedly shown a willingness
to keep him in the Senate no matter what. Heck, he could probably
get away with murder and they’d still support him.
Teddy is a
living caricature of Big Government: Fat, bloated and out of
control. Most of the people in Massachusetts want that type
of representation.
But is that what the people of Illinois yearn
for? A liberal who votes with Kennedy more than nine times out
of ten?
Kerry won the state in last year’s election, but that
was because of the People’s Republic of Chicago. Of the state’s
102 counties, 88 went for George W. Bush.
Obama’s voting record
doesn’t reflect his constituency. The Illinois electorate may
not have intended to send Kennedy Lite to the Senate, but that’s what
it did.
And today a big majority, including Republicans for heaven’s
sake, approve of what he’s doing.
There’s the story of a woman conducting a public opinion poll by telephone. One of the questions was, “Which do you thing is the greater danger
to our survival, ignorance or apathy?” She called a man whose
reply was, “I don’t know and I don’t care.”
The superstar should
be thankful he’s blessed with so many constituents like that man.
This
appears in the October 20, 2005 Oak Lawn (IL) Reporter. Mike Bates
is the author of Right Angles and Other Obstinate Truths.
