John McCain's New Drinking Game

In a recent comment to a prior post comparing the pre-presidential experience of Barack Obama and Abraham Lincoln, an anonymous commentator began a non-related rant about Obama's voting record. Specifically, the person railed against Obama voting with the Democratic party 90-percent of the time and, therefore, cannot bring the "change" he touts in his campaign.

In truth, Obama votes with his party 96-percent of the time. (Scroll down to "Voting With Party" on left side).

However, John McCain, a self-described "maverick" and reformer, has voted with his party 88.1-percent of the time.  Not exactly an agent of "change" either.  In fact, a review of this complete list of voting records reflects that there are 31 GOP Senators who have voted against their party more often than John McCain.  There are 49 Republican senators.  That translates to 63-percent of the GOP Senators whose voting records deviate from party-lines, and thus are greater "mavericks" than McCain.

Two things to bear in mind when considering these figures: (1) Voting "with" your party does not inherently mean you voted "against" the other party, or the administration.  For example, the recent financial "rescue" bill was the baby of the GOP White House, and a majority of Senate Democrats and a majority of Senate Republicans voted for it.  That would translate in a "voting with party" mark for any candidate that voted in favor.; (2) This does not identify the differences between Obama and McCain - i.e. where did they vote different and where did they vote the same.

John McCain's "maverick" label borders on the ridiculous, but is clearly misleading (at least when engaging in an "apples-to-apples" generalized comparison of McCain's and Obama's voting records). Certainly, McCain has taken some positions well outside his party's agenda (e.g. Gang of 14; McCain-Feingold, to name a few).  But cherry-picking doesn't undo the overall record.

On the funny side, during the Vice-Presidential debate, both my wife and I mentioned that we should play a drinking game where we drink every time Sarah Palin said "maverick."  Turns out we weren't the only ones with that thought: