by Jo | February 19th, 2008
Shouldn’t we have a President that is more than just “present”?
In 1999, Barack Obama was faced with a difficult vote in the Illinois legislature — to support a bill that would let some juveniles be tried as adults, a position that risked drawing fire from African-Americans, or to oppose it, possibly undermining his image as a tough-on-crime moderate.
In the end, Mr. Obama chose neither to vote for nor against the bill. He voted “present,” effectively sidestepping the issue, an option he invoked nearly 130 times as a state senator.
“It’s Not Just ‘Ayes’ and ‘Nays’: Obama’s Votes in Illinois Echo”
via New York Slimes [Dec 2007]
The article does go on to say that a lot of times he voted ‘present’ on orders from the local DNC and at times because he wasn’t comfortable with all of the bill.
Does that also mean that when he is President he’s going to be taking his orders from Howard Dean and ilk?
![[Ask]](http://joscafe.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/ask.png)
![[Bloglines]](http://joscafe.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/bloglines.png)
![[del.icio.us]](http://joscafe.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/delicious.png)
![[Facebook]](http://joscafe.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/facebook.png)
![[Google]](http://joscafe.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/google.png)
![[Sphere]](http://joscafe.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/sphere.png)
![[StumbleUpon]](http://joscafe.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/stumbleupon.png)
![[Technorati]](http://joscafe.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/technorati.png)
![[Twitter]](http://joscafe.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/twitter.png)
![[Yahoo!]](http://joscafe.com/wp-content/plugins/bookmarkify/yahoo.png)


February 19th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
If he becomes the “commander guy” or the “Decider” I guess then he can do as he pleases?
February 19th, 2008 at 1:07 pm
And as soon as he does, we on the right are going to start railing at him for doing what he wants … the same they accuse GW of doing.
February 21st, 2008 at 7:18 am
I am personally more than a little troubled by the sudden cult-of-personality that has formed around Obama. He is riding a wave to the whitehouse, a wave that apparently ignores both his politics and experience in favor of charisma and culture.
If elected, I fear for our tomorrows.
Redoubt’s last blog post..Checkered Flags or? Butterfly Nets?
June 30th, 2008 at 12:14 am
There is no way that any sane person would
ever vote for Barack Obama. He never does
anything real he just walks around grinning
and then criticizes someone if they ever say
something, but he never comes up with any
new idea of his own. The ideas he has that
he said he believed in apparently he has changed
his mind now because it doesn’t look like they
will get him enough votes. He is a wimp.