Would John McCain's Election Really Represent a Third Bush Term?

Joined at the Hip?

Barack Obama says John McCain represents a third Bush term and that he has voted with the president 90 percent of the time.

But senior research scientist John Lott at the University of Maryland writes in The Philadelphia Inquirer "the 90 percent figure from Congressional Quarterly is nonsensical" and says most of those votes were just procedural. He adds, "Obama might want to be a little careful with these attacks, as the same measure has him voting with Democrats 97 percent of the time."

He cites research from the right-leaning American Conservative Union, the liberal Americans for Democratic Action and the non-partisan National Journal. It indicates that from 2001 to 2007, McCain voted to the left of most Republican senators and to the right of most of his Democratic colleagues. Americans for Democratic Action even says McCain voted liberally 24 percent of the time — twice as much as the average Republican.

Party Poopers?

Third party presidential candidates Ralph Nader and Bob Barr will be on nearly all state ballots for the November general election and could play the role of spoiler in a tight race.

The Politico newspaper reports Nader — who is running as an Independent — is on the ballot in 45 states and the District of Columbia. That is two more states than in 2000 when he won just over 2.5 percent of the vote as the Green Party candidate. He was blamed by some Democrats for taking votes away from Al Gore and tilting the election in favor of George W. Bush.

Barr is the Libertarian Party candidate. He has made the ballot in at least 44 states. He is currently challenging decisions to leave him off in five others.

Read the rest. And for the record... yes it would be a third term for Bush. In fact, it would be worse.