In terms of McCain presidency, I suspect he will be relatively conservative on foreign policy, moderate on social issues, and economic issues it depends on whether his supply-side advisors or deficit hawk advisors win out. Right now, there is an ongoing battle between economic advisors such as Pete Peterson and Warren Ruddman and Jack Kemp and Phil Gramm.

But it is premature to even think that McCain will win. Obama, is narrowly beating him and his margin is likely to expand once the primary ends. The only silver lining for McCain is that Obama is not popular in Florida. Most analysts tend to give Obama a slight edge at this point.

And Sarah is correct about Chafee. Chafee, was not a moderate but reliably liberal Democrat who really did very little for Republicans. In his primary with Whitehouse, the candidates really only differed over party affiliation. There is clear distinction between a moderate Republican like Senator Spector and someone who does not support any of the Republican agenda like Chafee. I blame Dole for wasting money on his race. Chafee, repaid the favor by leaving the Republican party and endorsing Obama.

The ADA’s counterpart is arguably the American Conservative Union. ACU gave Obama a conservative rating of 8.0 (out of 100) in 2006, and gives him a lifetime rating of 8.0. Clinton also got an 8.0 in 2006 and gets a whopping 9.0 lifetime. McCain got a score of 65 in 2006, and gets an 82.3 lifetime conservative rating.

And there you have it. Both the leading liberal and leading conservative rating groups give Obama and Clinton essentially equal marks, making them both indisputably ultra-liberals.

McCain appears from these ratings to be more conservative than conservatives claim he is, and less of a “maverick” than McCain says he is.

The National Journal’s rankings tend to be pretty good. Kerry, was one of the most liberal Senators in the Senate. Was he more liberal than say Paul Wellstone? Probably not, but he wasn’t the moderate he was claiming to be either. Neither was Obama, who was very popular with the liberal wing of the Democratic Party in Illinois and was the liberal candidate in the 2004 Democratic Primary. I find it odd that you cite Progessive Punch, which no one has ever heard of as an authoritative source.

Unfortunately, I am not very impressed with McCain’s team and I suspect that Obama will get away with a lot of stuff, while Obama’s surrogates like Howard Dean attack McCain unfairly. McCain’s main media guy, Mark McKinnon, who worked for Democrats until switching to work G.W. may quit McCain’s campaign if Obama is the nominee, which appears very likely. McCain, needs his own Karl Rove.

Now, if you use the ratings from a liberal group, like Progressive Punch, the most liberal Senator for ‘07-08 is Frank Lautenberg. Kerry is #18, Clinton is #29, and Obama is #43. Even using lifetime ranking, Schumer is #15, Clinton is #17, Kerry is #26, and Obama is #24.

Yeah, sure, each side will rate who is more liberal or conservative according to their own pet issues. It’s just that I find it curious that, whoever happens to be the front-running Democrat, gets labeled the “most liberal.”

As Jake Tapper, ABC News points out, Obama was campaigning through much of 2007, and missed 32 of the 99 votes that the National Journal used to compile their rating. Of the remaining 65 votes that Obama and Clinton both voted on (they were both absent a lot, as was McCain, BTW), Obama voted identically to Clinton on 63 of those votes. Yet, inexplicably, Clinton is rated the 16th most liberal in the Senate for ‘07, while Obama is that #1 most liberal?

Anyone care to explain THAT methodology?

She is making a fool of herself and is badly in need of counseling.

Wake up Dems…at this point the Clinton campaign has become a pyschotic ego trip and her bigoted comments last week about her support from “white voters” is nothing short of shameful. Had a Republican said what she did, the entire liberal establishment would be calling the candidate a racist.