WASHINGTON - In one of his first Senate votes, Illinois' freshman DemocratThere is some speculation Obama is triangulating for a possible higher office (the presidency). I sure hope not and I have a feeling that isn't what's going on. I really do think the guy is doing things his way, even if I don't always agree with that way.
Barack Obama helped Republicans give President Bush the first major victory of
his second term: a legal overhaul designed to discourage multimillion dollar
class-action lawsuits by shifting more of them to federal court.
More
recently, Obama held himself out as open to working with Republicans before
ultimately siding with fellow Democrats and one Republican to defeat Bush's
proposal to give power plants more time to reduce their air-polluting emissions.
[snip]
In addition to the class-action bill, Obama also split
with fellow Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin, who is the Democrat's chief
vote-counter, when he voted to confirm Condoleezza Rice as secretary of state.
Obama has sided with his Democratic leadership to oppose recent budget
and bankruptcy bills on the Senate floor, and he voted, along with Durbin,
against Alberto Gonzales, Bush's attorney general pick.
If his vote for
the Republican-endorsed class-action bill made him less predictable in some
people's view - Obama himself thinks that's a good thing.
"I hope that
continues," Obama said. "What I'm trying to do is call them as I see them and
not be pigeonholed in terms of right or left or center. I'm just trying to
evaluate each piece of legislation based on what I think is best for the
constituents back home."
If Obama was cynically casting votes based solely on what would "look" best in some future run for president, he would run into trouble with his own party soon enough. Such tactics could wind up depriving him of coveted committee participation within the Senate. Additionally, it might even hurt in winning a future presidential primary, the biggest prerequisite to an actual presidential run.
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