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McCain - Conservative?

Posted by Dave on Wednesday, January 23, 2008 7:00:34 PM
Lots of verbal spewing back and forth about whether McCain is a "Conservative" or not.

Those in favor of McCain tout his American Conservative Union (ACU) lifetime rating of 82.3 as proof that McCain is a conservative.  Well, let's look at that shall we?

Yes, McCain has a lifetime rating of 82.3 but what has his rating done over time?  Especially compared to his colleague in the Senate John Kyl.

Unfortunately for John he comes off quite poor in that comparison as this chart shows. Including his time in the House when he moved to the State to run for a newly created Seat.

McCain Kyle Difference
1983 96 96
1984 86 86
1985 81 81
1986 73 73
1987 91 91
1988 80 80
1989 93 93
1990 87 87
1991 86 86
1992 85 85
1993 83 83
1994 96 96
1995 96 90 6
1996 91 100 -9
1997 80 96 -16
1998 68 96 -28
1999 77 100 -23
2000 81 100 -19
2001 68 100 -32
2002 78 100 -22
2003 75 90 -15
2004 72 100 -28
2005 80 100 -20
2006 65 92 -27

Sometime in the middle of Bill Clinton's second term (1997 to be exact) McCain changed.  During his first 12 years in the Senate McCain averaged an ACU score of 86.4 but in the last twelve years he has averaged a score of 77.5.

The really dramatic - and sustained - change in his scores have come in the years since GWB beat him in 2000.  During the past 7 years McCain has scored 74.1 average but during the preceeding 7 years his score was 84.4.  McCain is clearly coasting on his first twelve years in the House/Senate to claim a "lifetime" ACU score of 82.3.  It's been downhill for quite a while now.

Obviously comparing any Senator's ACU score to John Kyl's would be problematic for most as Kyl is almost the defination of a consistant Conservative. Looking at the last year (2006) that the ACU has scores posted how does MCain compare to the other 53 Republican Senators?  He does not fare very well in this comparsion either coming in at number 46! 

Ranking Senator 2006
1 Ensign 100
2 Coburn 100
3 Inhofe 100
4 DeMint 100
5 Thune 100
6 Chambliss 96
7 Isakson 96
8 Brunning 96
9 Dole 96
10 Santorum 96
11 Cornyn 96
12 Allen 96
13 Thomas 96
14 Enzi 96
15 Shelby 92
16 Kyl 92
17 Vitter 92
18 Talent 92
19 Burr 92
20 Allard 88
21 Grassley 88
22 Craig 88
23 Crapo 88
24 Lott 88
25 Sununu 88
26 Brownback 87
27 Martinez 84
28 Roberts 84
29 McConnell 84
30 Hutchison 84
31 Hatch 84
32 Graham 83
33 Bond 80
34 Frist 76
35 Hagel 75
36 Domenici 75
37 Sessions 74
38 Gregg 72
39 Dewine 72
40 Smith 72
41 Alexander 72
42 Bennett 72
43 Stevens 71
44 Coleman 68
45 Cochran 67
46 McCain 65
47 Murkowski 64
48 Lugar 64
49 Warner 64
50 Voinovich 56
51 Collins 48
52 Spector 43
53 Snowe 36

But wait say the McCain fans there are lots of Senators above him with the same scores.  That's true.  So let's lump those with tied scores together to "even the playing field".  Again, MCain comes out wanting ranked 16th out of 21.(BTW: Kyl would be ranked 3rd out of that field of 21)
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