Clinton, Obama Score Well on Children's Issues, McCain Worst In Senate

Advocacy for children's issues is a go-to political device in every presidential campaign. But never, perhaps, more than this one as both Sen. Hillary Clinton (with the Children's Defense Fund) and Barack Obama (with community organizing) have had personal experiences that touch on the matter.

So who is best equipped to aid children? Well, not surprisingly, both.

The Children's Defense Fund recently released its yearly report card. And in it, Clinton received a rating of 70 percent for her votes on ten key legislative issues. Obama, scored slightly lower at 60. But each Senator, representatives of CDF note, were hurt not by philosophical disagreements but congressional absenteeism. Obama missed four report card votes, Clinton three.

"Both of them have a pretty good reputation," said Ed Shelleby, a spokesman for the organization. "Obviously Senator Clinton use to work here 35 years ago and was a board member as well. Obama also has had a pretty good history of child advocacy, so he has a good score as well."

Clinton and Obama's potential general election opponent did not receive such high merits. Sen. John McCain was rated the worst legislature in the Senate in regards to children's issues, having been given a paltry grade of ten percent.

"Some was absenteeism," said Shelleby, "some of it was votes." McCain did miss eight of the ten votes the Children Defense Fund considered.

Among the votes considered by CDF include: increasing minimum wage, increasing funding for education for children with disabilities, protecting children from unsafe medications (Food and Drug Administration Revitalization Act), and extending health coverage to children (The Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act).

Below are the past grades the Children's Defense Fund has given to each candidate:

2005 (released in '06 for votes in '05)
Sen. Clinton: 100 %
Sen. Obama: 100 %
Sen. McCain: 22 %

2006 (released in '07 for votes in '06)

Sen. Clinton: 90 %
Sen. Obama: 100 %
Sen. McCain: 10 %

Comments

[horacekent]

11:44 PM on 02/27/2008

******** BREAKING NEWS: Hillary Attacked. (VIDEO)

Unfair treatment of Hillary: Caught on tape.

Click link below, for actual footage:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AQhJDLZTP0

Great Luck!
~HK

[Advocate123]

08:31 PM on 02/27/2008

I'm sorry. The American people do not support back-door socialism in the name of the Children.

SCHIP would give 25 year olds who make 80,000 socialized medicine.

If you care about the children, stop then endless entitlements that will bankrupt their future.

[iPolitics]

09:57 PM on 02/27/2008

Yeah. It's destroying Europe. The Euro hit 1.50 to the $1.00 today.

[MajorKong]

10:45 AM on 02/28/2008

But endless wars that will bankrupt their futures are OK....

[NoahVail]

08:30 PM on 02/27/2008

Hey- don't make fun of McCain's record w/children. I will have you know that Arizona is #1 in teen pregnancies! Yeah, we're #1! We're #1! Let's keep our boys in Iraq for the rest of the century, and shut down the school system- the Army will teach them everything they need to know. (And the pregnant teen agers will make sure there are plenty of poor, ignorant replacement troops.) Yeah for the new Republican world order!!!!

[iPolitics]

08:05 PM on 02/27/2008

McCain isn't worried about the children. He doesn't plan on our nation having a future for them to enjoy.

Wait! When do they reach draft age?

[enoughalready13]

07:54 PM on 02/27/2008

Yet again, Hillary's record trumps Barack's - the woman is the REAL DEAL folks - please make her our next President!

[JadedAggie]

09:48 PM on 02/27/2008

lmao You don't sound like you read the article. Both of them really have a 100% record with all of their demerits being absences. They have identical records over the time they've been in the senate with both only having 4 absences and my assumption would be all due to the campaign (pretty sure hillary's missing 10% in 2007 was a campaign function).

[gcallaghan]

07:50 PM on 02/27/2008

Why do republicunts hate children so much?

[MajorKong]

10:44 AM on 02/28/2008

They only care about them before they're born. After that you're pretty much on your own.

[phansen]

07:31 PM on 02/27/2008

Getting a score of 10% should be embarrassing considering McCain has more children of his own than Obama and Clinton put together. One might think he would prioritize, but then again, Dick Cheney's daughter is gay, and his support for that community doesn't seem to reflect it.

[phansen]

07:33 PM on 02/27/2008

Of course, using percentages is misleading here. But McCain's record goes way back, and can be studied based on those votes for which he was present.

[enoughalready13]

07:54 PM on 02/27/2008

Mc Cain's many children can't stand him... he just had to "make up" with a bunch of them prior to the primary so they wouldn't implode on the campaign trail...

Bush had not sat for a family protrait with his family in almost 10 years until a recent Vanite Fair picture last year...

Repuglicans hate children - seen not heard...

[TheInsomniac]

07:28 PM on 02/27/2008

Why are they reporting this garbage in %? All their "report" did was ask whether they were present and voted for 1 of 10 votes. Hillary missed 3 of those votes, Obama 4, and McCain 8. Hillary voted for them 100% of the time she was present (7 times), 100% (6 times) for Obama, but 50% (1 out of 2 times present) for McCain. This article makes it sounds like there was something more complex to this report than 3rd grade division, but there was not.