Cherie Priest

Holy crap, we have a democratic party nominee.

Yes, yes. I know I could put an asterisk at the end of that sentence, explaining that Hillary hasn’t technically bowed out yet, and maybe I should mention it with a grain of salt and a grimace; but for all I’ve been aggravated with her lately, I still think she’s a great lady. She’s a powerful politician, and a history-making figure in her own right.

Let me be clear: If she had won the nomination, I would’ve campaigned my heart out for her. I would’ve worn her buttons, slapped her stickers on my car, and written fist-pumping, glowing internet posts with the express intent of educating and motivating voters to put her in the White House. And hell or high water, I would’ve voted for her with great gusto.

But she didn’t win it. And now, we’ve got Obama; and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t happy about it. I’ve been on the bandwagon, drinking the Kool-Aid for months now, and I make no apologies for it.

So I say all that to say this: There’s been a general media impression that no one knows what he really thinks, or what he’s supported, or what he’s really done during his time in public office. Well. I’ve been under the weather for a few days — stuck at home with my laptop, the internet, and a whole lotta free time. So here you go. Have a basic primer on his stats and figures.

But First, Some Disclaimers. This is only a “highlights” summary of some things that I, personally, thought were noteworthy. If you want to know more, check out his official website. And if there’s anything you’d like to see added, and you can give me a direct link to a credible third-party reference, submit it and I’ll update this entry to include it. Likewise, feel free to link this entry, either on livejournal or on my main website, if you’d like to share the info.

And now, Barack Obama: A few words on what he’s done, what he thinks, how he votes, and where to go learn more.

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1998: Obama sponsored campaign reform legislation banning most gifts by lobbyists, prohibiting spending campaign money for legislators’ personal use and requiring electronic filing of campaign disclosure reports. The disclosure requirement “revolutionized Illinois’s system,” said Cindi Canary, executive director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform. By giving journalists immediate access to a database of expenditures and contributions, it transformed political reporting. (1)

2003: Helped win passage of the “driving-while-black” bill, which required the police to collect data on the race of drivers they stopped as a way to monitor racial profiling. Law enforcement groups had repeatedly blocked earlier versions while the Republicans were in control; when the Democrats took over, Mr. Obama brokered a compromise between the police groups and the A.C.L.U. (1.a)

2003: While an Illinois state senator, Obama was key in getting the state’s notorious death penalty laws changed, including a requirement that in most cases police interrogations involving capital crimes must be recorded. Obama became the deliberate center of an emotional debate that brought together law enforcement and civil rights activists to help reform a system that sent 13 innocent men to death row. (2)

2003: Obama sponsored a bill that expanded eligibility for KidCare and FamilyCare by amending “the Children’s Health Insurance Program Act to provide that a child with a household income of 200%, rather than 185%, of the federal poverty level is eligible to participate in the Program.” Though he briefly came under fire for claiming to have insured 150,000 people in Illinois, he was later vindicated when it was revealed that the actual number of people helped by the bill was closer to 156,000. (3)

2006: Working with Republican Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, Obama won enactment of a law creating a single, searchable database of all federal contracts, grants and loans. He also partnered with senior Indiana Republican Sen. Richard Lugar, the former chairman of the Foreign Relations panel, to sponsor legislation to strengthen international efforts to destroy conventional weapons, though it did not advance out of committee.

Separately, Obama was lead sponsor of a bill to provide relief and promote democracy in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which was signed into law in December 2006. He introduced legislation in 2005 to require federal preparations for an avian flu pandemic, but it didn’t advance. (4)

The senator’s highest-profile ventures have been bipartisan, including a tutelage in nuclear nonproliferation with Indiana’s Richard Lugar that took Obama to Eastern Europe and Russia, an effort to bring transparency to government contracting with Oklahoma senator Tom Coburn, and a push for immigration reform with Florida’s Mel Martinez. (5)

2006: An August trip to Africa found him visiting the cell where Nelson Mandela was held, talking terrorism in Djibouti, taking an AIDS test in Kenya, and visiting the rural village where his grandmother still lives. The AIDS test was particularly significant because testing for this condition carries a heavy stigma in some parts of Africa; and Obama’s public, enthusiastic submission to the test both raised awareness and helped to dim this stigma. (6)

2008: Obama lent heavy support to the Webb G.I. bill, because it’s hard to serve your country in Baghdad or Kabul; it shouldn’t be hard to pay for college once you’ve come back home. This is an excellent means of both supporting returning soldiers and attracting new ones with actual benefits instead of empty promises and a Swiss Cheese veteran’s health care system (7). For a great article on why the Webb G.I. bill is important to those who serve in the military, check footnote (8).

Ongoing: In his spare time between campaigning stops, Obama makes an effort to help bring the electoral crisis in Kenya to an end. Interestingly, Obama hasn’t mentioned his Kenyan intervention during his campaign throughout New Hampshire, and his staff has done little to publicize his actions, even though they might draw a positive reaction. That suggests Obama may see this as a personal endeavor. But it also might foreshadow how Obama would handle foreign policy as president. Engaging the principals in the Kenyan crisis directly seems in line with the vision he’s spelled out in debates, one that includes face-to-face meetings with foreign leaders, including those opposed to American interests. (9)

A list (and summary) of bills that Barack Obama has sponsored in the Illinois senate: Available here.

A list (and summary) of bills that Barack Obama has sponsored in the U.S. senate, courtesy of the Library of Congress: Available here. Edit: The Library of Congress seems to be having server issues, my apologies. The same information, plus a list of Obama’s committee memberships, can be found here at GovTrack.us.

An excellent highlights version of Obama’s bill-sponsoring habits can be found courtesy of The New York Times (click that link for a helpful graphic with pie charts and breakdowns).

Because there’s been a great deal of discussion about where Obama actually stands on a wide assortment of issues, I’ll also include a link to his website where he breaks down his stances on the economy, energy, education, ethics, the environment, and many other things that don’t even begin with “e” — Click here and read all about it.

And here is a wonderful resource to answer the smears, jeers, and outright lies being circulated about him.

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(1). New York Times, July 30, 2007.
(1.a) July 30, 2007 (same article as above).
(2). CNN Nov. 12, 2007
(3). Media Matters Dec. 17, 2007, and Obama’s fact check site, Dec. 14, 2007.
(4). PolitiFact.com — a fact-checking project of the St. Petersburg (Florida) Times newspaper.
(5). The Washingtonian, Nov 1, 2006
(6). The Washingtonian, same article as above; and the Chicago Tribune, Aug. 22, 2006.
(7). Newsweek, Mar. 31, 2008; Obama’s vote for the bill recorded here at senate.gov; he takes on McCain’s lack of support for the bill on the Senate floor (YouTube clip).
(8). The Huffington Post, June 1, 2008
(9). CBS, January 8, 2008.

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