More Beef

The experience/accomplishment question has produced some very interesting and valuable information about Obama's actual Senate record -which some find to be more substantive than Hillary Clinton's - turning her experience argument on its head.

Others have been doing their own digging. In "I Refuse to Buy Into the Obama Hype (now a supporter)" a mother explains her own investigation, not trusting the Obama hype, but not in love with Hillary either:

I came away from my research really knowing a lot more about what is important to Hillary in her heart: kids and their well being. My research changed my feeling about her significantly. About 40% of her bills dealt with health care and/or kids. As a mom with small kids, I like her passion for children's issues...But most of her other bills are much smaller in scale and scope — more targeted and more careful.

She compares bills by both senators dealing with lead paint:

The difference is in the scope and the approach...Obama's bill shows how he thinks big: do everything we can to make sure that lead-painted Thomas the Tank Engine toys don't get into the hands and mouths of millions of toddlers in this country. Or Hillary: encourage people by offering tax credits to clean up lead paint in old buildings. People have been talking about lead paint in old buildings hurting kids in living in inner cities, since, well when I was a kid — for decades. If it is still a big problem, is offering tax credits for clean up, i.e. scrape down the walls and repaint, the best way to protect kids from lead? How many of you parents have lead paint problems? How many have (or had) toxic Thomas the Tank Engine Toys ...Obama's bills risk pissing off the toy industry and the Chinese. Hillary's risks nothing.

And her further research into Obama, which changed her mind:

...I was blown away as I started going through his record. I've already mentioned his bills on health care and energy. In addition he had introduced bills on Iran, voting, veterans, global warming, campaign finance and lobbyists, Blackwater, global poverty, nuclear proliferation, and education.

Another entry from another Kossack "I Found the Beef" provides these numbers about Obama's Senate record:

Senator Obama has sponsored or co-sponsored 570 bills in the 109th and 110th Congress.
Senator Obama has sponsored or co-sponsored 15 bills that have become LAW since he joined the Senate in 2005.
Senator Obama has also introduced amendments to 50 bills, of which 16 were adopted by the Senate.

Of the bills he introduced:

Most of his legislative effort has been in the area of Energy Efficiency and Climate Change (25 bills), health care (21 bills) and public health (20 bills), consumer protection/labor (14 bills), the needs of Veterans and the Armed Forces (13 bills), Congressional Ethics and Accountability (12 bills), Foreign Policy (10 bills) Voting and Elections (9 bills), Education (7 bills), Hurricane Katrina Relief (6), the Environment (5 bills), Homeland Security (4 bills), and discrimination (4 bills).

As this poster writes "Next time someone asks you "where's the beef" in Senator Obama's Senate record, please feel free to send the link to this diary."