Here Comes Campaign 2008 Bias: AP Claims Democrats Hillary, Evan Bayh Are 'Centrists'

Photo of Tim Graham.
By Tim Graham (Bio | Archive)
December 4, 2006 - 16:33 ET

Here comes the 2008 presidential cycle, and on cue, Associated Press reporters are finding "centrists" in the race whose voting records are NOT a 50-50 mishmash of conservative and liberal. This cycle's "centrist" contenders are Hillary Clinton (actually strongly, staunchly liberal) and Evan Bayh (liberal most of the time.)

AP reporter Beth Fouhy stressed that Hillary Clinton won "even the most conservative areas of her adopted home state of New York," but there are drawbacks: "Despite her centrist six-year Senate voting record, Clinton's reputation remains deeply rooted in her polarizing eight years as first lady. Skeptics say she may still be too liberal for many voters, who recall her husband's scandal-plagued presidency and her own audacious effort to reform the nation's health care system."

AP does the same for Senator Evan Bayh: "The 50-year-old senator has charted a centrist's course throughout his political career, including two terms as governor and eight years in the Senate."

But the American Conservative Union's voting index doesn't match these assessments. Senator Bayh's lifetime ACU rating is 21 percent conservative, so he votes the liberal position about four of every five Senate votes they've counted. Hillary Clinton has a lifetime ACU rating of nine percent, or 91 percent liberal. In 2005, Bayh was a 20. Hillary was a 12.

Or consult Americans with Democratic Action, the liberal vote-counters. Did they find Evan and Hillary in the center? On their 2005 tally, Hillary Clinton is one of 22 "Senate Heroes" who scored a perfect 100 percent with the liberal group. Evan Bayh scored a less-than-centrist 95.

We've been here before. The Washington Post painted the same inaccurate picture in 2005.

—Tim Graham is Director of Media Analysis at the Media Research Center


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Shows you how far left the me

December 4, 2006 - 16:53 ET by aero

Shows you how far left the media is if Clinton and Bayh seem to be in the middle to them!

they all know

December 4, 2006 - 17:59 ET by tumbler

The leftist media is very well aware who every liberal is. They just don't mention the word.

It's long been accepted in our politics that Liberal grates on all mainstream Americans so much that it mustn't be SPOKEN. They've got code words now; like "progressives" and "centrist" and so on. Calculated to soften the negative impression of all things LEFT. They could rightly proclaim one or two of their own "left of center" and it would be honest.

Our loving media, of course wouldn't mince words about any Republican of importance. He's tarred with that "extreme right" crap, or worse. Today I'm back from browsing the Huffington Post Blog, (uggh.) to note what they're saying about Brownback's announcement that he's in the Presidential race. Just the blog simpletons, of course, I don't mean media operatives (yet). The air there is virulent with hatred. Out of control. Hypocrisy taking every license imagineable; some would protest out of their skins they're mainstream centrists, as they blow their minds at the new Republican candidate.

Ugh.  Shrillary has spent th

December 4, 2006 - 17:05 ET by Hokiecon

Ugh.  Shrillary has spent the past two election cycles trying to prove to the world that she isn't really liberal.  Her token conservative votes on Homeland Security and the War in Iraq don't change the overall picture.  Expect so much more of the "centrist Shrillary" to be feted in the press for the next 6 months or so as she and her "exploratory committee" figure out if her past eclipses her ability to run for President in '08.

--Hokiecon

The members of her explorator

December 4, 2006 - 18:22 ET by pocomoco

The members of her exploratory committee aren't the same people who handled her Rose Law Firm records, are they?

It would be hilarious if MRC

December 4, 2006 - 17:41 ET by Panther

It would be hilarious if MRC would start posting word-count totals on the number of times Democratic presidential candidates are referred to as centrist, moderate, or independent  vs. Republicans.

You mean vs. Republicans bein

December 4, 2006 - 18:10 ET by mattm

You mean vs. Republicans being called "ultra-conservative" or "arch-conservative" or "extremist" or whatever.

A red letter day in America?

December 4, 2006 - 19:25 ET by spiderdan

Did the AP actually refer to the Billary Klintoon administration as "scandal plagued"? I wonder how that compares to the descriptions of legitimately effective Presidents -- Reagan, Bush, etc.

I guess liberals will consider the current administration "war plagued", ignoring the fundamental truth that led to conflict now, then, or ever: the absolute disgrace that was the "scandal plagued" administration of Klintoon -- left America vulnerable and open for numerous attacks.

Thanks Tim for including th

December 4, 2006 - 20:07 ET by John in CA

Thanks Tim for including the ACU and ADA lib/conservative ratings in this post. Saved me the trouble of having to copy and pasting them in here. But I can see already that I'll need to keep my ACU voting rating spreadsheet up to date and handy.

In 2004 did the media ever label John F'ing Kerry's ACU lifetime voting record rating of 8 as ultra-liberal? Or did they label him a moderate also? Maybe they just ignored it in hopes that no one would notice.

The only two demo Senators I see with a lifetime ACU rating that I would label moderate are the two Nelson's. Nelson (D-FL) lifetime of 41; Nelson (D-NE) 53.

Clinton and Bayh, centrists...sure.


Give a Democrat Party free America a chance!

hillary/bayh

December 4, 2006 - 21:20 ET by zoro7957

Only in the eyes of the NYT they are considred centrist. Apparently they are'nt nearly as left of center as they should be.

Bayh stopped responding to

December 5, 2006 - 10:39 ET by guefy

Bayh stopped responding to my emails about 2 years ago. I didn't even send him more than 2 or 3 a year. He's not as liberal as Hillary, but he's definitely liberal, even more so when he started exploring a run for president. He's voted opposite his constituents' wishes here in Indiana, several times this year.

So, he's voted against the

December 5, 2006 - 11:56 ET by John in CA

So, he's voted against the wishes of Hoosiers several times. Meaning, he might be out of step with the people of Indiana. So, when he runs for Senator again, if there was a good solid Republican opposite him on the ballot, would he lose? Or would he get voted back in cuz he's a Bayh and his time as governor gives him cover?

I've often wondered how some Senators are elected on some states. Seems some of them are diametrically opposed to what one would think that state's values are.

In Nevada, Harry Reid doesn't make much sense to me - especially with his sharp move to the left the last few years. My Uncle lives in NV and seems to think that if Harry was running for reelection right now he wouldn't make it. Course, as each year goes by, and Las Vegas grows and naturally grows more liberal, then Harry is probably in good shape. And of course, Harry owns Las Vegas politics.


Give a Democrat Party free America a chance!

After what happened last mo

December 5, 2006 - 21:11 ET by guefy

After what happened last month here, I'm not sure how Evan Bayh would do anymore. I do know he was much more toward center during his time as governor. However he did manage to use up the large surplus in 4 short years that we had built up under 20 years of Republican governors.

It seems as though Indiana senators are fairly safe, once in office so I don't think we'd have a good chance to get rid of him. I'm guessing he may tag along with Hillary as her V.P. candidate to give the country a false view that he's conservative because he's from Indiana, like Quayle.