Obama supporters say Hillary using right wing talking points on Obama. The opposite is true

[wyldwolf]

Obama supporters are claiming Hillary Clinton is using right wing talking points against Obama based on this report from MSNBC:

Clinton will claim that Obama voted "present" among the highest percentage of Illinois state legislators. The point is that when controversial issues came up he ducked -- including votes on gun control in schools and women's right to choose.

Since when is the truth a right wing talking point? Certainly the RNC has done it's oppo research on Obama, but the fact Obama voted "present" on some very major pieces of legislation in an attempt to not be on the record as a "yay" or "nay" is undeniable and was known long before the RNC posted their piece.

It was reported by Rick Pearson and Ray Long in "Careful Steps, Looking Ahead," Chicago Tribune, 5/3/07.

It was reported by David A. Joens and Paul Kleppner, Almanac Of Illinois Politics - 1998, p. 81

It was reported by Nathan Gonzales, in the Op-Ed, "The Ever-'Present' Obama," The Rothenberg Political Report, 2/13/07

The Illinois Legislative Record proves it:

H.B. 3793: Senate Floor Third Reading, Passed 44-10-1, 5/13/98, Obama Voted Present
S.B. 759: Senate Floor Third Reading, Passed 52-1-5, 3/25/99, Obama Voted Present
H.B. 854: Senate Floor Third Reading, Passed 58-0-1, 5/11/99, Obama Voted Present
S.B. 609: Senate Floor Third Reading, Failed 33-15-5, 3/29/01, Obama Voted Present

Just look at the number of times this is referenced in Google:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Obama+voted+present&btnG=Google+Search

HOWEVER, IT HAS BEEN POINTED OUT by well-known blogger Dave Johnson at Huffington Post and Economist Paul Krugman that Obama uses right wing talking points when discussing Social Security

(A few years ago the right tried to go after Social Security and there was)... a determined defense by progressives in the media, on the blogs, and in Congress beat back one spurious argument after another, while the American people made it clear that they really want a program that guarantees a basic retirement income that doesn't depend on the Dow. And Social Security survived.

All of which makes it just incredible that Barack Obama would make obeisance to fashionable but misguided Social Security crisis-mongering a centerpiece of his campaign.