Dailymail:
Marco Rubio’s absences from the U.S. Senate floor during his presidential campaign have earned him the nickname ‘no show Rubio,’ but Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama both had far higher rates of legislative truancy while they ran for the White House in 2007 and 2008.
A DailyMail.com analysis of Senate roll call records found that Rubio has missed 44.6 per cent of his votes since April, the month when he launched his Oval Office bid. That includes a 53.8 per cent absence rate in the third quarter of 2015, from July to September.
In the same quarter of 2007, as he frequently left Washington, D.C. for the Democratic primary’s early voting states, Obama missed 56.3 of his votes.
The final quarter of 2007, leading up to the Iowa Caucuses and New Hampshire Primary, saw the future president post even more dismal numbers – missing 89.4 per cent of his opportunities to shout ‘aye’ or ‘nay.’
Clinton, in hot pursuit of Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination, missed 83.5 per cent that quarter.
Throughout the months he was running for president in 2008, Obama skipped 64.3 per cent of his votes as an Illinois U.S. Senator.
Cliton’s record was worse still in 2008 – a 68.4 per cent absence rate – through her withdrawal from the race on June 8 of that year.
Rubio has drawn criticism from his fellow Republicans over his voting record this fall. Front-runner Donald Trump tweeted last month that he was a ‘lightweight senator with the worst voting record in Senate.’
Politifact.com rated that claim ‘mostly true,’ noting that Texas Sen. Ted Cruz had a slightly worse record when their entire Senate careers are compared.
Rubio was the only senator to skip last week’s vote on the annual National Defense Authorization Act, which passed 73 to 26.
He was campaigning in New Hampshire that day.
In a similar moment in 2008, Obama stayed in the Granite State instead of returning to Washington for a Senate vote on a resolution declaring Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps a ‘terrorist group.’
He later hammered Clinton for voting ‘yes.’ Obama’s campaign claimed the vote was called at the last minute.
But Democratic aides to senators loyal to Clinton told reporters at the time that senators had been given a day’s notice.
Speaking to CNN on Sunday, Rubio said voting, by itself, is a poor proxy for job performance in Congress.
‘Voting is not the only part of the Senate job,’ he said. ‘I mean, the most important thing a senator does is constituent service. We are still involved in looking out for Florida’s issues.’
He added, correctly, that his absence rate is ‘lower than what other people have missed.’
I think the difference is that Democrats don’t even pretend to value a work ethic.
Republican voters expect work for their gov’t representative’s paychecks.
Of course, when Senators like Obama and Clinton are not voting, the national condition improves.
@Nanny G: Work ethic? Ronnie never missed his afternoon nap.
“W” loved to jog, hit the weights and spend looong weekends at the ranch–only Prez.I can think off who looked as good or better after 8 years in office.
Off subject Prior to Benghazi hearings HRC led a closing Sanders by about 15 points nationally–after her testimony lead has gone to 40 +
HRC Thanks You
@Rich Wheeler:
Anyone with a lick of sense does not need a poll to tell us liberals love the one that can lie the best. Don’t get your hopes up.
@Bill: What hopes? My biggest hope is that neither HRC or The Donald become Prez.—The Committee gave her a huge boost.
@Rich Wheeler: Her “boost” comes from her showing herself to be a calm liar. Nothing more. Her “boosters” support her, the corrupt, incompetent liar, no matter what happens.
@Bill: Her ”boost” came from dropping Biden as the phony candidate he was.
@Rich Wheeler: I would hope sleeping would be allowed no matter who gets the job of president.
If night sleep is lacking a ”power nap” is a great adjunct.
Anyway, presidents are always on call.
Senators job is to debate, design and enter bills and VOTE on them!
@Nanny G:
Except for Obama. If he is campaigning, even a consulate being sacked goes on the back burner.
@Rich Wheeler:
Another way to put that would be: Prior to Joe Biden announcing he wasn’t going to run, HRC led a closing Sanders by about 15 points nationally- after he announced he wasn’t going to run her lead has gone to 40+
HRC thanks you
@another vet: Biden decided not to run after HRC more than survived Benghazi hearings. Certainly the right decision for him. HRC is now clear to the nom.
If you remember, about 90 days ago I predicted Trump rise to first and eventual fall to fourth—Still see the finalists Rubio vs.Cruz with Carson third and a compromise pick if convention deadlocks. Long way to go.
@Rich Wheeler: Her poll numbers remained the same in matchups against her GOP opponents meaning she shored up support amongst the collective and that was it. Biden’s supporters had to go somewhere and given the way the rest of the dems cowered away from challenging her on her scandals during the debate, she came across as “strong”.
Methinks the reason why you want to see the Benghazi hearings go away is not HRC but rather to cover for Obama. The buck stopped with him not Hillary. It was Obama’s decision to remove the Lybia regime without Congressional authorization, a violation of the War Powers Act. It was Obama’s decision to put diplomats there without securing the country. It was Obama’s decision not to send a QRF to at least try to save American lives. It was Obama’s decision to lie about a video being the cause. It was Obama’s decision to raise the white flag and retreat thus surrendering Libya turning it into another Somolia which further destabilized the region and handed yet another victory to AQ and ISIS.
You said you won’t vote for Hillary because of Benghazi yet still give Obama a pass despite the fact that it was his doing. Three possible reasons- you blindly follow Obama, you’re sexist, or you’re afraid of being called a racist.
And so far it is wrong. Trump’s staying power exceeded expectations and he has so far proven a number of neysayers to be wrong, myself included. With Perry and Walker out of the race, I am leaning toward Rubio and Cruz. Jeb needs to go away. He’s looking and sounding more like a crybaby everyday. His chance was 2012 just like HRC’s chance was 2008. Both blew it.
@another vet: You wanna continue to bang Obama–have at it. A sexist or a racist I’ve never been called—at least not by anyone of sane mind.
I’m looking at the 2016 election—Don’t see anyone to support–first time since Bush-Dukakis in 88.
http://elections.huffingtonpost.com/pollster/2016-national-gop-primary
Currently tracking 197 polls from 31 pollsters Updated about 7 hours ago…..
Donald Trump 31.8%
Ben Carson 22.9%
Marco Rubio 7.8%
Jeb Bush 7.7%
Ted Cruz 5.4%
Carly Fiorina 4.2%
John Kasich 3.3%
Mike Huckabee 3.2%
Rand Paul 2.9%
Chris Christie 2.4%
Lindsey Graham 1.2%
Bobby Jindal 0.8%
Rick Santorum 0.6%
George Pataki 0.5%
Jim Gilmore 0.0%
To see how the individual polls came out scan down the page.
Trump still leads in 31 out of 33 of the most recent polls.
two wrongs don’t make a right.
@Rich Wheeler: I brought up sexist because that is exactly the card that is going to be played by your party’s candidate come election time. She already used it on fellow socialist Sanders. I didn’t accuse you of being racist. I brought up racist because you’ve accused others here of being racist for criticizing Obama. And yes I do blame Obama for the Libya debacle. Who else should be blamed for it? At some point in time the man needs to be held accountable for something wouldn’t you say? He was given credit for killing OBL even though it was SEAL Team 6 that did the deed. But everyone on your side made it sound like Obama himself fast roped out the chopper and pulled the trigger himself.
@another vet: I’ve accused very few here of being racist–those I’ve accused were most certainly just that—you are a wise and fair man AV-you know racism exists and should be called out—I’ve seen Curt block racists here at FA and I’ve applauded him for it.
Obama has been held accountable for many things–he’s only at 45-55 approval..
@Nanny G: Where is 27th’s CBS/NYT poll with Carson over Trump 26-22 Many of your polls are 3-4 weeks old?? Lets see what we get after last night’s debate–Trump may bounce back–think this race is even with Rubio moving into strong 3rd.