John McCain made a big speech talking about what a great environmental record he has. McCain made a lot of promises too. He’d be an environmentalist President, he said.
A speech is great for listening to, but it doesn’t necessarily tell you what a candidate will really do. After all, George W. Bush said he would be an environmentalist President too.
Let’s look at the facts of what John McCain has actually done, rather than what he says he’s done. Let’s look at his legislative history as a member of the United States Senate.
The history is clear: Mostly, John McCain has not supported environmental legislation.
I’ll show you two different measures, put together by two different organizations. First, there’s the League of Conservation Voters. For this session of Congress, John McCain gets a rating of ZERO. For the previous session, McCain got a 41 percent rating,
Defenders of Wildlife also keeps a scorecard of U.S. senators according to their support of environmental legislation. John McCain’s lifetime scorecard from this environmental organization is 39 percent, meaning that he has not supported environmentalist legislation 61 percent of the time over his career in the U.S. Senate.
Barack Obama has a far different record. He has an 85 percent lifetime rating from Defenders of Wildlife – 46 percent higher than John McCain’s. From the League of Conservation Voters, Obama also has much higher ratings than McCain’s – a 55 percent advantage in the 109th Congress, and a 67 percent advantage in the 110th Congress.
The political interpretation of these scores is not difficult to make: John McCain has withheld support from more environmentalist legislation than he supported. Barack Obama has a clear superiority on environmental issues.
John McCain can give all the speeches he likes, but the facts contradict the words coming out of his mouth. John McCain is no environmentalist.
