Here are just a few of his accomplishments:

1. In the U.S. Senate, Obama introduced the STOP FRAUD Act to increase penalties for mortgage fraud and provide more protections for low-income homebuyers, well before the current subprime crisis began.

2. Barack Obama believes that our education system must be reformed to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse population. He would work to keep young people from dropping out of school and hold schools accountable for teaching English-language learners. Obama is a cosponsor of the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act.

3. Obama created the Illinois Earned Income Tax Credit for low-income working families in 2000 and successfully sponsored a measure to make the credit permanent in 2003. The law offered about $105 million in tax relief over three years.

4. Senator Obama has co-sponsored the Working Family Child Assitance Act along with Senators Snowe and Lincoln, to adjust the income requirement for the refundable portion of the Child Tax Credit. This will put more money in the pockets of more working families with children, who are struggling to make ends meet.

5. Senator Obama introduced an amendment in the 109th Congress that would provide immediate tax relief to low-income working families from the Gulf Coast disaster areas by enhancing the refundable portion of the child tax credit. As a change from current law, children would no longer be denied a benefit because their parents’ incomes are too low.

6. Senator Obama supports expanding the Earned Income Tax Credig EITC to cover additional children and families that are struggling to make ends meet. In the 109th Congress, he cosponsored and won passage of an amendment to reduce the marriage penalty for EITC recipients and to ensure that members of our military can include their combat pay when calculating eligibility for tax credits.

7. Senator Obama has been a leader in the fight to prevent the abuse of no-bid contracts. He believes that competition is good for American business, helping to ensure high quality and low costs for products and services purchased by the government. Senator Obama shares the outrage of many Americans who are embarrassed by reports of waste and fraud in government contracting for hurricane relief and recovery in the Gulf Coast. Current audit findings estimate the waste at more than $2 billion. This waste not only defrauds taxpayers; it deprives vulnerable citizens who are struggling to restore their livelihoods in the wake of a national tragedy. To stop these abuses, Senator Obama introduced amendments to the Homeland Security and Defense spending bills to reinforce the requirements for competitive procedures in contracting and to limit the use of unnecessary exceptions by government officials. Senator Obama has continued to aggressively conduct oversight actions to bring FEMA into compliance with these laws.

8. After visiting weapons stockpiles in Russia, Ukraine and Azerbaijan, Senators Lugar and Obama introduced the Cooperative Proliferation Detection, Interdiction Assistance, and Conventional Threat Reduction Act of 2006 in the 109th Congress, which would expand the cooperative threat reduction concept to conventional weapons. The Lugar-Obama bill would energize the U.S. program against unsecured lightweight anti-aircraft missiles and other conventional weapons and would strengthen the ability of America’s allies to detect and interdict illegal shipments of weapons and materials of mass destruction. Funding would be provided to eliminate unsecured conventional weapons and to assist countries in improving their ability to detect and interdict materials and weapons of mass destruction. The Lugar-Obama bill was included in the Department of State Authorities Act of 2006 and was signed into law by President Bush in January 2007.

9. During consideration of the 2005 Defense Department authorization bill, Senator Obama voted to provide additional funding for add-on armor for military vehicles and for additional up-armored military vehicles to help keep our troops in combat safe. According to a report by the New York Times, roughly half of the Army’s 20,000 Humvees are fitted with improvised shielding that leaves the underside unprotected, while only one in six Humvees used by the Marines is armored at the highest level of protection.

10. Senator Obama cosponsored the Combat Meth Act, which provides more money for fighting methamphetamine (meth), tightens controls on the sale of meth ingredients, and provides assistance to the children of meth abusers. The legislation would limit access to cold medicines containing pseudoephedrine, the primary ingredient used to make methamphetamine. This bill passed the Senate and became law in the 109th Congress.

11. Senator Obama cosponsored Dru’s Law which creates a nationwide sex offender database and requires greater monitoring of sex offenders upon their release from prison. The bill passed the Senate in July of 2005. This legislation was incorporated into a larger bill, the Adam Walsh Child Protection Act, which Senator Obama supported and which has been signed into law.

12. He also cosponsored the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act. This bill increases the penalties for sex crimes against children under the age of 12 and creates a national Internet site known as the National Sex Offender Public Registry. The bill would also provide grants to local law enforcement to assist in preventing and investigating sex crimes against minors.

13. Senator Obama cosponsored the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act which passed the Senate on October 4, 2005 and was subsequently signed into law. The Act provides important funding and assistance to help communities, non-profit organizations, and law enforcement combat domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking. The Act establishes a sexual assault services program and provides grants for education programs to prevent domestic violence and encourage reporting of abuses.

14. In January 2007, Senator Obama reintroduced the Summer Term Education Programs for Upward Progress Act (STEP UP) to address the achievement gaps among schoolchildren in the early grades. STEP UP establishes a grant program to support summer learning opportunities to be offered by local schools or community organizations. The bill was included in a comprehensive proposal to improve U.S. competitiveness that passed the Senate in July 2007, and was signed into law in August.

15. Barack Obama’s first bill as a U.S. Senator was the HOPE Act (Higher Education Opportunity Through Pell Grant Expansion Act) which would help make college more affordable for many Americans. The bill would increase the maximum Pell Grant from the then current limit of $4,050 to a new maximum of $5,100. Through his work on the Senate HELP Committee, Senator Obama has worked to increase the maximum Pell Award to $5,100 next year, and to $5,400 over the next several years, an increase of 25% over current levels.

16. As early as February 2005, Senator Obama warned of a shortfall in the VA budget. Four months later, the VA reported that in fact it had more than a $1 billion shortfall. Senator Obama cosponsored a bill that led to a $1.5 billion increase in veterans’ medical care. During the debate on the Fiscal Year 2007 budget, Senator Obama cosponsored measures that would have provided additional funding increases for veterans.

In January 2007, Senator Obama reintroduced the Lane Evans Veterans Health and Benefits Improvement Act to improve the VA’s planning process to avoid budget shortfalls in the future. The bill requires the VA and the Department of Defense to work together and share data so that we know precisely how many troops will be returning home and entering the VA system.

17. Every year, 400,000 veterans across the country, including an estimated 38,000 in Chicago, spend some time living on the streets. Senator Obama has been a leader in fighting homelessness among veterans. He authored the Sheltering All Veterans Everywhere Act (SAVE Act) to strengthen and expand federal homeless veteran programs that serve over 100,000 homeless veterans annually. During the debate on the Fiscal Year 2007 budget, Senator Obama passed an amendment to increase funding for homeless veterans programs by $40 million. These funds would benefit programs that provide food, clothing, mental health and substance abuse counseling, and employment and housing assistance to homeless veterans.

18. Senator Obama introduced an amendment that became law providing food services to wounded veterans receiving physical therapy or rehabilitation services at military hospitals. Previously, service members receiving physical therapy or rehabilitation services in a medical hospital for more than 90 days were required to pay for their meals.

I respect Senator Clinton. My values and ideas line up more closely with Senator Obamas.

Please vote for him on Tuesday.

If you take time to fill in the blanks that most of mainstream media leaves out, you’ll learn that Obama has been ‘missing in action’ for a lot of things because he’s been too busy inflating his presidential suit:

He was ‘missing in action’ …

- from his own state legislative record in Illinois. His entire record was created in ONE YEAR’s time, facilitated by Emil Jones Jr.
- from leadership in a host of critical community issues in his own district in Chicago during his State Senate years
summary: http://wonkette.com/361542/barack-obamas-dastardly-rage-and-corruption-revealed
summary:
original article: http://www.houstonpress.com/2008-02-28/news/barack-obama-screamed-at-me/

- by failing in his chairmanship of a Senate subcommittee on Europe to hold a hearing on NATO’s presence in Afghanistan
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/02/29/clinton-obama-missing-in-action/

- from a Senate vote last year on a nonbinding resolution in that labeled the Iranian Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization (Clinton voted for the measure and faced heat from Obama and other Democratic rivals for supporting a measure pushed by the Bush administration.)
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/02/29/clinton-obama-missing-in-action/

- at the Black State of the Union address in New Orleans last week
Obama takes heat for skipping State of the Black Union
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/02/23/obama.sobu/

“Obama has spent his entire political career trying to win the next step up. Every three years, he has aspired to a more powerful political position.”

EDUCATE YOURSELF:
http://questionbarackobama.blogspot.com/

Thomas V. DiBacco of the Orlando Sentinel writes:

”Obama’s resume is thin — and that’s obvious when supporters have to talk about his record at law school, a strategy appropriate for first-year job seekers but scarcely for presidential candidates. His eight-year career in the Illinois Senate is lackluster, marred by voting “present” 129 times, thereby avoiding the difficult choice of “yes” or “no” on proposed legislation.



Even his 70 percent vote margin in his 2004 U. S. Senate bid cries for a downgrade. He defeated a GOP nobody, perennial candidate for public office, Alan Keyes, who took over the candidacy after the real winner of the primary stepped aside as a result of a sex scandal.



Obama’s speaking ability is exceptional only if the denominator of expectation is low. Shouting is scarcely an oratorical plus, nor are the “ands” and “uhs” that punctuate Obama’s often rambling extemporaneous remarks.



Nor do campaign stops provide concise specifics about his proposals, more akin as they are to celebrity, touchy-feely, anything-I-say-is-OK performances. His safe-harbor, oratorical retreat (”and that’s why I’m running for president of the United States of America”) is overused and overvalued. As for Obama’s lifting sentences from other speakers, at a minimum that illustrates laziness.”

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/opinion/views/orl-dibacco2608feb26,0,7365559.story

or go to the blog en español at barackobama.com/content/espanol

In the final analysis, experience counts.

That’s why Laredo Morning Times is endorsing Hillary Clinton in the Democratic race for president. Barack Obama is charismatic, and there’s no doubt he’s an intelligent, dynamic leader who has wonderful ideas of a nation healed and a land where milk and honey flow for us all.

But it takes so much more than beautiful words to get things done. When you get right down to it, he’s only been in the U.S. Senate for three years. Before that, he was a state senator for two terms. It’s just not enough government experience for a world stage, especially now.

It’s easy to say we want someone from the outside, someone who’s not “entrenched” in politics and government. Haven’t we learned anything? It may be difficult to remember this far back, but back in 2000, that’s why a lot of people voted for George W. Bush in the first place. His only government experience was as governor of Texas and while we Texans believe that’s worth a whole lot, real life has shown us otherwise.

Today, just in the time since Bush has been in office, the United States is at war on two fronts. Russia appears to be trying to turn the clock back to its authoritarian, nationalist days. The subprime mortgage crisis is continuing despite the Band-Aids, spreading ever wider across our nation and global market. Our national debt is in the trillions, and it’s hard to see an end. And there’s so much more.

We don’t like to think about those things. We’d rather think about the good we could do as a united country and what could happen if things would just change. Change - that’s what Obama is selling. And we want so badly to buy it. Face it: We Americans are a hopeful people who love celebrities, so it’s understandable that someone like Obama would take center stage.

But Obama can’t just implement changes because he wants to and the people vote him into office.

Change has to happen in Washington, amid the actions - and inactions - of many, many bureaucrats working in an incredibly complex system of laws and unwritten rules.

Reality is a sobering dunk in cold water that comes after the party. It takes experience to handle reality, and make it work for you. Clinton can do that.

It’s true that she doesn’t come to us with a clean slate. After many years in the trenches and later in office, Clinton’s made errors and there is baggage. But she’s learned from it, and that’s what matters. She knows how to regroup after something fails, because she’s done it. She comes to the American people with a great deal of experience and negotiating talent, wiser for her falls but still optimistic about creating a great future for our children and grandchildren.

Obama might have what it takes and he might not. We just don’t believe the risk is worth it.

Hillary Clinton is a proven leader who knows we need better healthcare, more affordable housing, better opportunities overall and a more open, more efficiently run government. She may not have the same charm or spin the same golden promises of a shimmering future as Obama, but she’s solid.

That’s what America needs.