Comparing Environmental Platforms of McCain, Clinton and Obama

Each major presidential candidate has some kind of plan to help the environment and each is promising something but what I am looking at is their past environmental records because as Dick Gregory once said, "Political promises are much like marriage vows. They are made at the beginning of the relationship between candidate and voter, but are quickly forgotten."

This year the candidates have been narrowed down to Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and John McCain and each one has their own environmental plans and promises but when looking back at their political records John McCain in particular does not look very promising. To begin with the people running McCain's own political campaign have raised around $13 million lobbying for oil companies which is definitely not helping our environment.

Even the League of Conservation Voters has given McCain a zero on his 2007 voting record on environmental issues. McCain can argue that he did not vote against these issues but the problem is that he just didn't show up. When running for president it is understandable that the candidate will not be available at every single vote but McCain did not even participate in one.

There were a total of 15 issues that the League of Conservation Voters is concerned with and McCain was the only member of congress who missed every single one of these votes. McCain's lifetime score is a little better sitting at a 24 but this is still very low. Both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama on the other hand have only missed 4 out of the 15 votes due to their campaigns.

They also have a much better lifetime score than McCain which shows that they have a record of supporting environmental issues. Clinton's lifetime score was 87 which is just above Obama's at 86 but compared to McCain at his 24 they look like so called "tree huggers." McCain seems to want to help the environment in some ways but in others he does not.