Over these past weeks and months Senator Obama has gone into great detail amplifying his own record in the Senate on a variety of issues that he says he “led” on. Moreover, he has indicated in all of the debates of his leading “the fight” on a multitude of issues. Since it is specifically hard to know what all of this means, I would like to direct readers to the Library of Congress search site, where I went to look at all of the Bills sponsored by our representatives. There one can specifically look at his accomplishments from the 109th and the 110th Congress.(seehttp://thomas.loc.gov/bss/d110query.html) For the purpose of desiring to understand leadership on various issues, I was draw to his sponsored bills, as opposed to bills he cosponsored, because the specific sponsoring action would seem to indicate a direct leadership role rather than a collective leadership position of joining in on someone else’s work. In looking over all of the Bills he authored, to get a glimpse of his leadership, one would find that over the two Congressional sessions he sponsored 70 bills, with 2 becoming law. Of the 70 directly authored pieces of legislation, as a sponsor, he went solo on 16 occasions. Several of these bills were legislation that called for clarification that the Senate authorization for “use of force against Iraq - did not include Iran”. Not being a lawmaker, my assumption for the absence of other Senators supporting this was answered in the name of the resolution proposed by Sen. Obama – meaning the Senate authorized force against Iraq – not Iran, and all the other Senators seemed to understand this, which explains why action was not taken by the Senate. Of his 70 authored bills, 12 were procedural, 42 had less than 3 co-sponsors, and 10 were presented as Senate Resolutions for the purpose of bringing greater historical significance to Juneteenth Independence Day, National Summer Learning Day (July 13), a special recognition for Chicago White Sox winning the World Series of 2005, and the Congress opposing photo identification for the purpose of proving an individual is who they present themselves to be for the purpose of voting. The highest of Senator Obama’s achievements must be the carrying out of 2 presented bills that became law - one was the naming of a library in East St. Louis, Illinois after Katherine Dunham (S.3757) and the other was the prohibition in the selling of Elementary Mercury (S.906).

In short, if the man who wants to be our next President is trying to convince us of his ability to lead our country, I would think that he would have demonstrated an ability to lead his own party for at least the last two years when the Democrats had control of the Senate. In the last two years, the democratically controlled Senate did not act on about 38 pieces of his authored legislation, and by the way, none of these Senate Bills offered anything regarding taxes, stimulating the economy, or securing our national defense. He could not get his own party to move on recognition of Percy Julian an Organic Chemist admitted to the National Academy of Sciences, condemnation against Zimbabwe’s violence against peaceful demonstrations, a Rosa Parks stamp, Sickle Cell Anemia Month, or Senate Bill 133 calling for the reduction in our reliance upon foreign oil and the greater use of alternative fuels. My point is, if the intended future leader of the free world was not able to get his own party, who controlled the Senate, to bring forth meaningful action on items that even both Republican and Democrats would have agreed upon, what new level of leadership will he show us as President that he was not able to demonstrate as a U.S. Senator. I think it would be best for Senator Obama and for our country if he stayed in the Senate for a longer period of time and finished the work (68 unpassed bills) that he started and come back in the future and ask for our vote to be president – because currently, in the Senate, he is credited with the “Obama –Elementary Mercury Anti-Trafficking Law”, and I am not sure that is a leadership I am comfortable with.