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Responding to the credulous coverage of the National Journal's ideological ranking scheme (on which point see Steve Benen for the definitive takedown), Princeton political scientist Larry Bartels e-mails:
There are a variety of academic takes on this, using all the votes from an entire Congress; all produce roughly similar results. The first and most familiar is Keith Poole and Howard Rosenthal's VOTEVIEW, which has a very informative and up-to-date website: http://www.voteview.com/. For the 110th Senate, Poole and Jeff Lewis have a ranking algorithm that shows Obama tied for 10th and Clinton tied for 20th. McCain is 94th--which suggests that the charges of extremism might fly in both directions.The Voteview rankings actually make a lot of sense. Obama is liberal, to be sure but is he really more liberal than Russ Feingold, Bernie Sanders, Barbara Boxer, and Sheldon Brown? I find it a bit hard to believe, and Rosenthale and Poole do a nice job backing up my biases. There analysis also suggests John McCain is more conservative than Obama is liberal, which makes perfect sense, but will somehow entirely escape the media's notice.
