CQ--Congressional Quarterly--reporter Greg Giroux dived into the vast CQ database to come up with an authoritative story looking at the records of the 2008 Democratic frontrunners--Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barack Obama and former Sen. John Edwards.
They agree more than disagree; take a look at the votes that divides them at www.cqpolitics.com/
these are excerpts from is the Giroux report......click to the cqpolitics site for the entire story
Ethanol, Taxes Among Major Issues Dividing Democratic Presidential Hopefuls
By Greg Giroux
Virtually all major candidates for president will hire “opposition researchers” to delve into their opponents’ records and personal histories in hopes of finding political vulnerabilities.
In the contest for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, the officially announced campaign of former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards — the party’s 2004 vice presidential nominee — likely will indulge in such research. So would Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, regarded as a near-certain candidate, and Barack Obama of Illinois, a rising star whose presidential prospects have been subject to much speculation of late.
But if these three end up in contention, they may have to put their opposition researchers to an unusual task: ferreting out differences among them on the day’s major issues.
That is because all three of these current or former officeholders are generally in agreement on fiscal and social policy. They all side far more often with the positions of labor unions than those of business federations. And all have expressed some misgivings about the Bush administration’s handling of foreign policy and especially its current strategy in Iraq.
According to the CQPolitics.com analysis, Clinton and Edwards agreed on 899 of 992 votes — or 90.6 percent of the time — on which they both cast an up-or-down vote from 2001 through 2004.
Lynn Sweet is a columnist and the Washington Bureau Chief for the 
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