Obama's "Present" Votes in Illinois Senate

They're fine with Abner Mikva, who spanks Hillary:

Senator Hillary Clinton should probably be forgiven for not remembering the course on the state Constitution that she would have had to take as an eighth grader in Illinois. But had she remembered it, she would have known that Senator Barack Obama was not ducking his responsibility in the Illinois Senate when he voted ''present'' on many issues.

Unlike Congress and the legislatures of most other states, each chamber of the Illinois Legislature requires a ''constitutional majority'' to pass a bill. The state Senate has 59 members, so it takes 30 affirmative votes. This makes a ''present'' vote the same as a no...
...
In the Illinois Senate, there can be strategic reasons for voting ''present'' rather than simply no. A member might approve the intent of legislation, but not its scope or the way it has been drafted. A ''present'' vote can send a signal to a bill's sponsors that the legislator might support an amended version. Voting ''present'' can also be a way to exercise fiscal restraint, without opposing the subject of the bill.

It's noteworthy that Mikva spent a year as White House Counsel in the Clinton administration.

This doesn't change my view of Obama as demagogic and unqualified, but fair is fair.