Editorial By RTO Online

The NFIB ranks anti-business crusader Chuck Schumer twice as business-friendly as Hillary Clinton.

From a rent-to-own company owners perspective, the Democratic front-runners for President can accurately be described as the three evils based on their record of pandering to consumer activists.

Taken together, the top three Democratic presidential contenders have an average lifetime record of voting on the side of the Public Interest Research Group (PIRG), the most liberal consumer activist group in the country, 81% of the time. In fact, PIRG gives Hillary Clinton the highest ranking of all the current Democratic hopefuls with a lifetime score of 90%, nearly equal to far left Senator Chuck Schumer's lifetime score of 91%. Contrast this with PIRG's lifetime score for conservative Republican Ron Paul of 28%.

The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), no fan of big government, understandably ranks Schumer and Clinton very low on the pro-business scale. But even the NFIB ranks anti-business crusader Chuck Schumer twice as business-friendly as Hillary Clinton. Clinton voted with the NFIB only 12% of the time versus Schumer's 25% in the current session of Congress. The NFIB gave both Clinton and Schumer a 0% score in 2004-2005.

The moderate U.S. Chamber of Commerce was slightly more generous to Clinton and Schumer. The pair voted with the Chamber 51% of the time in the 109th Congress. John Edwards voted with the Chamber only 39% of the time in 2004, his last year in the Senate.

While the voting records of Hillary Clinton and John Edwards show them to be poster children for the left, Barack Obama is slightly more of a mystery - but only slightly. Obama voted with PIRG 86% of the time in 2006.

The nation's first primary will be held tomorrow. While the Iowa Caucuses are entertaining, they are a historically bad predictor of the Democrat's success in the general election. Since the Iowa Caucuses became nationally significant in 1972, Iowa Democrats have never picked a winner. According to historical data, the closest that Iowa Democrats ever came to picking a general election winner was Jimmy Carter who came in second (27%) in the 1976 Caucus behind uncommitted (37%). In 1992, Iowa Democrats picked Tom Harkin over Bill Clinton 76% to 2.8%. Granted, Harkin was a native Iowan, but four times as many Democrats registered "uncommitted" in the 92 caucus than voted for Bill Clinton, the eventual Democratic nominee and the first two-term Democratic president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Not exactly crystal ball worthy results.

Iowa Republicans have a slightly better record, picking the eventual general presidential election winner three out of the five caucuses held since 1976.

Statistically, the best way to insure a Democratic candidate will lose the general election is to insure he or she wins the Iowa Caucuses. With luck, there will be a three way Democratic tie.

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