Baby steps for Tea Partyistas and Occupiers

Greater support = higher preponderance of support. It's called simple division, a.k.a. percentages. There was a higher likelihood of support for the bill among Republicans than among Democrats.

And just for the record, you might want to reconsider your Senate numbers and what it takes to pass a bill.

When a bill comes up for vote in the Senate, a majority of those voting must vote "yea" for it to pass.

97 senators voted. 49 Democratic senators voted yes. What the other 48 did is irrelevant because of the support of those 49 Dems.

Nevertheless, I'll play your little game though and note that there was 100% support among independent senators for President Obama's health reform act.

No game, Chil, just watching the partisan game continue to spin here for you usual suspects.

However, since you asked. Divide the votes by party. Republicans were more likely to support the bill than Dems. My original statement. Nothing more, nothing less.

BTW, pretty interesting you thinking a plurality could carry the day on that Senate vote.

I only think that because it's absolutely true.

In the U.S. Senate, when a bill is up for vote, the side that gets the most votes wins.

That day, a majority of the Senators present voted "yea". Moreover, there were enough Ds who voted "yea" that it didn't matter how all the Rs voted.

I'm proud that so many Ds and Rs voted yea that day. I wish we could replicate that sort of bipartisanship now.

Regarding Chilcoot's observations and the vote on the Voting Rights Act of 65: Just my two cents, but what do I know I am just a dumb lobbyist...probably did need the Republicans to get the necessary 60 votes to avoid a filibuster. In the Senate without the 60 cloture vote, a measure can go on indefinitely. With the 60 vote margin, a measure can only be debated for 30 hours. So the Ds needed the Rs to hit the magic number of 60.

Regarding the 49 votes to pass, I would bet that 3 Ds were asked to not show up, the term we use is "walk" so they were not recorded as yea or nea, thus allowing 49 Ds mto pass the measure. Could be wrong, way before my time.

BCFahren