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cqpolitics.com

Aug. 4, 2008 – 5:36 p.m.
Scholars Say McCain, Obama’s Immigration Votes No Guide To How They Would Govern

By Caitlin Webber, CQ Staff
Voting records and campaign pronouncements are the coin of the realm for pundits trying to predict how a presidential contender will lead once he moves into the Oval Office.

But presidential scholars say congressional votes and campaign promises are rarely an accurate predictor of presidential behavior, in large part because the differences between being a legislator and being an executive are so great.

And those indicators are even less helpful, historians said, in predicting how Sens. Barack Obama , D-Ill., and John McCain , R-Ariz., would handle immigration policy because there is little in their congressional voting records and stump speeches to set the two apart.

“Once you’re president everything changes, there are wholly are different set of pressures and wholly different consistencies,â€