Sen. Barack Obama is an attractive political figure. He's well-educated, bright, articulate, handsome, charismatic and multiethnic/racial/cultural. (Sen. Joe Biden even adds "clean" to the list of Obama's qualities.) He's the Tiger Woods of American politics. His elevation to rock-star status by the media has propelled his presidential campaign.

On the stump, he conveys an impression of openness, reasonableness and moderation. This is important since the conventional wisdom holds that the American public, right now, is in the mood for moderation. But how does Obama's carefully constructed image compare to his voting record in the U.S. Senate?

It's been said that in politics, perception is reality. That doesn't mean that perception actually is reality - only reality is reality. It simply means that public perception, even if incorrect, is what gets someone elected. If a politician claims to be a centrist and if the electorate believes him, that may get him elected as a centrist.

The conflict between words and deeds is resolved by an evaluation of one's voting record. And the best nonpartisan, objective source for such an appraisal is the highly respected National Journal's annual vote ratings. A panel of editors and reporters compiled a list of 187 key congressional roll-call votes in 2006, classifying them by category - economic, social or foreign policy - and scoring them on a liberal to conservative scale, including a composite rating. National Journal, which also publishes the outstanding, authoritative Almanac of American Politics, has been doing this for the past 25 years.

While wily politicians might tap dance around a specific vote to please either side - e.g., "Even though I opposed the bill, I voted for it because an alternative bill was even worse" - the virtue of these ratings, based on a large sampling of votes, is that they give you an accurate picture of a legislator's overall political disposition. You can't run away from that.

So how do Obama and others stack up? Out of 100 senators, Obama ranked as the 10th most liberal overall. On economic issues, he voted to the left of 87 percent of his colleagues and to the right of 0 percent. On social issues, he was more liberal than 77 percent of other senators; and on foreign policy issues, more liberal than 85 percent. His composite liberal rating was 86 percent, just seven points behind Ted Kennedy. Among fellow Senate Democrats, he was further left than liberals like John Kerry, Dianne Feinstein, Charles Schumer, Russ Feingold, Carl Levin, Joe Biden and Harry Reid, to name a few. After many years of following politics and politicians, I've learned to discount much of what they say in favor of what they actually do.

You can find these ratings for the entire Congress, online at nationaljournal.com. Here are some highlights:

• The most conservative senator was Jim DeMint, R-S.C.; the most liberal was Richard Durbin, D-Ill. (Kennedy was the third most liberal.)

• In the House, the most conservative representative was Jim Ryun, R-Kan.; the most liberal was Diane Watson, D-Calif.

• In the Senate, there were 31 Democrats more liberal than Hillary Clinton and 45 Republicans more conservative than John McCain.

Here are the ratings for members of the Colorado delegation (from the last Congress) on the composite conservative scale. (For example, Wayne Allard votes more conservative than 86 percent of senators; Diana DeGette votes more liberal than 88 percent of representatives).

Sen. Wayne Allard - 86 percent

Sen. Ken Salazar - 32 percent

Rep. Diana DeGette - 12 percent

Rep. Mark Udall - 26 percent

Rep. John Salazar - 41 percent

Rep. Marilyn Musgrave - 87 percent

Rep. Joel Hefley - 69 percent

Rep. Tom Tancredo - 73 percent

Rep. Bob Beauprez - 88 percent

Mike Rosen's radio show airs daily from 9 a.m. to noon on 850 KOA. He can be reached by e-mail at mikerosen@850koa.com.