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Seriously?
Friday in the Washington Post, Michael Gerson illuminated various issues that Obama should avoid so as to not share the same fate as Clinton. One of these "tipwires" shockingly is abortion. He writes:
There are at least 16 provisions passed routinely by Congress that limit governmental involvement in abortion and other life issues -- measures that prevent the domestic funding of abortion, forbid the use of international family planning funds for abortion, protect the rights of medical professionals to refuse involvement in the procedure and prohibit the patenting of human life. Removing this firewall between government and abortion would seem -- and be -- a massive assault on the pro-life movement. Even many Americans who consider themselves pro-choice see the use of their tax dollars to promote abortion as radical. By abandoning government neutrality on abortion, Obama would permanently embitter most with pro-life views.Hmm... where to even start on this one...
I'm going to go ahead and take issue with the claim that there is any semblance of government neutrality on abortion. I mean, really? There has been a conservative administration in the White House for eight years now being anything but neutral on choice issues. Why is it that when Republicans win the White House they run with their conservative agenda and it's fine and expected but once a Dem gets elected, even bringing someone from his own party on board as his chief of staff is partisan and we need to make sure they don't get too radical?
And removing barriers to a constitutional right is not promotion. And please, explain to me again how this involves tax dollars in anyway.
E.J. Dionne Jr. chimed in today on "Obama's Promise to
"There surely is some common ground," Obama declared toward the end of the third presidential debate.Great. True. We all hope that Obama is going to be the champion of comprehensive sex education that we all want him to be, and thanks to him for clearing up the whole "pro-abortion" bullshit directly... BUT, this is just silly:
He argued that "those who believe in choice and those who are opposed to abortion can come together and say, 'We should try to prevent unintended pregnancies by providing appropriate education to our youth, communicating that sexuality is sacred and that they should not be engaged in cavalier activity, and providing options for adoption, and helping single mothers if they want to choose to keep the baby.' " Obama added: "Nobody's pro-abortion."
Once he assumes office, Obama might be tempted to forget that moment, issue the pro-choice executive orders that the abortion rights movement expects and move back to the sagging economy. But doing this would be both politically foolish and a breach of faith with the pro-life progressives who came to Obama's defense during the campaign. They argued that Obama truly was committed to reducing the number of abortions. He shouldn't turn them into liars.First of all, undoing anti-choice executive orders that have been put in place by the Bush Administration is not the same thing as issuing pro-choice executive orders.
And besides, I think people often forget that progressives have values too. Obama never promised anything to any particular group of people. As far as I understand, he hasn't decided to revoke the global gag rule as a result of pressure from pro-choice groups but because he can think for himself and he values the Constitution. And because he probably gets that restricting access to abortion doesn't reduce the number of abortions, it just makes abortion unsafe.
So to all of you acting like Obama owes it to those who voted for him to compromise and act bipartisan, you have to first reexamine what those terms mean. Real compromise is not constant concession to conservatives on issues that are easy to pawn off. And we can't begin "healing" this conflict unless the other side gives some too.
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AFY_Joe
| 11/16/08 02:11 PM
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AFY_Joe
| 11/16/08 02:11 PM
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