From the Chicago Tribune:
Elizabeth Edwards said Tuesday that her husband’s health-care plan would provide insurance coverage of abortion.
Speaking on behalf of Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards before the family planning and abortion-rights group Planned Parenthood Action Fund, Edwards lauded her husband’s health-care proposal as “a true universal health-care plan” that would cover “all reproductive health services, including pregnancy termination,” referring to abortion.
Edwards was joined by Democratic candidates Sens. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.) at the group’s political organizing conference in addressing issues at the core of the political clash between cultural liberals and conservatives, including abortion rights, access to contraception and sex education.
The recent 5-4 Supreme Court decision upholding a federal ban on a late-term abortion procedure that opponents call “partial-birth abortion” has increased anxieties among reproductive-rights advocates over the future of constitutional protections for abortion rights. All three of the Democratic campaigns used the forum to signal their determination to appoint Supreme Court nominees who would uphold the 1973 Roe vs. Wade abortion ruling.
Obama, who earlier gained the endorsement of Washington, D.C., Mayor Adrian Fenty, offered the group a vision of equal opportunity for women, tying a call for improved access to contraceptives for low-income women with a call for an “updated social contract” that includes paid maternity leave and expanded school hours.
what a tragic headline & story
Are the Democratic strategists so incompetent that they cannot see how disastrous these stands will be in the general election? These speeches and statements are on the internet, and they will be replayed over and over in the general election campaign.
It’s fine with me if these candidates want to shoot themselves in their feet, but isn’t Sen. Clinton, in particular, supposed to be a master politician? Americans are increasingly opposed to unlimited abortion.
Katherine,
I might suggest that Bill Clinton is a far more masterful politician than Hillary Clinton. In my opinion, she is transparently self-serving, with the ability to modify her stand on everything from abortion to prayer with the slightest change in political winds. I expect she’s counting on people to simply ignore the obvious, which we seem to do far too often.
Shumanbean, I agree with you about the two Clintons. Bill could have gotten away with this kind of rhetoric in the primary campaign. Hillary is a far less likable and sympathetic figure, even among Democratic voters, and with Republicans and independents thrown into the mix, she won’t survive this kind of thing. Obama is more likable, but whether he could pull off getting people to ignore this is an open question.
Re 2: They are trying to counter this by at the same rolling out large coordinated propaganda campaigns in their media trying to convince people they are Christians. You have probably noticed the repeated stories asserting how Democrats are “people of faith” in Time, Newsweek, New York Times, Washington Post, etc.
To be clear, Jim, these folks are struggling to follow Jesus in their lives. You may disagree with them on policy – I certainly do on abortion – but questioning their faith, or that of McCain or Thompson or Rudy – well, that just seems petty & selfish.
Here are some links on the Democrats’ religion propaganda campaign they rolled out this month:
CBS Uses Democrat Helpers To Explain How Democrats Now ‘Get Religion’
http://newsbusters.org/node/14176
Faith And Politics Do Mix For Democrats
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/07/16/earlyshow/main3061592.shtml
TIME Poll: Faith of the Candidates
http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1642653,00.html
Are You There, God? It’s Me, Hillary
http://www.slate.com/id/2170418/
How the Democrats Got Religion
http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1642653,00.html
Biden’s tough road helps him find faith
http://www.sptimes.com/2007/07/15/State/Biden_s_tough_road_he.shtml
Edwards marks faith amid persistent poverty in Mid-South swing
http://www.commercialappeal.com/mca/politics/article/0,1426,MCA_1496_5632083,00.html
Obama to visit Hampton Friday
“After sending campaign aides to the state to discuss faith issues. . .”
http://www.seacoastonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070718/NEWS/70718012
Note that they are rolling this out pretty contemporaneously with their Promote Abortion Campaign and the announcement they are going to be going through a beauty pageant as to who is the most “gay friendly.”
As I’ve said before, “this dog don’t hunt.” As the party who spends much of its time pushing abortion, the gay agenda, and bashing Christians as the “Religious Right,” the Democrats have no credibility. But they are incredibly cynical and scheming, and think we’re all “mighty stoopid” out here in flyover country.
#6: No, this is all a propaganda campaign. They are doing what they are instructed to do by their handlers, consultants and pollsters, and being trained to use evangelical terms in their speeches such as “I have the support of prayer warriors.” Believe me, I hang out with enough Democratic politicians in my area to know they are chuckling about this.
To go a step further, Obama has recently been quoted by ABCNews that sex-education should be taught to kindergarteners.
Just to be clear, I have the same opinion of Republicans who put their religion on their sleeve. They’re all phonies.
rolling eyes & jim – that Obama is one clever guy, huh – spending 2 years on the streets of Chicago masquerading as a Christian
In all my frustration with the Bush Regime, one thing that has never occurred to me is that Bush’s faith is not real.
“rolling eyes & jim – that Obama is one clever guy, huh – spending 2 years on the streets of Chicago masquerading as a Christian”
Bob, I’m not sure what you were trying to say to me in that post, but I wasn’t passing any judgment on Obama, merely pointing out what he says he believes. If you think a Christian should support public funds for abortions and sex education for 5 year olds, so be it.
I agree with the comment that all politicians are phony. That is why looking at where they stand on issues and then holding them to it is so important .
As for Mrs. Edwards using the liberals” favorite Orwellian phrase for abortion: “termination of pregnancy”–all that it shows is that the Democrats like her KNOW that what they are supporting is supremely evil. And Obama’s pledge to sexualize our 5 year-olders just shows how public schools can be made into propaganda factories so easily when liberals take control.
bob carlton, I agree with you that it’s better to take the religious feelings of the candidates as stated at face value. Who are we to say we can see into their hearts? God can, I can’t. I have no doubt that Sens. Clinton, Obama, and Edwards are sincere in saying that their faith is part of what impels them to support various government social program proposals and also what impels them to support unlimited abortion and sex education for small children. If they didn’t deeply believe these things are good, they wouldn’t be saying things which are likely to hurt them badly once (if) they get out of the Democratic primaries.
There are other posters here who, like you, are Democratic voters. These folks experience difficulties when the Democrats make their support for unlimited abortion so clear. Are the social programs more important than the lives of millions of babies? If the Democratic party would change its position on this issue, it could garner huge numbers of presently conflicted voters.