Story Created:
Aug 18, 2008
Story Updated:
Aug 18, 2008
Ed Morrissey on Barack Obama's strange answer to a question on abortion Saturday night.
First, the entire issue of abortion involves determining when a baby becomes a person. If Obama thinks this is above his pay grade, then he probably shouldn’t be running for political office. If a baby is a person at conception, then abortion is murder. If Obama doesn’t believe that abortion is murder, then he can’t believe in the personhood, the humanity, of an embryo or fetus — not unless he’s some kind of monster.
As President — even as Senator — Obama is expected to have an answer for this. Quite literally, there is no higher pay grade in the US government, and abortion is one of the issues he has to face. If he can’t face it, then he should go back to community organization and leave politics for people who can. John McCain had no trouble answering the same question. Obama dodged it — and for good reason: his answer would have exposed his radical views.
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Why didn't he answer the question? here's a flashback:
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And, don't miss Michelle Malkin on the whining over the "cone of silence."
No, really. The Obama camp and its media water-carriers are seriously accusing John McCain of “cheating” in his appearance over the weekend at Rick Warren’s Saddleback church forum because he was in his motorcade when the program started– and then escorted to an empty room without media hook-ups. NBC’s Andrea Mitchell spread the unsubstantiated rumor that somehow McCain heard Obama’s questions while on his drive. The nutroots went, well, nuts.
Sunday, Aug 24 at 9:17 PM RxFire wrote ...
Um... No Frannie. Barack was doing everything he could NOT to actually answer the question. Not the actions of a leader.
Sunday, Aug 24 at 3:22 AM Frannie wrote ...
O-N: Ok, let's forget analogies... but then you throw out the analogy to end all analogies: abortion is murder. We'll simply never agree. I will not collectively define women who have made the difficult choice to have an abortion as murderers. Maybe you have exceptions, maybe not. Maybe it's a complex question after all that can't be answered in two words? Silly Barack, he tried to answer Rick Warren's question like a thoughtful person, not an idealogue.
Friday, Aug 22 at 11:31 PM Obama-Nought wrote ...
F: forget the analogies - Abortion is Murder
Friday, Aug 22 at 9:25 AM RxFire wrote ...
Frannie said, "If abortion is unjustifiable killing, then compare it to: capital punishment, war, euthanasia, ... what else?" In abortion you are taking a truely innocent life. In CP and war the taking of innocent lives is not a generally acceptable practice. Occasionally an innocent life might be lost but that is not the goal. In euthanasia a person makes the choice to die. In abortion the fetus cannot make that choice. Abortion kills a truely innocent life. (a life that is human)
Friday, Aug 22 at 3:33 AM Frannie wrote ...
Obama-Nought: I agree abortion is not "ok". It's the most gut-wrenching decision a woman could make. That doesn't make it universally illegal. You acknowledge that women have been terminating pregnancies for thousands of years. 130,000 to 200,000 or more years. To compare it to slavery? Let's keep our analogies consistant... we're talking about destruction of "life". If abortion is unjustifiable killing, then compare it to: capital punishment, war, euthanasia, ... what else?
Wednesday, Aug 20 at 10:37 PM Obama-Nought wrote ...
So, for Frannie, since women have been having abortions for thousands of years, it's OK. Human Slavery went on for at least hundreds of years (actually thousands, of course), so I guess that was all OK too, and so maybe we should bring back Slavery? Thousands of years of wrong don't make a right, Frannie...
Tuesday, Aug 19 at 9:12 PM RxFire wrote ...
Um.... Ralph. Those fertilized eggs are living organisms (that just so happen to be human) ... just like you. Yes. The issue of IVF clinics is a huge issue. And yes they are concerns of MANY, MANY conservatives. That does not lessen how pathetic Obama's response was to the question that was posed to him. The bottom line is that human life begins at conception. Birth is only the start of a new stage of that life.
Tuesday, Aug 19 at 7:03 PM Maddie - Saukville wrote ...
Ralph, Typical White Person has a Typical Conservative, particularly Christian Conservative response. You'll have to look farther from the mirror to find a hypocrite's reflections on this matter and I can come in from a cold freezer, once my skull is pierced open and my brain is introduced to the cuisinart its pretty much over.
Tuesday, Aug 19 at 4:10 PM Frannie wrote ...
Perhaps we should up the Prez salary to McCain's "rich" scale of over $5M? Women have been terminating pregnancies for as long as women have been getting pregnant. If you do not believe in abortion, do not have an abortion, and instill that value in your children. The key to Obama's answer: "If you believe that life begins at conception, and you’re consistent in that, then I can’t argue with you. What I can do, is work with you to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies and abortions."
Tuesday, Aug 19 at 9:40 AM Typical White Person wrote ...
Ralph's premise that there is no concern on the pro-life side for frozen embryos is demonstrably false, as a google for "right to life" and "frozen embryos" will quickly show.
Tuesday, Aug 19 at 6:45 AM Larry J wrote ...
Ralph? Have you ever heard of a case in which a woman carries a pregnancy to term and has something other than a baby?
Monday, Aug 18 at 10:19 PM Ralph wrote ...
McCain's response made no sense either. If the fertilized egg be a human being just like the rest of us, then what to make of the little people left frozen in the IVF clinics? That's the 50,000 pound gorilla none of you are willing to talk about. Think of those little people shivering in the freezer. And what of the thousands left to thaw and die each year when mommy and daddy give up on IVF? How come none of the right to life nuts get all teary-eyed about these little people?
Monday, Aug 18 at 9:10 PM Obama-Nought wrote ...
Above his pay-grade? His he running for dog-catcher? I wouldn't even trust him for that job...
Monday, Aug 18 at 6:18 PM ron the montague mailman wrote ...
ALL OBAMA COULD DO WAS STUTTER AND MAKE JOKES ABOUT PAYGRADE. TEN YEARS AGO HE WAS A CHITOWN WARD HEELER AND NOW HEIS GOING TO BE PREZ, I'M SICK.
Monday, Aug 18 at 6:02 PM Glenn D. Frankovis wrote ...
Perhaps the question to Obama should have been, "At what point did your daughters get human rights in your view?"
Monday, Aug 18 at 5:50 PM Maddie - Saukville wrote ...
If determining when one life begins is above his pay grade, where does his influence over when millions or billions might end lay? Ohhhh, that's why he wants to disarm us. At least the Chinese and Russians will still be around once we're the parking lot. Maybe our oil will finally get drilled too. Sorry caribou comrades.
Monday, Aug 18 at 4:10 PM Anonymous wrote ...
I'm so happy to learn from the comments that there is unanimity about the answer to this question, and that everyone except Obama agrees. I had the impression there was no real answer to the question. only opinions, of which there are many -- except here.
Monday, Aug 18 at 10:26 AM Typical White Person wrote ...
The question was: "At what point does a baby get human rights in your view?", and He starts by framing it as "from a theological perspective or a scientific perspective". No, Mr Obama, as a person running for office you're expected to answer it from a GOVERNMENTAL perspective! Don't forget the "in your view" part, either. Do you mean you're not qualified to state your own opinions? America gets the government it deserves. Do we deserve this?
Monday, Aug 18 at 9:40 AM Kurt/Elkhorn wrote ...
When you are the commander-in-chief,no one except the taxpayer is "above my paygrade"& we're asking. No wiggle room here. Just avoiding the issues he doesn't want to address. Prepare for more & more as November draws nearer. Why is he not a practicing lawyer if he's so smart? Inquiring minds want to know!
Monday, Aug 18 at 9:24 AM Walt wrote ...
Ever noticed how STUPID liberals sound? In the 1950 they tried to convince us that a new ICE AGE was upon us because of aerosol spray cans, than came “GLOBAL WARMING” and now that it’s getting colder they call it “global climate change”. In the 60s they said a fertilized egg is not human during the first trimester, so you could abort it if you wanted. The 1st trimester turned into the 2nd, the 3rd and finally you could kill your baby as long as the head is still inside. What MORONS.
Monday, Aug 18 at 8:46 AM lib wrote ...
Funny to watch THE ONE triangulate to an audience of evangelicals. He won't commit to his real views, as he then loses. What a snake. Huge victory for America. Praise the Lord, pass the peanuts.
Monday, Aug 18 at 8:42 AM Jeff Schallert wrote ...
"Cone of Silence?" "Shoe Phone?" Are the Democrats conducting a presidential campaign, or trying to revive "Get Smart?"
Monday, Aug 18 at 6:02 AM RxFire wrote ...
I don't make as much as Obama and I can figure it out. Hmmm. When a human egg is fertilized, a living organism (one that is human) is created. That is the point that each and everyone of us was created. Before that point we did not exist. After we did. A fertilized egg has the characteristics of a living organism. An unfertilized egg does not have the characteristics of a living organism. This is basic biology. Maybe Obama was sick that day of school.
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