Redstate

Posted at 10:51pm on Jul. 9, 2008 Redstate Roundtable: Obama's Unending Psychology of Change

That's a lotta flipflop

By Ben Domenech

Let's sit down next to the couch for a moment to discuss this. Five questions for Contributors (and you!) are at the end.

Over the past few months, a strong meme has developed regarding Barack Obama: that his loyalties to a position are only as strong as they need to be given the demands of the moment. His eagerness to throw close associates or even mentors like Jeremiah Wright under the bus if the press or the political right demands it is second to none in the history of presidential politics. He has no qualms about shifting positions - such as on meeting without preconditions with the leaders of enemy nations - if it will squelch a media storm or make it easier to win a state. He has not a stubborn bone in his body, it appears - and is, to put it simply, not a fan of inconvenient truths.

But in the month since Obama cinched the Democratic nomination, this stream of flipflops has become a torrent. A brief summary:

-Obama said the D.C. handgun ban and the almost as restrictive Chicago ban were constitutional and supported handgun restrictions, but now he says definitively that it was unconstitutional.
-Obama promised he would accept public financing when he thought he'd need it, but then decided he'd rather not.
-Obama opposed welfare reform while in Illinois, but now says he supports it.
-Obama opposed the death penalty on principle and supported a moratorium on capital punishment - even implying that Osama Bin Laden should not be "martyred" by it - and now he believes it is justified not just in the case of homicide and terrorism, but also of child rape and other circumstances.
-Obama opposed legal immunity for telecom companies for cooperating with government security surveillance, but now he claims to support it.

And just this past week came two of the largest flipflops - certainly the greatest ones I have ever witnessed DURING THE COURSE of a presidential campaign:

-Obama supported immediate day one withdrawal of troops from Iraq, but now says he'll "refine" his position and listen to the commanders on the ground if they tell him to phase out the troops slowly, while still claiming to support an impossible mark of 16 months to a total withdrawal. You can read the three different versions of this new Obama position on Iraq here.

-Obama supported unlimited access to abortion, including taxpayer funding and opposing born alive infant protection, but now he says he supports states rights to restrict and even prohibit all late-term abortions, and have now requirement to have a health exception that allows for the (overwhelmingly used) basis of "mental health."

The story is here, and his inevitable attempt to refine further is here. As for the original interview, the full text is here, and below the fold.

Read on for the questions and responses...

Posted in 2008 | Abortion | ANWR | Barack Obama | Redstate Roundtable — Comments (12)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 9:40am on Jul. 2, 2008 From Unity to Slaughter

By Feddie

A great political cartoon by Zach Brissett.

Posted at 11:09am on Jun. 28, 2008 A question we all know the answer to

By Neil Stevens

Are all the people who support publicly-funded abortions on the grounds that the Supreme Court declared abortion a right, now going to support publicly-funded handguns on the grounds that the Supreme Court affirmed gun ownership as an indivdiual right?

Posted at 12:14am on Jun. 28, 2008 Victory for South Dakota In Informing Women About Abortion

Science 1, Planned Parenthood 0

By Dan McLaughlin

The full en banc 8th Circuit Court of Appeals handed a victory Friday to GOP Gov. Mike Rounds and the people of South Dakota, lifting an injunction sought by Planned Parenthood against a South Dakota statute that mandates disclosures to women seeking abortions about the consequences of their decisions, including disclosure of the fact that an "abortion will terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being." In no other area of the law is the Left so dedicated to preventing the full disclosure of facts to consumers. The 8th Circuit opinion, written by George W. Bush appointee Judge Raymond Gruender and joined by five other of President Bush's appointees to the bench, recognized Planned Parenthood's opposition to the disclosure of scientifically accurate facts for what it was.

Read On...

Posted in Abortion | Law — Comments (1)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 6:36pm on Jun. 26, 2008 Senator Obama, If Fatherhood Begins at Conception, When Does Life Begin?

By Bluey

Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council asks Sen. Barack Obama about his remark on Fathers Day that "fatherhood doesn't end at conception."

Posted in 2008 | Abortion | Barack Obama — Comments (16)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 5:36pm on Jun. 18, 2008 Catholic Charities of Richmond

By Feddie

Neither Catholic, nor charitable.

Posted at 10:12am on May 17, 2008 Wasp landing on Nettle Watch: NARAL screaming at itself over Obama endorsement.

Again, with the Pratchett references.

By Moe Lane

How totally uncool of me.

Anyway, it would appear (via Ed Morrissey of Hot Air) that we've got ourselves a Blue-on-Blue kind of firefight going on:

NARAL reeling from Obama endorsement
By BETH FRERKING | 5/16/08 2:02 PM EST

With the clock running down on a long-fought primary, NARAL Pro-Choice America leaders sent state affiliates reeling this week by endorsing Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois. It was seen as a gratuitous slap in the face to a longtime ally, and it sparked a fear even closer to home: that the move will alienate donors loyal to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York.

Many on this week’s conference call were stunned on learning the news, making urgent pleas for the group to remain neutral until after the June 3 Democratic primaries.

“It’s created a firestorm,” said NARAL Pro-Choice New York President Kelli Conlin, who was on the conference call. “Everyone was mystified ... saying, ‘What is the upside for the organization? And, frankly, [there was] a lot of concern about the donor base. ... There was real concern there would be a backlash.”

There was a backlash, and it was swift, starting with NARAL’s own website. At last count, there were more than 3,300 comments in an electronic chat about the endorsement, the overwhelming majority of them negative. “Shame shame shame!” read one, with many correspondents threatening never to support NARAL financially again. “No more donations from me!!!” wrote another.

Not quite up to five exclamation points yet (yup, yet one more Pratchett reference), but give them time.

Read on.

Posted in 2008 | Abortion | NARAL | The Best Democratic Primary EVER — Comments (10)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 11:49am on May 9, 2008 Obama on judges

Protecting the Powerless?

By Feddie

Here is Senator Obama describing what he will look for in a judge if elected president:

[W]hat I do want is a judge who is sympathetic enough to those who are on the outside, those who are vulnerable, those who are powerless, those who can't have access to political power and as a consequence can't protect themselves from being being dealt with sometimes unfairly, that the courts become a refuge for justice. That's been its historic role. That was its role in Brown v Board of Education.

Except for unborn babies, of course.

Those, you can kill with impunity (even after they're born).

UPDATE (Dan McLaughlin): San Diego Union-Tribune cartoonist Steve Breen made this same point with a cartoon worth a thousand words during the Alito hearings:

Cartoon below the fold...

Posted in Abortion | Judicial Activism | Judicial Appointments | Life Issues — Comments (47)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 8:35pm on Apr. 30, 2008 “[O]n abortion, Mr. Obama is an extremist”

By Feddie

Nat Hentoff nails it.

Posted at 10:11pm on Apr. 10, 2008 South Park on Abortion: "The Ultimate Cheat"

By Ben Domenech

I know not all of you are South Park fans. I'm a huge fan of their work, and as RS editors know, I try to force them all to watch the episodes and marvel at the phenomenal social commentary hidden behind a layer of the absurd and/or the obscene.

The South Park guys aren't conservatives - they're libertarians. But they're awesome libertarians. They hate the global warming preachers, NAMBLA, Jesse Jackson, Hillary Clinton, and save some of their strongest bile for the celebrity political activists - George Clooney, Rob Reiner, Rosie O'Donnell and Barbara Streisand. They can't stand politically correct authoritarians and they authored the definitive anti-9/11-truthers response (which actually ends up being kinda pro-W, believe it or not). They've made Al Gore into a walking joke among Comedy Central viewers. Yes, they bash the Catholic Church a lot and they have some cutting remarks about redneck Americans and country music...but their episodes bashing Richard Dawkins and atheism are far more vicious, and amazingly composed.

Posted in Abortion | Libertarians | Life Issues | South Park — Comments (38) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 11:45am on Mar. 31, 2008 "Punished with a baby"

By Feddie

Ben Smith wonders whether these remarks by Senator Obama will be his "next controversy."

I think there is a chance that they will, but much will depend on what sort of coverage the remarks receive in the blogosphere, and whether that buzz is enough to translate into MSM attention.

Posted at 2:54pm on Mar. 25, 2008 NOW hates women who fail to have abortions

By Neil Stevens

Over at Flash Report they've followed the story of Assemblyman Chuck DeVore's (Republican of Orange County) Assembly Bill 1940, which would allow pregnant women to get temporary placards to park their cars in handicapped parking spaces. The Assemblyman has gotten many reports of pregnant women who have trouble in large, full parking lots, particularly in the summer, when they have a long way to walk.

It seems like a simple, common-sense thing we can do to help expectant mothers, right? Think again. Democrats defeated the bill in committee, with a member who voted to defeat the bill, Assemblywoman Betty Karnette (Democrat of Long Beach) saying that instead of this, pregnant women "need a man around the house."

Apparently Karnette, NOW, and the rest of the radical left think that pregnant women need to live their lives as helpless shut-ins, living at the whims of the men in their lives, even if it means staying home all day because the men have to go out and earn a living.

It baffles me how anyone can claim that positions like these are pro-women. How far have we sunk, that an organization gains credibility as 'pro-woman' by favoring unrestricted abortion on demand, but can then actively seek to hinder pregnant women like this?

I guess NOW just hates women who don't kill their young.

Posted in Abortion | California | Chuck DeVore | handicapped parking spaces | NOW | pregnancy | State Politics — Comments (53)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 7:40pm on Mar. 7, 2008 Barack Obama's "Mad World"

By Feddie

Dear Senator McCain, this is the kind of ad you might want to consider running againt Senator Obama this Fall:

Warning: There are some graphic images in the video.

(LvCJ)

Posted in 2008 | Abortion | Barack Obama | Born Alive Infants Protection Act — Comments (36)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 7:32pm on Feb. 24, 2008 California Republicans reject abortion, re-adopt compromise platform

By Neil Stevens

The California Republican Party has again adopted "a strong, conservative pro-life, pro-family platform", says Flash Report, but I think what really happened in San Francisco is that conservatives and moderates fought off an extreme pro-abortion fringe and joined to put in a moderate platform that reaches out in a reasonable way to a left-leaning state.

Posted in Abortion | California | Human Life Amendment | platform | Republicans — Comments (63) / Email this page » / Read More »