Posted on 08/21/2008 5:45:11 AM PDT by Invisigoth
In wombs all across America, unborn children suck their thumbs and think, “I hope the next vice president isn’t in favor of aborting me!”
OK, no they don’t. But plenty of Republican voters are apparently thinking it for them, which brings us to the latest symbolic litmus test to which John McCain is being subjected to mollify the conservative base, which still can’t quite come to grips with the fact that McCain is the Republican nominee for president.
McCain, who thinks for himself and has been known to come to conclusions with which this column disagrees, let slip in a recent interview that he would not rule out certain prospective running mates solely because they might be pro-choice on abortion.
Add this to the fact that the pro-choice Rudy Giuliani has been chosen as the keynote speaker at the Republican National Convention, and the base’s angst is magnified all the more.
Why all this should shock anyone is beyond me, but the base predictably went bananas anyway. Leading conservative movement types immediately took to the airwaves and to the web to lay down the law to McCain: If he picked a pro-choice running mate, the base would sit on its hands in November, and McCain would get a front row seat at the inauguration of Barack Obama.
The base is prepared to die on a curiously chosen hill.
(Excerpt) Read more at northstarwriters.com ...
Vice Presidents often become Presidents. That’s why it matters.
Dan Calabrese has a mistaken notion of his own importance. McCain used him to float a trial balloon, and Dan thinks it was a slip.
He will pick a vice president he thinks can help him govern, and whom he thinks will be prepared to take over as president if necessary. That person’s view on abortion is irrelevant to anything a McCain Administration would do to actually impact life in this country.
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One heartbeat away could impact life or death for millions of tiny beating hearts of the unborn...
Without a commitment to the principles of the Declaration of Independence - namely the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness - America is a meaningless geographical mass.
George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Patrick Henry, John Adams and James Madison chose this same "curious hill" to die on, if need be.
What is more important and essential than unborn life to Dan Calabrese? His boyfriend's manicure?
In addition, it is a HUGE signal about the moral compass of the GOP (there is none) and a signal about what sort of judges McCain would pick.
As the writer says later, “He is often conservative, but he is certainly not part of the conservative movement, and would never qualify as one of the vaunted “true conservatives” in the eyes of the movement’s luminaries. The base has to let this go. McCain won the nomination fair and square, and McCain is going to do things his own way.”
Reminding the base of this just as he is starting to be competitive is NOT a good idea.
The life of the unborn is very important to me, which is why I prefer methods of protecting them that actually work, and that does not include obsessing over the elections of public officials who will not be in a position to help them.
Picking a veep is like checking the inflation of your spare tire. It doesn’t matter at all, unless you have to use it.
Is the US Senate in a position to help the unborn?
Does the US Vice President have any role in the US Senate?
Now let’s see, which would be more disastrous for the unborn — elect McCain with a pro-choice VP, or allow Obama to be elected and let him be the one to choose Supreme Court nominees? Gosh, I just don’t know. /s
If Mr. Dan doesn’t think this is important, he is out of touch...by a country mile.
Yeap, ya got to be willing to stand for something.
If not the most innocent, who????
I thought it was an excellent idea, assuming as is likely that the whole purpose of the article is to help Obama. He knows what he is doing, more or less, so he agitates on the issue, hoping to irritate pro-life voters into staying home or voting for a third party in protest, while hoping to scare pro-abortion voters into bringing three or four generations of dead ancestors in to vote for Obama.
Then you’ll have no objection to Obama on the abortion issue...
or his VP pick...
How about a third alternative: McCain does the right thing and picks a pro-life VP.
My point is that the president has no impact on how many children will be aborted, now or in the future. Neither does the U.S. Senate.
Even if Roe v. Wade is overturned (which I think should happen as a matter of good law, by the way), all that will happen is that some states will ban abortion, and women wanting abortion will simply travel to the other states.
And one day a liberal court, at the first opportunity, will give us Roe v. Wade 2.
We can never win this battle legally, but that doesn’t stop us from insisting that every elected official for every office be pro-life, even though, once elected, these pro-life officials do nothing to stop abortions.
But we keep hoping they will.
I have mixed thoughts on this issue. I can see Dan’s point that the President himself really has little practical effect on abortions in this country, so how could it be claimed the views of the VP are really that important. On the other hand, Supreme Court nominations aside, I suppose a pro-life President could be very useful to have if and when it comes down to vetoing a Democrat bill that would make it legal to kill babies well... anytime you feel like it, just BECAUSE.
But I think the issue - and the problem, is more subtle than simple facts, or saying “this might happen” or “that might happen.” The fact is, John McCain has spit in the face of Conservatives year after year, and doesn’t seem to give much of a damn about issues that should really matter to us... you know, like political free speech.
That said, McCain is going into this election with a large amount of us already having him pencilled in at the top of our !(@*# list. And, yeah, against that Socialist buffoon Obama maybe we can hold our noses and vote for the Cranky Old Man (note I said “maybe”) BUT picking a pro-death VP would, to me, be the absolute, final, 100% LAST STRAW that would somehow disable our fingers from pressing that lever come voting time.
Luckily, this is all besides the point, as McCain’s campaign has made it clear that he WON’T pick a pro-death VP.
To me, morals mean things. Having a moral President means something. Anyone remember Bill Clinton? That’s what happens when we have a sub-standard human being in office. I’m happy that McCain is pro-life (HEY! There’s actually SOMETHING that McCain and I agree on!) and I’m happy that he hasn’t thrown his morals out the window for political expediency in choosing a pro-death Vice President. Good move (for a change), John. :-)
The conservative base, having failed to nominate someone more to their liking such as Fred Thompson, is now being asked to stomach McCain as their standard bearer. As such, the base wants him to affirm their relevance by symbolically tipping his hat to them on the social issue that concerns conservatives most.
And for all you "personel responsibility folks...
No matter who the president is, abortion law remains largely unchanged, and the only thing that stops abortions from taking place is the moral fortitude of the women in question.
“How about a third alternative: McCain does the right thing and picks a pro-life VP.”
My comment concerned what if he doesn’t. Sitting out the election is silly foolishness.
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