They should have given Duncan Hunter more time, and let him respond to the question about abortion.
While most of the GOP candidates are pro-life to one degree or another, Duncan Hunter and Brownback have the strongest commitment to LIFE!, and they didn’t even include Hunter in answering the question regarding LIFE!
Mr. Hunter is better off not being seen as the "most pro-life" candidate in this field. You say that most of the GOP candidates are pro-life "to one degree or another," but most Republican voters are only pro-life "to one degree or another." I don't believe in the life amendment as most pro-lifers are proposing it. I don't believe that justice is served by putting a rape victim or her doctor in jail because she refused to carry the child forced on her by rape. A member of my family recently went through a crisis pregnancy where one doctor gave her a greater than 50% chance of ending up dead if she didn't have an abortion. She decided to carry the child and everything turned out fine. Things could have gone the other way, and no matter what happened, the decision was not the government's business. Because so many pro-lifers hate me for taking these stands, I rarely call myself pro-life anymore.
The best that we can realistically hope to achieve in the next four years is the appointment of one or two Supreme Court justices who will vote to overturn Roe versus Wade and maybe some tightening of restrictions on late-term abortions. In my brightest dreams, the best that I can see us doing in the next four years would be banning every abortion once the baby is past 24 weeks of gestation. Any of these candidates except Rudy Giuliani can give us this victory if the American people are ready to go that far. One of the biggest impediments to going that far is people's fear that pro-life legislators won't stop.
If Mr. Hunter is going to win the presidency, he's going to need to win votes from millions of people who are not strongly opposed to legalized abortion. Some of them want more restrictions on abortion but are not ready to outlaw all abortions. Some of them wouldn't mind banning abortion but see abortion as a low priority. Some of them don't believe that abortion should be illegal but are willing to hold their noses on this issue if a candidate is strong on other issues. Being seen as a example of the extreme pro-life fringe will not help Mr. Hunter become president. Instead, he just needs to be one more solid Republican who thinks that abortion should be illegal.
Bill
He wasn’t included in most of the questions. What else can you expect from a mod that used to work for the Clintons? Questions carefully picked, commentary cut off when it goes in the “wrong” direction...
Did I miss it, or are they really refusing to discuss illegal immigration and terrorism? Terrorism was mentioned, correctly so, but only by the candidates?
Was I asleep? I thought I watched the whole thing?