I believe that Barack Obama is leading in the polls right now because he is succeeding at deceiving the public about who he really is and what he really believes. If the public really knew what he believes and plans to do as POTUS, he would lose in a landslide. The mass media is helping him immensely by neglecting to investigate any of the serious allegations raised by the Right.
Professor Robert George of the Witherspoon Institute has written a piece that, in my opinion, if everyone were to read would sink Obama's candidacy by itself. The piece deals with only one issue: The Unborn. This is the most controversial issue of our day, and it is the clearest divider between the two political parties. Obama, being a good Democrat, is pro-choice. No news there. But in his op-ed, George makes the case that Obama's beliefs and actions have gone far beyond the standard pro-choice agenda. George asserts, in fact, that he is so extreme in these beliefs that they make him a "pro-abortion" candidate.
I really recommend everyone read the entire piece. But here are the main points:
- Obama supports repealing the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits federal funding of abortions that are not the result of rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother (in other words, most abortions).
- Obama has stated that "the first thing I'd do as President is sign the Freedom of Choice Act." This act, if enacted, "would abolish virtually every existing state and federal limitation on abortion, including parental consent and notification laws for minors, state and federal funding restrictions on abortion, and conscience protections for pro-life citizens working in the health-care industry-protections against being forced to participate in the practice of abortion or else lose their jobs." We have a proposal we're voting on here in California during the same election, Proposition 4, which would require parental consent before a minor could get an abortion. These kinds of laws would presumably go away.
- Obama has opposed the ban on partial-birth abortions, and condemned the Supreme Court decision that affirmed the federal law against this disgusting procedure.
- Obama wants to remove federal funding for crisis pregnancy centers that provide alternatives to abortion. How extreme is that?
- Obama has not supported his own party's "Pregnant Women Support Act," which would provide help for pregnant women in need. Furthermore, he has opposed some provisions in the act that even ultra-liberals like Ted Kennedy support, which would offer information to these pregnant women about the long-term effects of abortion and which would provide coverage under the national S-CHIP health plan for the unborn babies.
- Obama opposes the "Mexico City Policy" that opposes funding abortion in other countries.
- Obama has voted multiple times against, and spoken out against, legislation that would require doctors to provide care to babies who survive abortion or who are intentionally delivered before they are "viable" (able to survive without help outside the womb). There can be no doubt that this practice constitutes actual infanticide. Yet common-sense humanitarian legislation like this was supported at the federal level by such prominent pro-choice activists as John Kerry and Barbara Boxer, but opposed by Barack Obama.
- Going beyond abortion to the controversial practice of killing human embryos for research on their stem cells, Obama joins many other legislators in their belief that federal funding should be permitted for this practice. Note that the practice is not illegal (it should be), just that President Bush has ordered that the government cannot pay for it.
- Obama has gone way beyond that position, which talks only about human embryos that already exist due to over-production during in-vitro fertilization procedures, and sponsored legislation to authorize the large-scale industrial production of human embryos for this purpose.
- That same bill would mandate the killing of any embryos produced by cloning. It would make it a federal crime to implant such an embryo in a woman to bring it to term. This is Obama's way of saying "I'm anti-cloning." Not that we shouldn't be cloning, but that we should clone and then kill what we've cloned. Again, despicable.
- A year or two ago, when scientists announced they had discovered a way to create, in effect, stem cells from non-stem cell material, the pro-life world rejoiced. Wanting to support promising research in that area, pro-lifers had to oppose it because it required killing scores of unborn children. With this discovery, we could "have our cake and eat it, too." Well, when a bill came up in the Senate to invest federal dollars into this new technique, Obama was one of the few senators to actually oppose it. As Professor George aptly comments, "It is as if Obama is opposed to stem-cell research unless it involves killing human embryos."
- Obama believes Roe vs. Wade was properly decided, and has made it clear that he would only consider as justices for the Supreme Court people who are solidly pro-choice. With up to six of the nine current justices past the normal retirement age and the court now evenly divided between leftist activists and justices who understand their role is to interpret, not make, law, the next president will be in a position to tip the balance of the court one way or the other. Vote Obama and we will lose any hope of reversing Roe vs. Wade in my lifetime, if ever.
All of these positions are revolting. Some of these positions are mainstream. Many are clearly outside the mainstream, which makes Obama a radical. In an average citizen, we'd just say, "wow, that guy's pretty extreme in his views." Instead, "that guy" is getting ready to be elected President of the United States. Not only that, but Congress will be solidly left after this election, too, which means this leftist president will have a left super-majority in Congress to do his bidding.
In short: They will be able to pass whatever they want to.
We cannot afford to let this happen. Vote McCain on November 4th, and convince a friend to do the same.
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