Obama says pointed abortion query “above his pay grade”
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DALLAS – U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama side-stepped a pointed query about abortion on Saturday by “mega-pastor” Rick Warren during a televised forum.
Asked at what point a baby gets “human rights,” Obama, who strongly supports abortion rights, said: “… whether you’re looking at it from a theological perspective or a scientific perspective, answering that question with specificity … is above my pay grade.”
He went on to reiterate his view that it was important to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies.
Republican presidential candidate John McCain, who followed Obama onto the stage of the nationally televised event, was more blunt and more emphatic.
He said a baby’s human rights began “at the moment of conception … I have a 25-year pro-life record.”
Both candidates were vying for the “faith vote,” in particular the one in four U.S. adults who count themselves as evangelical.
Obama took questions first from Warren and McCain followed. The two shared the stage together briefly.
Some centrist evangelicals have said they appreciate moves by the Democratic Party to “soften” the edges of its pro-choice stand by stressing the need to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies and abortions — and by also working harder in areas like adoption.
But for many conservative evangelicals — a key part of the evangelical base — life begins at conception and the argument ends there.
The issue remains one of the most divisive and partisan in America — as Obama and McCain highlighted on Warren’s stage.
(Additional reporting by Jeff Mason)
(Photo credit: REUTERS/Rebecca Cook, Files, USA)
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I’m going to have to reconsider my position on Sen. Obama. He is no where near as appealing as he was five months ago.
Obama is right, leave the whole abortion issue to the professionals, if you haven’t noticed the country is a mess and we need someone vibrant with fresh ideas to lead us. If you don’t like abortion then don’t have one.
With an answer like that, Obama apparently doesn’t plan on making it to the presidential pay grade. What a blatant sidestep.
To the first poster, Andrew Austin: Sir, your opinion is remarkable in its muddled thinking. The fetus, as you so cagily call it, is a human being. That life is the one we should fight and die to protect. That life is the one that tyrants like yourself want to snuff.
“It doesn’t matter when life begins. For the state to force women to have babies represents tyranny against which Americans should fight and die. Better to sacrifice the fetus for the sake of human freedom than kill grown men with names and personalities.
- Posted by Andrew Austin ”
Hey Andrew,
Last time I checked the state does not force women to have babies. The majority of pregnancies occurring in the united states of America are VOLUNTARY.
Funny how the dems attack conservative views but let Obama slide when he tries to convince conservatives he is one of them. If I were a dem, which I’m not, I would be furious at Obama for pandering to the conservatives like he is trying to do.
The argument that the “state is forcing women to have babies” is absurd. Unless a woman has been raped, she chose to have sex, knowing, even with contraception, that there was a chance of becoming pregnant. If that isn’t an option she and her husband or boyfriend are willing to live with, then they need to grow up and practice SELF-control. It’s time for men and woman to act like adults and not feral animals who can’t control their every bodily urge. A pregnancy is not a disease. If you’re too immature to handle the responsibility then don’t get pregnant. Abortion is not the answer. Life begins at the moment a child is conceived, whether you choose to accept that or not. McCain is right and has the guts to say it outright, regardless of whom it offends. Good for him. Liberals want to make up their own “truth” as it suits them.
Reviewing the above comments, I don’t find many legitimate arguments for a proabortion belief. Several should be commented on:
1. Back alley abortions, sort of an urban myth, studies found the number of deaths prior to and post Roe v Wade were almsot the same.
2. Woman’s right to use of her body. Are all proabortion advocates, also pro prostitution? No one dies, and it is legal in most countries in the world.However we do restrict and outlaw this activity, how is this different?
3. Seperation of Church and State, since when did this become excepted dogma? The bill of rights stated …the Gov. would establish no religion. Thinking of the times, and the importance of the Church of England during the 17th century, it made sense to allow all religions.
After reading some of the comments here it’s more clear than ever that this election is not Democratss against Republicans, because I know a LOT of Republicans supporting Obama, but intelligence and integrity against ignorance and lies. When Obama said the answer was “above his pay grade”, he OBVIOUSLY used a bit of humor to point out that the obvious – NO ONE outside of God (if one embraces “God”) knows EXACTLY when consciousness takes place. BUT we ALL know that our men and women fighting in Iraq ARE conscious and McCain has NOT supported their care as Obama has. And McCain would support a woman forced to bear a child from a rape. Women forced to bear children they cannot emotionally not financially care for. So McCain only cares about life in a vague way, not as TRULY supporting those already struggling to live, OR our troops. That becomes VERY obvious when you note that our enlisted people have donated 6 TIMES as much money to Obama as to McCain. Big Business supports McCain. Wake up America. This MIGHT be our last chance to return America to her once proud stature. McCain can’t and won’t do it. Obama will try (he’ll need cooperation), but he can only do that if he is elected. Vote for the future we deserve. And heaven help those passing on viscous lies about Obama. The funny thing is that many CLAIM to be Christian. What a joke!
If Americans want the government’s nose in their personal business, then by all means vote for McCain. I, personally, would not have an abortion, but I am not entitled to force my opinion on others! Republicans, in their narrow little minds, think their ideas are the only correct, morally right ones. Their focus should be on their own lives not their neighbors!
Obama’s answer does show his inexperience. A better answer might have been, yes an embryo has the rights we confer upon them. Those rights are as arbitrary as the right of a human in this United States to equitable access to medical treatment, proper nutrition, and sound education, among many other rights and pursuits we consider lead to an orderly and free society. It easy to define life as beginning at conception when it is an abstraction to most folks. There is no real consequence to those wishing to impose that definition upon those who resist that definition, except a rally point argue. Put one day old human embryo and embryo of toad in front of the average person and ask them distinguish the difference. They can’t. Do the same a one-day old toad and human baby. Arguing about abstractions is an easy cop-out to tackling the real problems of the world. The embryo hasn’t done anything, yet, to offend the pious. Yes, the “buck stops” at the President. That is nothing more than short-hand for: “Please make the world black and white enough for me so I don’t have consider that the worlds is complex place.” Obama was right — it is above his pay grade. But, the masses want simply, easy answers and cringe at the freedom of others to make a decision independent of their own limited belief system. No empathy for the woman — just righteous, presumptive judgments — faith with little reasoning is nothing more than radicalism. Warren’s forum is a reflection that the young folks of the US are not following in lock-step of their parents limited social views, and seek a more balanced social agenda. They have to. They see the mess they are being left and need real solutions to fix it.
How do right-wing, Republicans reconcile their pro-life views with their staunch support of the death penalty?
Life is life is life and for conservatives to chastise liberals for being pro-choice while their almighty leader GWB ended many, many lives as governor of Texas is the heighth of hypocrisy.
If you all are such fanatic life respecting and saving freaks, how can you support a war that McSame believes is the savior of the United States that has killed tens of thousands of innocent women and children. The support for actions that results in the murder of civilians while in the same breath claiming the sanctity of life is the epitomy of idiotic right wing hypocrisy. We just got 8 years of B.S. from small brained voters who vote on these personal moral questions. Try and expand your perspective and pull your heads out of your rearends.
“Above my paygrade”?? Then why was it not “above your pay grade” when you repeatedly voted in favor of abortion on demand in Illinois, including committee votes to allow a baby to die that was born alive after a botched abortion attempt.
How can conservatives be pro-life and be for the death penalty? What about that follow-up question?
Andrew Austin writes that no-one has the right to force a woman to be pregnant. Except in cases of rape no woman has been forced to be pregnant, it is actually quite easily and inexpensively preventable, so why should the unborn pay the ultimate price for her irresponsibility. In the case of rape, perhaps the rapist should be put to death instead of the unborn innocent. We could ram a scissor into the back of the rapist’s head then suck his brains out till he dies. Mr. Obamas feels this is acceptable treatment of a small human being, why not a large one as well? He wouldn’t want to punish his daughters with a BABY, why should society be punished with a rapist they must endure or support in our tax paid prisons?
I found out the hard way that life begins at conception. Because society told me having an abortion was risk-free, I had one. I went to an abortion clinic, I had the abortion, but the moment I awoke I felt a loss I have never felt before. It was a loss of such magnitude that I instantly started to cry. I looked around the room and all the women who just had an abortion were crying. They were feeling the same loss. There was an attachment to the life that was growing inside me — an attachment to my soul, beyond any I had known before. I knew that I was mourning the loss of my baby which was only five weeks old. Since I wasn’t anticipating anything like that happening, I felt ashamed and full of guilt for killing my baby. I mourned for weeks after and have carried the guilt with me my whole life. That was many years ago, but I always wonder about the life I took and if I’ll ever be able to forgive myslef. Maybe some people don’t feel the loss and remorse and for them, abortion is a woman’s right but I don’t agree. I am so deeply saddened that Obama believes that all abortions are acceptable – even the very late abortions at 8 or 9 months. I now know when life begins (at conception) and I watch in horror as the number of abortions grow. Obama is right, we should lower the number of abortions but the only way to do that is to get women to understand that life begins at conception and it is something to be honored and charished, not thrown away like trash. Maybe then, they will be more sexually careful and honor their bodies more by not being so premiscuious. I don’t know how Obama will achieve that otherwise.
If John McCain is 100% pro life, and if he believes life begins at conception, how can he support stem cell research using live embryos? Looks like a lot of people have missed or wanted to gloss over that one. Barak Obama is not a minister, we shouldn’t have ministers running for president (whether its Jackson, Sharpton or Robertson), so his saying he’s not qualified to answer a theological question is totally appropriate. Thomas Jefferson said that religious questions are best served being answered by ministers.
When asked when a baby is a baby Barack makes a glib remark that this decision is above his pay grade. This fits right in I suppose with another callous remark he made regarding abortion and I quote, “I don’t want my daughters catching a sexually transmitted disease or being PUNISHED with a baby.” I wish this pastor had asked Barack he thought his two little girls were when they were inside his wife Michelle?
Hey Ted Scott tell God those brilliant Democrat talking points when you meet Him. I’m sure he’ll be impressed.
McCain gave quick, short, direct and decisive answers, often before the questions were even finished. Obama danced, ducked, bobbed and weaved on the questions.
I want a President that can make a decision when he gets that call at 3:00 am. Not one that will still be sorting out the “nuances” at 3:00 pm.
Andrew Austin (comment #1) is laughable:
“It doesn’t matter when life begins. For the state to force women to have babies represents tyranny against which Americans should fight and die. Better to sacrifice the fetus for the sake of human freedom than kill grown men with names and personalities.”
Let’s regurgitate this in regards to care for the mentally retarded:
“It doesn’t matter when life begins OR ends. For American citizens to be forced to take care of people who contribute absolutely nothing to society is tyranny against which Americans should fight and die. Better to sacrifice the retarded for the sake of human freedom than to kill adults acutely conscious of their existence.”
Yes, this is the new “pro-life” Democratic Party…
One that finds having an opinion about life or death “above its pay grade.” Indeed, smart folks have always known this. The amusement comes with the Dems finally acknowledging it.
You Obama supporters can throw out you “war-unemployment-economy” Stop-Sticks like a battalion of cops trying to stop a speeder. That wasn’t the focus of that forum for those issues. The question was simple and direct. Obama choose not to address it, but to blow it off in a glib, cutesy manner. McCain answered it. He said what he thought. You may not like his answer, but at least he was honest about where he stood. Already the media is defending Obama’s comment with the usual “,Gee, isn’t he adorable!” . No, he’s not adorable. Or cute. Or witty. He is a frightening example of how playing the numbers, not substance, between January and June can catapult you towards the White House. He is scared to say what he thinks, because he knows the vast majority of Americans will reject it.
My fellow Americans, meet the Prophet from Illinois. Meet the Manchurian Candidate
Almost everyone who has left a comment in here trying to slander Obama has forgotten to look at one thing. He was asked when a fetus gets human rights. He was not side-stepping the question and joking when he said it was above his pay grade, he simply meant that he is neither a scientist, a doctor nor a MEGA-CHURCH pastor, all of whom make more than Obama in a fiscal year. So saying it is above his pay-grade to make a succinct decision that can be contested any number of ways is a viable answer. And i would like to poll all the people that read this post and ask them if they believe in evolution or if the dinosaurs were put on earth to “test” our faith.
Evolution + 1
Andrew Austin also posts:
“It doesn’t matter when life begins. For the state to force women to have babies represents tyranny against which Americans should fight and die. Better to sacrifice the fetus for the sake of human freedom than kill grown men with names and personalities.”
I would rather the state to have heart to “force” women not to destroy their unborn children (coldly referred to as a Fetus) in the name of “human freedom”, than to be as cold and heartless as Andrew Austin is towards human life. By the way, Andrew, unborn children actually do have personalities amd many are even given names before they cross over your line between fetus and human being.
For Obama to make the statement that “it’s above my pay grade” really shows how he doesn’t want to or doesn’t choose to understand this important issue. This isn’t about studies or who knows more about the science! This is about LIFE and to understand it doesn’t take a special degree. It takes a heart and a real feeling about what life is. Obama is stick figure with no heart.
Andrew Austin,
No one is forcing women to have babies. Having sex is a personal and individual choice. As with all choices, there are consequences.
If it does not matter when life begins then can we kill people with whom we disagree? Can we kill our kids when they become troublesome teens because we do not want to be burdened with them?
If it does not matter when life begins then life itself does not matter. I bet abortion rights people think their lives matter enough to be happy their mothers did not abort them…
Oh my God, the question is above his pay grade? That comment is going to no doubt return again and again to haunt him. A United States senator running for the highest office in the land responds to a question involving one of the most divisive issues in America that it is above his pay grade? What a loser…
Hopefully, people here aren’t marionettes for either party, but whatever side of the aisle your on, you must shake your head and admit that Obama’s political sidestepping here was a bad move.
I’m quite tired of the media’s assumption that pro life automatically equates to evangelical. The vast majority of my friends and family are pro life. We probably number around 400 and are quite vocal about our pro life position. Evangelical? Not even close. In fact we are typically quite removed from any associations with evangelicals.
The Constitution states it had been formed to “ensure domestic tranquility”. In no way does an individual’s decision to have, or not to have, an abortion disrupt domestic tranquility and therefore, lawmakers are not entitled to have a say about it.
In response to the person who asked how pro-life catholics can vote for a pro-choice Obama. The answer is simple…90% of catholics were simply \’born catholic.\’ Catholicism is their way of absolving themselves of guilt and avoiding other religions.
Catholicism is great in thought, but few catholics question their beliefs before committing some certain act.
Catholics, are actually responsible for a far greater percentage of abortions than their actual US population should show. If every group had an equal amount (based on population), they have far exceeded their equal amount.
Sorry to the good catholics out there, but there are so many of you that are catholic in name only.
When does life begin? Nobody really knows, but there sure are plenty of unqualified morons on this site ready to claim they know. The only truly intelligent answer to this question is “I don’t know” or “It’s above my pay grade”.
If I were a fetus, and I had the choice between abortion or an unhappy life with parents that don’t want me, I would choose abortion. Why doesn’t the religious right ever consider what’s best for the child, rather than what’s best for their selfish, one sided religious point of view. We have enough unhappy kids in the world, and we can’t even take care of the kids we already have.
Obama 08
As someone who believes abortion is wrong but an issue that must be discussed openly, respectfully, with a lot of give and take or compromise, I wonder if all liberals believe partial birth abortion should be legal.
When a baby’s foot is left in the womb with the rest of the body out, they cave in the baby’s skull, killing it before throwing him or her in a bag marked medical waste. They say this is legal because the baby was still in the womb. How crazy is this?
If any of these pro choice folks saw the procedure in practice, I wonder if they would change their views. If not, the world is surely going down the tubes.
Actually, no Catholics support abortion.
In Roman Catholic Canon Law, Canon No.915 provides for automatic and immediate excommunication of anyone obtaining an abortion, assisting in that regard and/or supporting the policy or those who affect that policy.
Therefore, if you support a pro-abortion candidate, you are automatically excommunicated and are no longer a Catholic.
As a result, 0% of Catholics support abortion. But there are a bunch who CALL or think of themselves as Catholics who subscribe to this wholly immoral practice and an ignorant media lets them continue to record them as Catholics.
So if you think you’re Catholic and vote for Obama, better get to confession and contact your bishop about remedying the excommunication, or your vote will have cost you eternity. Good luck…and goodbye.
Last night’s events with Obama and McCain, was a great eye opener for me…….Obama, without the crutch of a MSM facilitator to “prop him up,” and Obama’s “stump speech” answers only making him look more “out of sorts,”
McCain, whether you agree with all his policies looked/sounded more “presidential,” than did “floundering around” Obama. “Above his pay grade..”
What in the world was THAT!! He, Obama, you showed last night you couldn’t get us out of a wet paper bag much less a mess with Iran, Russia or even a street gang in South Chicago………
All I can say is ‘wow.’ I’m a gay Republican that lives with his liberal boyfriend, and a liberal roommate. The only way my boyfriend will vote for Obama is if Hillary is on the ticket, well that’s the only way he WAS going to vote for him. I read that quote to both of them, they were flabbergasted. If a Supreme Court Judge were being nominated to the bench, and they did not have a stance on Abortion, as it seems Obama is trying to let on, then they would be blocked. And yeah, Separation of Church and State is to prevent the government from interfering with the church. NOWHERE does it state that the church CANNOT get involved in politics. Politics 101- Separation of Church and state is just a guideline, not an actual law. I understand in some circumstances needed an abortion. For instance, medically speaking, it is not recommended that a woman with Type 1 Diabetes become pregnant. But, lets name a few things: Condoms, birth control, and the morning after pill. There is no medical reason for a late-term (as liberals say)/partial-birth (as Conservatives say) abortion. Seriously, there isn’t. And it’s awful to pull the baby out only for it’s head to be crushed by the forceps. And how close to 90 percent of mother’s that find out that their child in their womb has down’s syndrome decide to abort the fetus. I would love to have a normal child, but also I would love to have a child with Down’s Syndrome. The most loving and kind people… If they aren’t responsible enough to use a condom or birth control, or even SMART enough to get the morning after pill (NO Prescription needed), then they aren’t smart enough to make a decision as big as getting an abortion. I have interviewed many women through my line of work that have had an abortion and and up with depression, a few even ended up not having the ability to get pregnant again. Seriously though…why not give the child up for adoption? You can even leave it at a hospital or a firestation, they are safe haven’s. And they won’t even try to find you. If the Secular Progressives gain control of the government, we are in trouble.
If this one thing is above Obama’s “paygrade”, one wonders what else will be. I wonder how pro-abortion people would feel thinking about the possibility that their mother might have chosen that option. I wonder what life would be like today if Abraham Lincoln’s mother, Einstein’s mother, Martin Luther King’s mother, Marie Curie’s mother, or any other mother of the greatest minds of our history had chosen that option…..If Bill Gates’ mother had chosen that option we wouldn’t be speaking this way today….Thank God those mothers didn’t make that choice, I’m sure that many of them had the same difficult circumstances that women do today and they chose life……
Barry for class prez!!!!!
I love it:)
I am not a religious person and I don’t see this as being an issue about religion. The only people who can tell you when life begins are the women who knew the day they conceived or the women who have had abortions and live with the guilt. They’re the only ones who really know when a life begins. Obama and others want politicians, judges or science to tell us when life begins. Any intelligent, spiritual person can tell you that it begins at conception. The people who believe otherwise chose to ignore the truth because it doesn’t fit into their agenda and expectations. Obama seems to live his life that way and that’s why he flip flops all over the place.
The last commenter stated “it doesn’t matter when life begins. For the state to force women to have babies represents a tyranny against which Americans should and die”.
Doesn’t he recognize that, if life has indeed begun taking the life is infanticide; the lowest and most evil form of murder, worse that matricide or parricide.
Obama has voted against laws outlawing partial-birth abortion.The phrase ‘partial birth” means that at the time of the so-called “abortion” the healthy, living infant’s head is outside of the mother’s womb. The “partial birth abortion” is accomplished by the so-called physician sticking a pair of scissors into the baby’s brain. Obama has voted to keep this procedure legal, and has succeeded. In so doing he has voted for infanticide.
Knowing that infanticide is as evil as it gets is not above anyone’s pay grade. We all know it. Unfortunately America is to weak to acknowledge it.
John McCain is correct. Evil must be defeated. Is there a greater evil than infanticide?
Ron Roth
Let me interpret here, folks… when Obama says “it is above his pay grade” what he’s saying is that he cannot answer the question, and neither can anyone. By being pro choice he is for individual rights… it is a mother’s choice whether to commit murder or not… no one else can tell her what is right and wrong… what is good and bad. And actually self determination and individual choice are strong conservative values (have you cons forgotten?). Of course abortion is “wrong”!… who in their right mind could actually say it is “right”… the question is whether it should be allowed by law. I see McLame as taking the easy way out by simply saying abortion should be illegal. He will get the vote of all the unthinking sheep who are too lazy to think about the true underlying issue of individual freedom.
Anyone watching to Saddleback interviews saw our great orator, Barack Ostutter. Without his teleprompter he can’t string three words together and not sound like double talk.
Simply put, McCain wasted his ass !!! He was quick with his answers….didn’t fumble for words. I have a question for Obama and his friends….”DO THE “PRO-CHOICE” PEOPLE EVER STOP TO OFFER A PRAYER OF THANKS THAT…THEIR PARENTS WERE “PRO LIFE”??? OR DO DEMOCRATS EVER PRAY AT ALL??
This is worth repeating. Thanks Rufus. You show intelligence and heart which I don’t see in a lot of comments here:
It absolutely matters at what point the baby’s “human life” status is recognized. For one human’s life trumps the “freedom” of another. A person’s freedom, or individual liberty, ends at the point where it infringes upon the freedom, or individual liberty, of another. That seemingly thinking people don’t understand this point is exasperating. The question of life is absolutley integral to the issue of abortion. Life trumps “choice”. Am i “free to choose” to walk away from a fatal car accident that I caused? NO! Even though the loss of that “choice” may have very negative consequences, I do not get to “choose” a destructive choice. This is why pro-life is really opposed by “pro-death”… not pro-choice. If you could demonstrate that life begins at the arbitrary moment of departure from the womb, that would be a compelling argument; however, modern science contiues to prove the opposite. Everything we have learned in recent decades points to beginning of this unique, human life at conception, when the unique personal DNA is formed. Every study shows how the stages of development inside the womb are no different than after departure (birth). This primitive form of denial where we kill the child before we can “see” it is a denial of reality and refusal to accept the very real consequences of behavior tha tin the vast majority of cases was completely voluntary, if irresponsible. Most of us on the pro-life side have even conceded to allowing abortions in the case of rape to eliminate the cases where the mother had no part in the real “choice” (fertilization). This in an effort to save the (over 98%) babies produced by sexual behavior the mother consented to. The “pro-choice” crowd does not make any similar concessions, even blocking the right of parents, charged with the health and welfare of their under-age daughters, to be informed, let alone decide. On top of all of this and on a purley legal front, there is absolutely NOTHING in the U.S. Constitution that speaks to the issue of abortion, privacy, or the so-called “right to choose”. The Roe v Wade decision has absolutely no constitutional support. Please show me where in the Constitution this so-called “right” is defined or protected.
- Posted by Rufus
“above my pay grade”?
He is therefore saying this job is above him. He clearly is not able to handle the job of POTUS. He has said it himself. The President has to make the tough calls and take a stance.
there is a price to be paid for everything we do and don’t do…HOW DARE OBAMA put a price or pay scale
on taking a stand on this issue….SHAME, SHAME, SHAME on him. I know poor people on the streets who make enough
money to answer this question…how dare that man make
this issue so trivial…this just makes me sick to my
stomach that this man has gotten as far as he has…shame
on him and shame on our country!
Obama is phonier than John Edwards and the Clintons combined. He just looks better when lying. He is an absolute disaster and the Democrats should be worrying that McCain will have coattails at his expense.
The \”punished with a baby\” was of course misconstrued. He did not say that every baby is a punishment, he said that for the mistake of having sex and either not using the proper protection, or having that protection fail, a young woman should not have to be forced to carry out a pregnancy if she is emotionally and financially totally unfit to care for that baby.
I just love the unrealistic arm chair pastors in here who are above it all. YOUNG, UNMARRIED PEOPLE ARE HAVING SEX! YES THERE! That it goes against your beliefs is totally irrelevant, not you and not anybody else will prevent that. Sure we can stick it to them, yeah, no abortions in the united states! Well they\’ll just travel to a country where they can get that done. How did that help exactly?
Barack is realistic here. Educate kids about sex, pregnancy. Enable those who would get an abortion because they simply can\’t afford a child with financial help. Make adoption easier when a woman just is unfit to be a mother and is thus conflicted with abortion vs adoption.
I will say it again, you can cry pro-life all you want, I respect your opinion. But don\’t force it on others and most of all, be realistic and stop pretending that you can live in a world where no woman ever would want to terminate a pregnancy.
McCain represents the simpleton attitude LIFE AT CONCEPTION OMG AND NO ABORTION EVER. Great sound bite, but unrealistic, out of touch and simplistic.
It isn\’t a simple issue, and Barack made clear he understands that. He just should have used a different wording than the pay grade thing.
Is this idiot still running ads acusing of John McCain of not wanting to talk about the issues? So this guy is too good to answer questions and then accusing his opponent of racism when he is challenged. This guy isnt a bad person, Obama just has a victim mentality that is dangerous when in power.
To say it’s above your pay grade sounds like you’re a government worker only doing the minimum of what you have to do. This guy wants to be the most powerful person in the world, and thinks having an opinion is too much for him?? What happens when something really tough comes up? Obama is an empty-headed suit who’s able to repeat a speech someone else has written, and that’s all.
It is a sad day in the history of our great country that a man such as Obama would even be considered for the most honorable office we have. God help us all.
I’m not sure what’s more unnerving: Obama’s weak answer or the fact that alot of people posting here are leaving me with the impression that they’re a 1-issue voter. You don’t owe me an explanation—but you do owe it to the country to not be myopic. 3/4 of evangelicals voted for Bush 4 yrs ago, and most said it was because of abortion rights. So how’d being a 1 issue voter then work out for us all?