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 have one question for the “Choice” people and all this crap about personal freedom. Why when the child is born and the Mom is really tired from all she’s been through can’t she just make the CHOICE to sleep through the night and not feed her baby? How dare the state try to control her body and ruin her “Individual Personal Freedom” and force her to get out of bed. She’s tired and its her RIGHT to sleep if she CHOOSES. Oh but when the newborn baby starves to death they take her away and put her where she belongs, in prison for the murder of that baby. So according to Karla abortion is always wrong, but its a question of personal freedom. Should we allow the individual freedom to choose to murder or not. And how many accomplices to this murderous act should we choose to ignore.
“Above my paygrade”??? As President, you won’t have anyone “above your paygrade.” You will be “the paygrade.” The buck stops there. Make up your mind and lead!
.
The real question should be what does a pay grade have to
do with the dignity of life? Seems to me that your values
determine and reflect your true moral stance.It’s better to be financially poor and morally rich than to
be popular and rich while being spritually bankrupt.
Just one more thing about this do any of you know Obama’s real position on abortion? Do you know that his voting record suggests he is in favor of extremely late term abortions. Also, with some of these late term abortion baby’s are coming out alive and he supports leaving the baby on the table and not giving any medical attention and letting it die. Now once the fetus is outside the womb alive shouldn’t that fetus be given medical treatment. I mean at that point the baby is a U.S. Citizen. I thought Borack believed in Free Medical care for all kids!
As Mother Teresa said:
“It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish.”
For me the curiosity last night was not about McCain. Whether one agrees with him or not, he is a known entity. What I was curious about was Obama, as I still haven’t quite figured him out. I want to go beyond the rhetoric and pictures painted in the media and understand for myself what all the furor and adoration is about. So I was paying close attention to Obama and his answers and demeanor.
However if last night is any indication — especially after side by side comparison which IMO was disasterous for Obama — I though his performance was frankly embarrassing. How has he got to where he is one step away from becoming the commander-in-chief of the most powerful nation in the world is truly beyond my comprehension — and I’m not even talking about his politics which is far left of where most American are.
In short he did poorly last night yet looked even worst because of side by side comparison with the commanding performance of McCain.
It has always struck me as odd that the party that so fervently supports the right of every zygote over the rights of the woman who carries it, also equally fervently supports the use of the death penalty.
Excellent point from the writer who points out my earlier submission as failing to argue for support of Rove v Wade. The purpose of my earlier entry was to call to task statements that serve to propagate lies about Obama.
Now, as to Roe v Wade. Prior to Roe v Wade, this writer lived on the border with Mexico, and witnessed the butchery carried out by so-called doctors south of the border aborting pregnancies upon desperate young women, some of whom died, some of whom would never again carry a child, some whose health was permanently damaged, some of whom were crippled. Roe v Wade put aside those tragedies, for the most part. It’s disturbing that many on the so-called “pro-life” side disregard the ruined lives of many women prior to Roe v Wade.
Those who want to use government to intrude into the most private and intimate decisions a woman may be forced to make regarding her body and the embryo she carries while her male companion carries no responsiblity are rather insincere when they claim a desire for “less” government or a “smaller” government while calling for a tossing out of Roe v Wade.
BO was smoked by McCain. Barry is a prentder. And to the earlier blogger who spoke so eloquently of the Clinton years – pls don’t forget that he let Osama bin Laden get away three times, allowed the Chinese to steal our nuke technology (Loral Systems, Hughes) in exchange for campaign monies, and made lying/cheating acceptable IF related to sex! The Clintons truly harmed this country and it may take years to realize how much.
The democrats – as a whole – are anti-American, anti-Church, and anti-life.
It’s 3 a.m. and the phone rings in the White House…
Obama answers the phone and after a long winded self-serving speech states “it’s above my pay grade”. I guess he’ll need to consult Oprah or George Clooney before before he knows where he stands.
1 in 4 US adults is an evangelical?
Where did you get that number?
Karla, Conservative’s have not forgotten what we stand for. We stand for life. Yes, the it’s the mother’s choice to have an abortion. But it shouldn’t be an option unless medically necessary. Ok, so it’s a mother’s choice whether or not to murder? Why can’t a father choose to kill one of his kids because he decides he doesn’t want them? Why is it that anyone else would get charged with murder, but the mother shouldn’t? You are the one that used the actual word murder. And, that’s what the government is here for, to creat laws based upon morality.
A few people have pointed out that Obama’s answer was intended to imply that only God can say when life begins.
I agree that this was his intention, but I point out that he is wrong. As many other posters have noted, scientists have unequivocally proven that life begins at conception. Still other posters have pointed out that when in doubt, you err on the side of caution, which would mean protecting the possible human life.
There’s just no way a pro-choicer can debate this issue and win. All he or she can do is lament about the poor pregnant woman, side-stepping the issue of whether or not there is a poor baby at stake.
To all of the people on this site that keep saying that Pro-Lifers “want to force women to have babies” or “will drive women to back alley abortions”, etc. etc. Here is an intriguing thought: How about these women and their men stop having unprotected sex?? For the love of God, we have a 70% illegitimacy rate in the African American community alone. Stop the out of control promiscuity. You want to have the “right” to terminate the life of your unborn children but you won’t take enough responsibility to exercise self control? If you don’t want to have a child either don’t have sex or take measures to ENSURE that a pregnancy does not happen. In other words, grow up. This applies to both women and men, even though the fathers apparently have no say in this decision these days.
Anyone notice that the Obama rehab word of the day is “thoughtful”. Seen it over and over. There must’ve been a mass email after The One failed last night.
Don’t care if abortion is murder or not – I want the right to have one if needed. End of discussion. So Obama gets my vote already. Get over it, chistards.
I watched the discussion in Dallas with a true open mind. When it was over, my mind was made up: I will vote for John McCain. Obama is in way over his head. I cannot think – as hard as I try – of a more lame answer a prospective POTUS could give to a serious question than “it is above my pay grade.” How many pay grades up does it take for a man who wants to be president to confront this issue and give a answer. I would probably have agreed with Obama if he said he supported abortion, but his weak response astounded me. This is not leadership.
Oh come on! When are you blockheads going to FACE REALITY and admit that there are already too many babies on this planet and people should exercise restraint, contraception and abortion as needed to avoid MORE UNWANTED HUMANS??
Look at you people!! Your heads are buried in sand right now. Listen to yourselves. McCain’s performance last night was to say the least, pathetic. All that kept coming through to me was war, evil, military. He sounded like he was giving a stump speech and your people just lapped it all out. When are you going to learn? Everyone of you seems hung up on pro-choice/pro-life.. What about the other issues? Even after hoping that he would show us a more honest self, we still know nothing esp since all we get to hear about is how Obama is this and that..(not all good things). What we know as Frank Rich wrote, is that we are all stuck with the skin-deep, out-of-date McCain image. This fairy tale he recounted last night, himself, the hero who survived the Hanoi Hilton…h has stood up as rebelliously in Washington as he did to his Vietnamese captors. He strenuously opposed the execution of the Iraq war; he slammed the president’s response to Katrina; he fought the “agents of intolerance” of the religious right; he crusaded against the G.O.P. House leader Tom DeLay, the criminal lobbyist Jack Abramoff and their coterie of influence-peddlers. And yet it all turns out, that except for his imprisonment in Vietnam, every aspect of this profile in courage is inaccurate or defunct.
Stop bulldozing us all of you!!!
It was a pretty elegant reply from Obama stating that the question is not one that the President should be getting into. We have religious nuts like the Talaban and various other groups around. Can’t we learn about these nuts by seeing how successful our own President Bush has been when you mix religion and the real world.
It’s almost breathtaking how narrow-sighted such “pro-life” attitudes can be. If you don’t want abortions, DON”T HAVE ONE!
You guys are a bunch of tools. Obama’s answer was perfectly reasonable and respectful. He simply meant that he, and no other human being, has the right to decide WHEN a fetus earns “human rights”. I think if anything the question itself is grotesque and clearly meant to trap Obama. It’s ok to be pro-life, it is NOT ok to be unrealistic and intolerant. I think Obama is a breath of freash air and his lack of ties to all the twisted, ugly things that go on in the dark political world will be just what American people need.
And how is the government going to reduce the number of unplanned pregnancies? I bet whatever the magic plan is, it is another way to separate me from my hard-earned money. Above Obama’s “pay grade”? Does this sound like a man who is ready to be the leader of the most powerful nation on earth?
Sheep·ple:
1. People unable to think for themselves. Followers. Lemmings. Those with no cognitive ablilities of their own.
2. People (usually faux Christians) who continually vote for “Pro-Life” politicians who never actually do anything but talk about how “Pro-Life” they are.
This is yet another reason why govt should not be involved in matters such as these. This should be between a woman and her doctor and her conscience. And they should pay for it out of pocket. Why pay for someone else’s issues??
The most interesting part of the discussion had nothing to do with the candidates. What stood out to me was the questioning. Rick Warren showed that a candidate discussion could be led with clear, fair, non-spun, unbiased questions. By keeping the candidates seperate and asking them the same questions he did a great job in of drawing out clear answers (to the extent that is possible “above my pay grade” indeed!!) and the difference between Obama and McCain. I have never seen a debate where the candidates’ views were drawn out so clearly.
This approach was in startling contrast with the old MSM standard approach of asking questions in a format that favored their candidate. Rick Warren for president)!!
Oh, come on! When are you bleeding-heart-blockheads going to FACE REALITY and admit that there are already too many babies on this planet and admit that people should exercise restraint, contraception AND abortion as needed to avoid MORE UNWANTED HUMANS??
What disturbed me about McCain last evening was his deliberate and obviously coached responses that included a dismissal of a possible solution to the economic plight of the middle class by tagging it “class warfare.”
He brushed aside any indepth discussion of the tragic decline of the working middle class by making light of the problem with nothing but a platitude.
Obama showed the world what a shallow, know-nothing, sorry excuse he really is. He could not or would not make eye contact with Rick Warren, this tells me he is a liar. His answers were vague because he has no knowledge of leadership and his values are right out of Karl Marx. We must not allow this man in the Presidency. Vladimir Putin would have him for breakfast!
The state doesn’t force women to get pregnant, and it shouldn’t make infanticide legal, so yes it is important when life begins.
Theres no telling how many women have died in the womb. One of them might well have been the next Hillary, or Condi, or Margaret Thatcher, but we’ll never know. None of them merited the death penalty, having committed on crime but only wanted to live.
If questions like the one posed to him are above Barrack Obama’s pay grade, then he isn’t fit for the top pay grade, which was the point of the whole interview… to see who is most fit for the top job in the nation.
Americans are unbelievable. You make fun of your current president because he’s a dope and an idiot, spewing out drivel like “I looked into his eyes and saw his soul”. Yet when you have a candidate that thinks before he speaks, approaches a matter with an element of humility and answers complex questions in more than 5 words you criticize him for not being “succinct”.
Abortion will never be legal because democrats want women to have a right to choose and Republicans want Christians to show up at the polls.
Perhaps making an educated decision about who should lead your country may be above your pay grade.
Abortion is a litmus test for me. If a candidate thinks Clarence Thomas is the worst judge and praises Ginsburg, it’s apparent he’ll appoint more Ginsburgs. I believe that one day we’ll look back on this era (maybe 100 years from now) and be aghast that as a society we supported the killing of those who couldn’t defend themselves- in the name of “reproductive freedom”.
Andrew,
WHAT AN IDIOT STATEMENT TO MAKE!! And your a MAN??? GROW UP!! You can find a date without being spineless and rolling over to “impress” some whacked out liberal woman! “For the country to force a women to have a baby” HILARIOUS!! Who forced her to take off her clothes, spread her legs and have sex??? TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOURSELF!!! Wait let me guess…McDonalds needs to be sued also for making YOU fat? Or giving you a heart attack too right?????
Americans are unbelievable. You make fun of your current President because he’s a dope and an idiot, spewing out drivel like “I looked into his eyes and saw his soul”. Yet when you have a candidate that thinks before he speaks, approaches a matter with an element of humility and answers complex questions in more than 5 words you criticize him for not being “succinct”.
Roe v. Wade will never be overturned because Democrats want women to have the right to choose and Republicans want Christians to show up at the polls.
Perhaps making an educated decision about who should lead your country may be above your pay grade.
It always amazes me how many CHRISTIANS LOVE unborn people and show so much HATRED to people already alive.
The CHRISTIANS in the audience loved the adulterer McCain
They loved the WAR MONGER, MCCAIN – war kills people
They loved the religious BIGOT – MCCAIN.
You know, Jesus was seen as a wimp too! His followers wanted him to come with a JOHN MCCAIN sound and fury and fight off the OPPRESSORS.
BUT A TRUE FOLLOWER OF CHRIST KNOWS this is NOT THE WAY.
I am voting for Barack Obama- he is a Christian and has shown in in every word he says…The average Evangelical on this page seems to me to be the worst example of religious zeal gone wrong- and almost FACIST.
If Obama doesn’t know “when” life begins, the elderly should be alarmed, because it follows that he doesn’t know “when” death begins, ergo euthanasia coming soon!
I wonder how many of the right-to-lifers know of someone close to them that had an abortion—and they are still talking!
I’m voting for the person least likely to take us into more war. It seems neither candidate is absolutely perfect on that score. As far as more killing–which is all too often becoming the way of handling international problems–that is surely one where we–as a world–have at least begun to see the need to evolve out of using it as a method to solve our problems. There is also the issue of so many countries that are still dealing in arms. If there is a clear issue that involves life and death it is the worship of all of the military industrial complexes. Eisenhower was a military man and even he got it. I agree with the person who talked about abortion being also a part of our cultural climate. Isn’t that something that at least has to be considered as much as who is responsible for unwanted pregnancies? Also, I see much failure in the supposed Christian communities. That we can still have so many holier than thou protests against abortion, yet still have so many hungry, abused, and unloved children in our country is a disgrace. Jesus helped the woman who had “many husbands.” I don’t remember him judging–just loving. Furthermore, if all of the Christian “men” really wanted to help end abortion they would start promoting the idea that it always takes two to tango. If the burden for the creation of this life is always put on the woman then this problem will never be solved. You men who act like you had nothing to do with creating these lives remind me of the men who force women to wear the veil in certain countries, etc. The fact is, birth control doesn’t always work. The other fact is, many times men have more to do with the decisions leading up to producing these children than the women do. Who gets all of the burden dumped on them? And why–now that we have DNA testing? The logical conclusion to your absolutist thinking is that all men should submit their DNA samples and be forced to help support these children in all cases. They should also be forced to give forth at least monetary contributions alone in the cases where the mother feels he is not fit to be involved in the child’s life. Which is often the case. This could be enforced whether said “father” was married, etc. or not. Now is this the sort of system you holy and righteous men are ready for? If not, why not take better care of all the people in their sorry states until we evolve spiritually as a society and thus take sex altogher more seriously as a sacred act. Until then, save your righteous politics for someone who believes in your God-like countenances. Senator Obama simply meant he isn’t God. I think more nuanced thought is needed in our country..let’s hope it can keep us out of more wars. Places where women can get “knocked up” by rape fairly often by the way.
Seems that many posters here have a special relationship with the invisible space daddy. Sad really, considering this is the 21st century.
Abortion should not even be open to debate. For those who are against abortions I have some advice: DON’T HAVE ONE !!!!
It is said that “the greatest lies are never said”
or to paraphrase “silence in the arena of truth is of the same ilk of the great lie”
Hear that, O?
Answer the American people with a definitive yes, no, and quit saying you are undecided. You have voted 100% one way liberal and you deride Clarence Thomas for being, blunt, straight forward, and 95% conservative.
Methinks it’s your way or the highway for your decision making fairness.
But then again, you are based in Chicago
Have any of you raving, foaming at the mouth pro-life, anti everyone but your own kind right-wing conservative bullies ever stopped to think, for even one second, why the issue of abortion is so important to you? Have you taken a look around the world in the last week or so? Are you capable of seeing past your brainwashing for one day?
Do you really think this issue is worthy enough to disregard all the otherwise pressing issues of our time? The issues that actually matter (in reality) when thinking about who should be president?
Election after election your kind brings it all back to these core divisive issues. You would elect Hitler if he claimed he was pro-life and you wouldn’t elect Gandhi if he said he was pro-choice, based on your rigid dogmatic beliefs.
If you’re so at peace with your maker and so confident that all the rest of us are going to hell when we die, why not just kick back and enjoy the glory of your own self righteousness? Why the anger?
What religion is God exactly?
Women deserve the right and responsibility to choose whether to bear a child, at least up to the point of a fetus’s viability. Millions of wanted children have been born who wouldn’t have been if their mother had been forced to carry a previous pregnancy to term at a time when she couldn’t have properly care for it. There should be greater access to the morning after pill. The right is so afraid of sex (except when they do it) and won’t even support educating women about how to practce birth control. Abstinence programs have been proven not to work because they defy human nature. Why should we take moral guidance from a Church whose religious leaders engaged in massive pedophilia and the cover up of it.
Obama made many stupid comments and since there is no follow-up, the lemmings won’t pay close attention. He says he wants to protect a woman’s right to chose, and in the next breath he says he would lke to see abortions be rare. If there is nothing wrong with abortions, why would you want to make them rare?
I noticed he named his wife as one of the people he would seek advice from, and yet he says she’s off limits. I say she’s fair game.
McCain cleaned his clock. I’m not a McCain fan, (this climate change, stem cell opinion), but he’ll push for drilling, conservative judges, and pro life.
They have completely missed the point. It seems that the fundamentalist do not want to think. There is nothing in the bible prohibiting abortion. Neither god nor scientists have spoken on when sentient life begins. Sure, when two cells unite and reproduce you can call that life, but when is it a human life? I believe that women are the only ones capable of decding what to do with her body. No Government or religion should try to assume control over this.
Earlier, Obama talks about the Bible saying we must care for “the least of our brothers”. If that doesn’t mean the unborn, who does it mean? If he wants to be president, it certainly is in his “pay grade” to know if the unborn deserve protections or not.
Andrew from Austin, no one is talking about the state forcing women to have babies. We are talking about the state protecting innocent human lives.
When Obama said “above my pay grade” he was talking about his ultra left-wing donors. Basically he was saying “If I say life begins at conception, I’ll lose some major donors.”
I hope we see this quote over & over & over again in McCain ads. It shows Obama is a guy who is unwilling to take a stand.
Roe v wade will never be overturned?
Would not be too sure about that!
McCain’s already indicated that is one of his goals. Maybe when women NO LONGER HAVE ABORTION as an option, they will begin to show a little more common sense about WHEN, IF and WITH WHOM they have s*x!?
“funny” how the “christians” seem to think that believe human rights begin at conception but ends at birth.
Obama’s decision to speak out against the war in Iraq in October 2002 was “the most gut wrenching decision” he’s ever made? While running unopposed for re-election to the Illinois State Senate in a district that votes 90% Democratic? In a city that was preparing to give 82% of its votes to the most vocal opponent of the build-up to the war in the United States Senate at the time (Dick Durbin)? Give me a break. If not for “the fairy tale,” it would have been the easiest call he ever made.
You conservatives can`t seem to grasp something very simple. Up to a certain point, the tissues which are forming afteran impregnation are not capable of independant life from the woman they are a part of. She has the right to expel them if she so chooses. Once they are capable of actually surviving on their own and becoming a human person, things are different. If the woman has been misled or even forced into pregnancy, and is not willing or able to support an offspring, it is in the best interests of the State to raise the child. Sorry about your slavery to the misunderstood old book. try thinking about what you just learned, instead of remembering the grisly pictures of surgical procedures which were never any of your business.
“I believe that women are the only ones capable of decding what to do with her body. No Government or religion should try to assume control over this.”
Problem – your body has your DNA. Somebody else’s body has different DNA. A baby’s DNA is not the mother’s DNA.