Another Obama-on-abortion article
This one is better than the last, I think, because it raises a more holistic picture of what's wrong with what Obama is saying. I maybe don't have room to bitch (in at least some people's eyes) because I turned my back on the abortion issue to back McCain. I thoroughly and categorically *hate* the position moderates are put in by this country, we have to screw the pooch on something important to avoid screwing the pooch on something else that's equally important. And it'll be this way until Centrists either have enough clout to make our voices heard in either party, or until we have a party of our own. At least, I thought, I can be comforted by the thought that women's rights would be secure within an Obama presidency, even if innumerable other things that matter to me would not be. Right?
Wrong. A few things from the article:
Obama has backhandedly given credibility to the right-wing narrative that women who have abortions -- even those who go through the physically and mentally wrenching experience of a late-term abortion -- are frivolous and selfish creatures who might perhaps undergo this ordeal because they are "feeling blue."
and
A campaign spokesman said Obama made the point about "feeling blue" to show that women do not make abortion decisions lightly. I do not question Obama's support for abortion rights; he's been clear that he supports keeping abortion legal.
But I do wonder why a candidate praised for his rhetorical gifts talks about women in the way that he does. During the primary campaign, he said Hillary Clinton launched political attacks on him "periodically, when she's feeling down." He called a Detroit reporter "sweetie" when she was trying to ask him about job creation. Now he has incorporated a myth created by the right -- that women who seek late-term abortions should not be allowed to do so if they are "feeling blue" -- into his own lexicon. And this is enough to make me see red.
The blogger may not question his support for abortion rights, but with this statement, *I* do. You either believe that women have the right to make the choice to end their own pregnancies, or you do not. Full stop. It's a *right*, not a privilege. It doesn't matter what you or I or Barack Obama thinks about the moral fiber of women choosing to end their pregnancies late in the term-- there could be a million reasons to do so, and it's between the patient and her doctor. A privilege can survive that kind of moral cherrypicking, that some can have it but others can't. A right cannot, not without being diminished and weakened to those who would end it altogether. So I think this does diminish him as a supporter of reproductive rights, and puts him in the "well, he's better on it than McCain" camp. Not encouraging, to the many people who are voting for him primarily because of this issue. Particularly because if he's willing to flip-flop on something this dear to his base now, what would he do if elected, when there's more sustained pressure being put on him by competing interest groups?
I also agree with the blogger that he's got some issues with the way he speaks to and about women. Honestly? We wouldn't be seeing this kind of thing with Hillary, and it's one more thing about an Obama presidency that worries me.
Wrong. A few things from the article:
Obama has backhandedly given credibility to the right-wing narrative that women who have abortions -- even those who go through the physically and mentally wrenching experience of a late-term abortion -- are frivolous and selfish creatures who might perhaps undergo this ordeal because they are "feeling blue."
and
A campaign spokesman said Obama made the point about "feeling blue" to show that women do not make abortion decisions lightly. I do not question Obama's support for abortion rights; he's been clear that he supports keeping abortion legal.
But I do wonder why a candidate praised for his rhetorical gifts talks about women in the way that he does. During the primary campaign, he said Hillary Clinton launched political attacks on him "periodically, when she's feeling down." He called a Detroit reporter "sweetie" when she was trying to ask him about job creation. Now he has incorporated a myth created by the right -- that women who seek late-term abortions should not be allowed to do so if they are "feeling blue" -- into his own lexicon. And this is enough to make me see red.
The blogger may not question his support for abortion rights, but with this statement, *I* do. You either believe that women have the right to make the choice to end their own pregnancies, or you do not. Full stop. It's a *right*, not a privilege. It doesn't matter what you or I or Barack Obama thinks about the moral fiber of women choosing to end their pregnancies late in the term-- there could be a million reasons to do so, and it's between the patient and her doctor. A privilege can survive that kind of moral cherrypicking, that some can have it but others can't. A right cannot, not without being diminished and weakened to those who would end it altogether. So I think this does diminish him as a supporter of reproductive rights, and puts him in the "well, he's better on it than McCain" camp. Not encouraging, to the many people who are voting for him primarily because of this issue. Particularly because if he's willing to flip-flop on something this dear to his base now, what would he do if elected, when there's more sustained pressure being put on him by competing interest groups?
I also agree with the blogger that he's got some issues with the way he speaks to and about women. Honestly? We wouldn't be seeing this kind of thing with Hillary, and it's one more thing about an Obama presidency that worries me.