7/27/08
“Without God there is no virtue because there is no prompting of the conscience.”
- President Ronald Reagan responding to Daniel Webster’s quote regarding the profound importance of the accountability to God.
The truth takes a beating in the summer of a presidential election. Where else can you have Barack Obama be lauded for moving to the right on abortion, Iraq and faith based organizations while John McCain has to throw his chief economic advisor under the bus for giving an honest assessment of American economic views. Meanwhile you have a supporters of libertarian convert Bob Barr claiming he is the true conservative due to a new found desire for government to stay out of drug use, abortion and marriage; please note that this candidate was once a proud social conservative. Most recently, a famous Reverend talking about making Obama a eunuch because he dared to invoke personal responsibility when referring to a community where seven out of ten children are born out of wedlock. Yes, the truth is certainly taking a beating.
Barack Obama is not turning into a conservative; he is using willing accomplices in the press and his ability to parse language to fool people who do not want to accept that he is a liberal radical from a church that espouses a racist ideology.
Issue: Restrictions on Late Term Abortion; the mental health exception.
‘I have repeatedly said that I think it’s entirely appropriate for states to restrict or even prohibit late-term abortions as long as there is a strict, well-defined exception for the health of the mother. Now, I don’t think that ‘mental distress’ qualifies as the health of the mother,” Obama said. “I think it has to be a serious physical issue that arises in pregnancy, where there are real, significant problems to the mother carrying that child to term. Otherwise, as long as there is such a medical exception in place, I think we can prohibit late-term abortions.” -Source: Life and the Law From ABC News Legal Correspondent Jan Crawford Greenburg.
- Truth: Obama supports late term abortions as he went on to clarify when questioned about this quote. He responded:
“My only point is this-historically I have been a strong believer in a women’s right to choose with her doctor, her pastor and her family,” Obama said. “I have consistently been saying that you have to have a health exception on many significant restrictions or bans on abortions, including late-term abortions.
“In the past, there has been some fear on the part of people who–not only people who are anti-abortion, but people who may be in the middle–that that means that if a woman just doesn’t feel good then that is an exception. That has never been the case. I don’t think that is how it has been interpreted.
“My only point is that in an area like partial birth abortion having a mental, having a health exception can be defined rigorously,” Obama continued.
“It can be defined through physical health. It can be defined by serious clinical mental health diseases. It is not just a matter of feeling blue. I don’t think that’s how pro-choice folks have interpreted it. I don’t think that’s how the courts have interpreted it and I think that’s important to emphasize and understand.” -Source: Life and the Law From ABC News Legal Correspondent Jan Crawford Greenburg.
The bottom line is that he has strong record of abortion, going so far to co-sponsoring a federal abortion rights law. Couple this with his 100 rating from NARAL and we see right through this obvious attempt to pander to a Christian magazine readership.
John McCain has been hailed as a maverick driving the straight talk express; he proved to neither when confronted with an honest, apolitical commentary from one of his chief economic advisors Phil Gramm.
Issue: Fact supported economic comments that were politically toxic; mental recession.
Phil Gramm in Washington Times interview commenting on McCain inheriting a sluggish economy if he wins the presidency.
“You’ve heard of mental depression; this is a mental recession,” he said, noting that growth has held up at about 1 percent despite all the publicity over losing jobs to India, China, illegal immigration, housing and credit problems and record oil prices. “We may have a recession; we haven’t had one yet.”
“We have sort of become a nation of whiners,” he said. “You just hear this constant whining, complaining about a loss of competitiveness, America in decline” despite a major export boom that is the primary reason that growth continues in the economy, he said.
“We’ve never been more dominant; we’ve never had more natural advantages than we have today,” he said. “We have benefited greatly” from the globalization of the economy in the last 30 years.
- Truth: Everything he said…is true but that doesn’t make it beneficial to John McCain. The problem wasn’t what he said; it was how he said it along with McCain’s throwing him under the straight talk express response. Larry Kudlow and others who worked with Ronald Reagan have said this was an opportunity for McCain to draw distinctions between his optimistic, tax cutting/simplifying, free trade platform and Obama’s protectionist, tax hiking, pessimistic agenda. Instead, he felt our pain. That is not straight talk; it is lip-biting commiserating most often displayed by class warfare demagogues.
Bob Barr supporters are claiming he is the only real conservative in the race. While McCain is more conservative than Obama; he is a not a strong conservative. Barr is picking up the libertarian mantle while massaging his former socially conservative beliefs on marriage, abortion and drugs thereby claiming to be the most conservative candidate in the race.
Issue: Libertarianism as the true conservatism; there are big differences.
- Truth: Conservatism is not defined merely by freedom from government. Conservatism differs from libertarianism in its foundational belief that we don’t make laws based on man’s desire to have unrestricted access to his indulgences rather we make/base our laws on God’s outline constructing a society that adheres to Christian principles. The late William F. Buckley said, “I mean to live my life an obedient man, but obedient to God, subservient to the wisdom of my ancestors; never to the authority of political truths arrived at yesterday at the voting booth.”
Perhaps the most astute observation detailing the difference between libertarians and conservatives comes from faculty members of The Center for Vision & Values at Grove City College Dr. Mark W. Hendrickson and Dr. Paul Kengor from their article opposing legalization of drugs: “The conservative philosophy is grounded in and guided by eternal truths; it does not separate itself from God. It moves toward God, and it understands freedom in the way God intended freedom to be exercised.”
- Bottom line, McCain is not all that conservative but neither is Bob Barr. The truth is that we a Christian nation and our laws are based on…Christian doctrine. This truth does not limit our freedom but enhances freedom for all even those ignorant to our founding.
Lastly, there is Reverend Jackson and his latest musing on cutting off Baracks’ manhood.
Issue: Jesse Jackson…
- Truth: Jesse Jackson is racial extortionist who abuses the term Reverend and civil rights leader. He is a pathetic, sad individual whose legacy is riddled with hypocrisy, lies and self-aggrandizement. There is nothing more to say about this person.
Thank you for taking the time to read and listen. I respectfully encourage you to take me to task on my statements by emailing me or calling.
With Sincerity and Respect,
Crane Durham
314-613-7834
