Today's News & Views
August 19, 2008
 
Continuing to Unravel

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In almost all presidential campaigns, there comes a point [clear in retrospect] where the dynamics fundamentally shift. I would argue that in the last week we have reached just such a turning point.

The about-face was sparked by two developments.

The first, and more well known, was Rick Warren's back-to-back interviews last Saturday with pro-abortion Sen. Barack Obama and pro-life Sen. John McCain. Obama's defenders have furiously spun the results, but the truth--obvious to all at the time-- is that their man was clobbered.

Not because of the format or the host or the questions, or any of the other excuses rolled out, but because of Obama's responses. He was dreadful, especially on abortion and the composition of the Supreme Court. McCain was clear, concise, and confident. The contrast was stunning.

Those who had worried about McCain, for one reason or another, were reassured by what he had to say at Warren's Saddleback Church. Those who were fearful the wheels were beginning to come off the Obama Express panicked.

They were reduced to lying about McCain. Unnamed Obama sources told NBC News that McCain broke the rules and had heard Obama's answers. This allowed McCain to tailor his responses, they said. Warren, appearing on several news programs, demonstrated how this could not possibly be true.

Historians will look back, I believe, and conclude that equally as important was NRLC's expose of Obama's duplicitous responses to how he voted on Illinois's Born-Alive Infants Protection Act. They will also look in amazement at how Obama responded to having the light shone on his record.

The latest developments can be found at www.nrlc.org/News_and_Views/Aug08/nv081808part3.html.

Let me quote the first two paragraphs:

"Senator Barack Obama's four-year effort to cover up his full role in killing legislation to protect born-alive survivors of abortions continues to unravel.

"In the most recent developments, Senator Obama himself, in a videorecorded interview Saturday night with David Brody of CBN News (subsequently broadcast on both CBN and CNN), said three times that National Right to Life was "lying" in asserting that he had voted against a state bill virtually identical to the federal Born-Alive Infants Protection Act. He did not directly address newly uncovered documents that had been released by NRLC on August 11 -- documents that proved that he had done exactly that, contradicting four years of the Obama cover story."

If you are skeptical of the power of this issue, I would strongly encourage you to click on www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xVYW-_0jVU. There you will see much of a fiery exchange on last night's Hannity & Colmes on this very topic.

I have no doubt that Alan Colmes, a pro-abortion Democrat, is personally a fine man. But over the years he has carried the burden of having to defend the indefensible on a nightly basis. The look on Mr. Colmes face was absolutely priceless

You could tell he could sense the election slipping away. Granted, I was seeing this on television, but I swear the color drained from his face. He recycled the Obama campaign's talking points.

The problem for Mr. Colmes is that the facts have passed by the distortions he repeated by rote last night.

He didn't have at his disposal the most recent Obama fabrications. But (as is explained at www.nrlc.org/News_and_Views/Aug08/nv081808part3.html), they make even less sense that the old excuses.

Colmes kept repeating that Obama could not/would not possibly have voted to kill legislation to protect born-alive survivors of abortions, former Democratic pollster Pat Caddell said he is "confused about" what bills Obama voted on, and talk show host Dennis Prager and columnist Ann Coulter patiently assured him (and the audience) that yes, indeed, that is exactly what Obama did while a state Senator.

When you watch the youtube video, the most memorable moment is near the very end. Colmes has just misrepresented, yet again, Obama's votes. We then see a split screen showing Prager, Coulter, and Caddell,

You can vaguely hear Colmes in the background while Caddell and Coulter are looking into the camera and talking at the same time. Meanwhile Prager is looking off to his right and talking to Hannity. The only one not talking is Hannity.

Obama has spent years trying to hide that "he's for a woman's right to choose through the fourth trimester," as Coulter so aptly put it. Why?

Is it because he is out on a limb that even the most rabid anti-life Democrats refuse to go? Sure, but it's much, much more.

The public may learn--as those listening to Rick Warren's "Saddleback Civil Forum on the Presidency" did--that there have been "40 million abortions" (actually closer to 50 million). They may also learn that some babies actually do survive abortions and that some politicians are so in the pockets of the anti-life crowd that they will turn their back on these helpless babies.

Obama's personae is of a truth-teller, a man uniquely equipped to "reach across the isle" to find "common ground" with Republicans. But not only has Obama consistently failed to tell the truth in this instance, he is so extreme on abortion that he's not even on his own side of the isle, let alone able to reach across it to Republicans.

Obama's in trouble, and he knows it. Watch for more dissembling and disingenuous explanations.