20^th Debate Offers Another Revealing Glimpse
Of Senator Obama

Editor's note. Please give me your thoughts at daveandrusko@hotmail.com

I had planned to write yesterday about the 20^th Democratic presidential debate that took place Tuesday night. So why, even a day late, should I bother to write about two militant pro-abortionists who did not talk about abortion in their Cleveland debate? Why, especially, when large parts of their back and forth was the equivalent of watching paint peel?

For one thing, the "pundits" could be correct that the one-on-one match up was "do or die" for Sen. Hillary Clinton. She is slipping further behind in the delegate count to Senator Barack Obama, no surprise given that the junior senator from New York has now lost the last eleven match ups to the junior senator from Illinois.

Personally I don't subscribe to that Armageddon-esque conclusion. If Clinton is able to win either Ohio or Texas next week, let alone both, all the political epitaphs currently being written about her will have to be ripped up.

The real reason is what Obama said in response to this question from NBC's Tim Russert (who, by the way, had a real off-night as co-moderator):

RUSSERT: Before you go, each of you have talked about your careers in public service. Looking back through them, is there any words or vote that you'd like to take back?" The following exchange ensued.

OBAMA: Well, you know, when I first arrived in the Senate that first year, we had a situation surrounding Terri Schiavo. And I remember how we adjourned with a unanimous agreement that eventually allowed Congress to interject itself into that decision making process of the families.

It wasn't something I was comfortable with, but it was not something that I stood on the floor and stopped. And I think that was a mistake, and I think the American people understood that that was a mistake. And as a constitutional law professor, I knew better.

And so that's an example I think of where inaction...

RUSSERT: This is the young woman with the feeding tube...

OBAMA: That's exactly right.

RUSSERT: ... and the family disagreed as to whether it should be removed or not.

OBAMA: And I think that's an example of inaction, and sometimes that can be as costly as action.

(Talk about grade-inflation: Obama was not a "constitutional law professor" at the University of Chicago. Nor was he a full-time faculty member or tenured. He was a part-time "senior lecturer.")

Just so we're clear…. the only thing Obama can think of--his only mistake--was his failure to guarantee that it would be impossible for a woman being starved to death to have one-last chance in the courts.

What eloquence. What charisma. What bunk.

Without going through the entire lengthy chronology, unanimous consent in the Senate was needed to get a measure quickly passed that would provide Terri with one-last shot in the federal courts.

Obama is correct in this sense. Had he, or any other senator, demurred, obviously there would be no unanimous consent. But even the most stone-hearted senators grudgingly gave Terri's family one last gasp at life for their daughter and sister.

This historical truth has vanished, like something disposed down the "memory hole" Orwell describes in 1984.

For years Democrats have exploited the starvation death of a helpless woman, mischaracterizing desperate efforts to save Terri as unwarranted "meddling" by Congress. Obama takes this cynical chicanery to a new heights--or depths.

Definitely a man to watch.

Please send your thoughts to daveandrusko@hotmail.com.