2008 Update: Clinton Wins, Media Yawns

Editor's note. Send me your take on this at daveandrusko@hotmail.com.

Coming from media powerhouse Tim Russert, the words quickly took on almost mythic proportions. After pro-abortion Senator Barack Obama easily prevailed last week in North Carolina, the "Meet the Press" host intoned, "[W]e now know who the Democratic nominee is going to be [Obama], and no one is going to dispute it." Russert declared the race over before MSNBC called Indiana--which Clinton won by a very narrow margin--not to mention before the final series of state primaries which extend through early June.

As you know Clinton shellacked Obama in West Virginia yesterday by 147,410 votes, winning 67% to 26%. Political junkies love to plug data from voters into a thousand different categorical pigeon holes. We know from surveys conducted by Edison/Mitofsky that Clinton clobbered Obama in everything from male/female voters to left-handed/right-handed truck drivers.

But having already declared Obama the Democratic presidential nominee, the media elite simply dismissed Clinton's enormous victory. The double standard is hard to miss.

It almost went without mention when Obama clobbered Clinton by almost 15 points in North Carolina that the state was a demographic gold mine for the junior senator from Illinois. But when Clinton pollaxed Obama by an even larger margin in West Virginia, the victory was pooh-poohed because (as the Los Angeles Times put it) she was "running in a state tailored to her strengths." What's sauce for the gander is most assuredly not sauce for the goose.

Beyond the intrinsic interest in who the Democrats choose as their presidential nominee, why is this important for pro-lifers? On abortion, aren't Clinton and Obama two peas in a pod?

Yes and no. Their policy prescriptions are virtually identical, although one can easily make the case that Obama has already gone the extra mile for the anti-life crew.

As an Illinois state Senator Obama blocked the state's proposed Born-Alive Infant Protection Act from even reaching the floor of the state senate and when it finally did reach the floor voted against it twice. The Born-Alive Infant Protection Act was very similar to the federal Born-Alive Infants Protection Act which President Bush signed into law in 2002. As columnist John Leo once wrote, "In effect, the bill says that babies born during abortions must be put on the same plane and extended the same care and constitutional protections as other babies. Once born, they cannot be discriminated against, killed, or allowed to die simply because they are unwanted."

Moreover, if Obama wins his party's nomination and faces pro-life Senator John McCain in the fall, it will be in large measure because Obama has pulled off one of the great sleights-of-hand of modern times. This will be a huge leg-up in the months to come.

I am not referring to the free pass Obama received up until very recently from a supine media which, in spite of a very sparse resume and in the absence of a virtually any substance, hailed him as the second coming of JFK. They are already coming around and will give him carte blanche again.

It's rather Obama's amazing ability to rule out of order any substantive discussion/criticism of anything he has done or said, or (I suspect) anything he will ever say or do.

To point out that he is an extremist on abortion and out of the mainstream on a host of other issues is (we are lectured) to indulge in the "old politics," the "politics of divisiveness," etc., etc. All of this is not an honest debate over things that matter but a "distraction," according to Obama.

National Review's Rich Lowry wrote a wonderful column this week on the subject. Going through a number of issues, Lowry quoted Obama's various thou-shall-not-highlight-my-political- philosophy/positions-on-issues/or-questionable-associations riffs.

To do so, Obama huffs, is to attach "the same names and labels they pin on everyone"; or "attempts to play on our fears"; or is "the same efforts to distract us from the issues that affect our lives" and "turn us against each other"; or is "pouncing on every gaffe and association and fake controversy." (In the latter case, Obama is forever blaming his "staff" for his oodles of mistakes, misstatements, and misrepresentations.)

This is made worse because the mainstream media, which parrots pro-abortion talking points religiously, shouts hosannas every time Obama voices his mantra. They act like a megaphone for Democrats who shout that any criticism of them is by definition a low-blow, a page out of a sordid Republican "playbook." That used to be called "heads, I win, tails, you lose."

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