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NRL News
Who is
Barack Obama?
“‘People
don’t come to Obama for what he’s done in the Senate,’ says Bruce
Reed, president of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council. ‘They
come because of what they hope he could be.’ What Obama stands for,
if anything, is not yet clear. Everywhere he goes he is greeted by
thrilled crowds, trailed constantly by a reporter from The Chicago
Tribune who is writing a book about the senator with a preliminary
title so immodest that it embarrassed even Obama’s staff: The
Savior. ... ‘Barack has become a kind of human Rorschach test,’ says
Cassandra Butts, a friend of the senator’s from law school and now a
leader at the Center for American Progress. ‘People see in him what
they want to see.’” I’m still wading through David Mendell’s fascinating (and quasi-official) biography of pro-abortion Sen. Barack Obama, titled Obama: From Promise to Power. It is jam-packed with insights (often unintentionally so). In one particularly telling passage, Mendell astutely observes that Obama “is an exceptionally gifted politician whom throughout his life, has been able to make people of widely divergent vantage points see in him exactly what they want to see.” When taken in conjunction with David Freddoso’s The Case against Barack Obama, it paints a fascinating portrait of a man whose political good fortune is grounded in a remarkable ability to be all things to all people—a political chameleon. Obama’s considerable appeal is almost entirely visceral, and is altogether dependent on his ability to convince voters he is not the most liberal member of the United States Senate and pro-abortion to the hilt, but rather a moderate eager only to “reach across the aisle” in pursuit of “change” and devoted to reducing the number of abortions. Our single-issue task is to tear away the rhetorical disguises and expose him for what he is: the most pro-abortion candidate ever to win a major party’s nomination for President. Obama is no more interested in reducing the number of abortions than I am in increasing them. The evidence is so abundant you’d think this would be easy work. In fact, getting the truth out is like trying to run blindfolded with shackles around your ankles. To say that the “mainstream media” is in Obama’s pocket is like saying most reporters will do anything to destroy the McCain/Palin ticket: so obvious it need not be belabored. But consider just a quick summary of the positions of a man whose rapid ascension was aided immensely by pro-abortion groups in Illinois that allowed him to take a pass on “controversial” legislation. #1. Speaking of Illinois, while a state senator Obama quarterbacked the defeat of the Born-Alive Infant Protection Act. BAIPA was intended to extend care and legal protection to babies who survive abortions. Obama’s role was pivotal in killing Illinois’s BAIPA. Obama cynically trades on the good will of ordinary citizens who simply refuse to believe anyone can be that pro-abortion. #2. Obama is a 100 percenter in his votes—for all the bad stuff, and against all the good proposals. That includes everything from support for partial-birth abortion to opposition to parental involvement in life-and-death decisions made by their pregnant daughters to making you and me pay for abortions. #3. Those who wish desperately to vote for Obama, despite their immense qualms about his posture on abortion—talk themselves into believing that Obama is a good guy who will work to “reduce the number of abortions.” That is why his full-throated voice on behalf of the “Freedom of Choice Act” (FOCA) is such an inconvenient truth. FOCA makes Roe v. Wade look moderate by comparison and guarantees that millions more unborn babies will die. It is difficult to image a more sweeping piece of pro-abortion legislation. In the words of the National Organization for Women, it would “sweep away hundreds of anti-abortion laws [and] policies.” As explained in the story on page one, last year Obama told the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, Obama said, “The first thing I’d do as president is sign the Freedom of Choice Act. That’s the first thing that I’d do.” There are also other aspects of Obama’s proposals—specifically as relates to health care “reform”—that would guarantee an increase, potentially a major increase, in the number of aborted babies. Many people remember Obama’s recent glib “it’s beyond my pay grade” answer to Rick Warren’s question, “at what point does a baby get human rights?” But not as many remember some of the amazingly revealing comments he made earlier in the campaign. Far fewer will recall what he said at a town hall meeting in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. If either of his daughters were someday to “make a mistake,” he said, “I don’t want them punished with a baby.” Still fewer will recall what he said in the privacy of a San Francisco fundraiser. Talking about the “bitter” occupants of small town. Obama opined that they “cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.” And next to none will recall this passage of his book, The Audacity of Hope. Obama wrote, “There are some things that I’m absolutely sure about—the Golden Rule, the need to battle cruelty in all its forms, the value of love and charity, humility and grace.” If I sat down and thought for the next 10 years, I could never come up with a better formulation of the pro-life philosophy than the last 21 words. Asking no more of others than we would want for ourselves; a refusal to sit idly by in the face of cruelty; love in the deepest and richest sense for both mother and child; and a willingness to humbly acknowledge that all of us fall short and need healing. But while Barack Obama talks a good game, when he casts his net of “love and charity, humility and grace,” he omits the most vulnerable. For him, the Golden Rule is not for the littlest Americans, nor even for those who miraculously escape the abortionist’s best efforts. I have said before and I say again: if Obama’s life were a book, the foreword would be written by a descendant of Margaret Sanger, the introduction by the president of NARAL, and the epilogue by the executive director of Catholics for a Free Choice. If the anti-life forces were to stitch together the perfect candidate from scratch, it would be Barack Obama. He gives them everything they want, and promises to explore new anti-life vistas. David Mendell’s working title for his book may have been “The Savior,” but defenders of unborn babies can be forgiven if we believe Obama is their mortal enemy. |