Obama Airs Tough Abortion Ad In Swing States

Politico:

Barack Obama has launched a broadside against John McCain's opposition to abortion rights and moved one of the most divisive issues in modern American politics to the airwaves on a large scale for the first time in this presidential campaign.

Obama's new radio ad, airing widely in at least seven swing states, tells voters McCain "will make abortion illegal." It's airing as McCain courts female voters with the addition of the staunchly anti-abortion governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, to his ticket.

Read the whole story: Politico

Comments

[indyshuffle]

The argument over this issue is missing an opportunity. Since when is Pro-Choice equivalent to Pro-Abortion? I am Pro-Choice & Pro-Life at the same time - I personally would choose life; everyone should be able to choose. America was founded on the fundamental right to CHOOSE! People complain about "big government" - the biggest it could get is to tell us what we can or cannot do with our own bodies. Ms. Palin said she and her husband, "are proud of our daughter's choice to have her baby;" Palin used the word CHOICE. She felt her daughter had chosen and she should give others the right to choose as well.

[LillianB]

One should stop using the pro-life word, noone is anti-life (well, pro-war people may be, but they have a tendency to be anti-choice when it comes to abortion, too). Pro-choice, anti-choice are more honest ways to say it.

All of us want less abortions to be performed. No woman wants to go through one. But we need the option, knowing we can have one if we need to have one. In countries where legal abortions aren't a possibility, illegal abortions follow. Those kill both women & fetuses, and no one should want that.

To have less abortions, one needs more honest sex ed, easy access to contraception, and easy access to knowledge about contraception, too. People calling themselves pro-lifers are very often against these things, too. That's not being pro-life. That's increasing the risk for abortions to be needed, and noone should want that.

[MaineJayne]

EXACTLY!!!

[nomobull]

not

[Makesense]

Me too: Politically pro-choice, personally pro-life.

[Paula1953]

Did her daughter choose? Or did mom and dad do the choosing for her? The daughter's boyfriend has, or had, a myspace account where he said he DOESN'T want kids. Now they're getting married?
Looks like Sarah's toting that shotgun all the way to the alter.

[meanguy]

i spent most of my life NOT, definitely NOT, wanting kids...until my wife peed on the plastic stick and gave me the news-according to her boyfriend's parents, they were planning to marry BEFORE they found out about the 'baby coming'

[johnnyjust]

I would love to see one of those back alley abortion clinics that only use rusty hangers. If only they existed.

The true issue (besides that pesky baby in the womb, who probably wants to be aborted) is overturning the manufactured "right to abortion" and returning the issue to the states to decide.

We all know from 7th grade biology when life begins. There's no mystery. There's only pretense. Thus knowing, the read issue becomes: When is innocent life in the womb acceptable to kill? A day before birth? Ten days? Fifty?

And yes, I can decide just fine and with clear conscience what rights I wish to assign to all unborn women, and men.

[Meggie]

Mcc needs to answer just exactly what he meant about using embryos for stem cell research at Saddleback. While he made sure everyone knew he is now against a woman's right to choose (a flip flop from his position in 1999), he said that he had "other obligations" when it came to using human embryos for stem cell research. Huh? Why hasn't he had to answer what he means by that yet?
Ms. Palin has a hard core political position on a woman's right to choose, even if she is raped. But what is Ms. Palin's position on using human embryos for stem cell research?
What do they propose for the outcome of unused embryos? Wouldn't it hold that women must use ALL of the embryos fertilized on their behalf?
Since they are against abortion, wouldn't the law neatly come down on the side of first degree murder and conspiracy charges for any woman - including rich women who can afford to go to another country - who would seek an abortion?

[myangeldog1]

Joy on "The View" is SO FUNNY! Her comment just now....

Stay out of my uteris, stay out of my mail and stay out of my blogs!

Too GOOD!

[Meggie]

Too sad that Americans don't seem to know anymore that Joy's view is merely the American view outlined in the constitution and bill of rights.

[riverhippie]

The constitution does not give you the right to murder your children.

[meanguy]

"Stay out of my uteris"
--------------------------
joy behar? now there's a mental image that makes me throw up in my mouth a little

[wagadog]

Yes, the best response to what is going on -- he's going to tackle this one head-on.

As well he should.

Read this:

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/9/2/19149/83971/956/583837

[myangeldog1]

That is quite a read....thank you!

[wagadog]

no probs -- rec it up on dKos, that diary needs more attention. It's the best thing I've ever read over there, hands down.

[NoblesseOblige]

Wow! That is a must read for everyone.

Thank you for sharing.

[Belleweathered]

I read this diary last night and have posted it elsewhere. It is amazing!

[barackobama4prez]

The federal gov't should stay out of what a woman and her family and her doctor decide to do with HER body. Every woman has the right to be pro-choice or pro-life. I am personally never going to entertain abortion as an option, but who the HELL am I or the government for that matter to impose my beliefs on every other woman as if I can make a judgement call so great?!

Every woman is unique and every woman should decide what's right for her. How DARE M c CAin try to take us back to the stone ages!

Kudos to the Sen. from IL for taking this to the regressive party straight on.

[judyc]

Why do my posts keep disappearing? They are not offensive in any way?

[myangeldog1]

yeah!

[barackobama4prez]

try refreshing your screen.

[myangeldog1]

My mother votes solely on the pro-life ticket. While I respect her voting her conscience, this election year for the first time I had to confront her on this. I tried to reason the fact that our country is on the verge of collapse. There is an unjust WAR going on that is taking the lives of our soldiers and the lives of thousands of innocent Iraqis as we speak. There is the constant threat of MORE WAR with nuclear weapons at the hands of extremists and our military is stretched beyond it's limits. Our constitution has been shredded and our American rights and freedoms have been taken away by the Patriot Act and Fisa. Not to mention the economy and joke of a health care system. I had to add one more little tidbit that will haunt me to the day I die, and that is Hurricane Katrina. This is the same mind-set who wants to take away the rights of women to choose, yet let our very own American citizens drown in new Orleans right before our very eyes. At the end of my little speech to and with respect, I said.........MOM......WAKE UP!

AMERICA WAKE-UP!

OBAMA / BIDEN '08

[neurologymatters]

Senator Obama, Thank you for addressing a very important matter. We do not women dying from back street abortions, particularly in cases of rape and incest. Senator Obama has taken the high road and is intelligent enough to address the real issues at hand. Senator Obama is the first candidate to address the issues. Stop questioning his experience. Senator Obama is the real deal!

[SusanK1951]

Why do the Republicans (I was going to say "conservative Republicans" but now it's part of their platform) hear stem cells and eggs crying in the night, but would elect a man who would send their 18 year olds off to die in yet another unjustifiable war?

They talk as though Barack Obama physically rips infants from mommy's wombs and bashes them over the head. He doesn't "like abortion" for heaven's sake. They take his quote about "punishment" entirely out of context. He said if his daughters were raped he would not want them punished with a baby. As far as I know, Sarah Palin's daughter was not raped --was she? Obama's vote in Illinois regarding the survival of infants following abortion attempts was toward not needing new legislation. He did not "say: let the baby die."

Overturning Roe vs. Wade would set women's rights back to the dark ages. What good does it do to take abortions to the back alley again. . .where the woman is lost along with the fetus? To cram prisons with medical personnel? I say good for Obama for addressing this issue.

[Sumocat]

Good tactic. It takes advantage of a weak point opened by the Palin nomination. Palin claims to be pro-life, yet has stated "We're proud of Bristol's decision to have her baby". Guess what, Sarah: a decision is a choice. You should be proud of your daughter's decision, but you should also be proud that she had the right to make that decision. Can't have it both ways.

[barackobama4prez]

Overturning Roe v. Wade is definitely NOT change we can believe in.

[kdublya]

Fee Fi Fo Fum,

I smell a Reality TV Show ratings sweep on the horizon.
Nov 4th marks Bristol's 7 month pregnancy.

Trumpeted under the canard, the liberal media and angry left (I love sprinkling in new catch phrases) can't control themselves while the rest of us Americans are super awesome Yup Yup...

McBush / Palin are ecstatic to invite you to the marriage of,

Bristol & Levi.

Kenora Dinner Jacket welcome

In the meantime, conventions aside please respect their right privacy.

PS Democrats club baby seals.

[vinny]

I think Os ad is politically stupid. Why do Dems want the abortion issue crap to dominate public discussion?

[wedgie]

Because, for the first time in history, the Supreme Court is ready to overturn Roe V Wade. It's no longer possible, but guaranteed, with one more Clarence Thomas type nominee.

NOW women will have to face this issue.

**

[DaOne]

The fact you ask the question indicates you don't understand what's at stake for women.

[vinny]

geez... when there is so much else going on in the world... when the right to choose is firmly rooted in cultural politics so much that "overturning" Roe v Wade is a far-etched possibility... why make it a BIG issue??? it simply pushes voters away from the Dem side...

Dems have to get more nuanced about culture of life issues... we have to finally come to some consensus, some middle ground, and move on... i am sick of abortion being used as a wedge issue... you might argue that because it is an effective wedge issue the SCOTUS has ultimately become more conservative... think about that...

[kdublya]

The genie is out of the bottle.

He can't ignore women's issues without appearing weak and/or dismissive (see also Geraldine Ferrarro, Harriet Christan, PUMA sexism)

Fiorina made put a fresh coat of paint on that scar tissue yesterday.

[mandalaina]

Because at the end of the day REAL women want the right to control their bodies.

I'm sick of these rich right-wingers superficially anit-abortion while the reality is if THEIR daughters are raped, or gotten pregnant the summer before their Harvard semester is to begin, they sneak off to that expensive clinic somewhere and have the abortions done. Secret abortions are ok for them--they can afford it. The poor woman, who is raped or has job security threatened by another pregnancy, is the target of the "religious" right.

It's ok for the rich, but not the poor. Roe V. Wade simply made it legal what the religious right and the rich were doing all along.

It's not a right-to-life issue. It's a social class issue and a racial issue.

[meanguy]

EVERYTHING in this campaign is a racial issue, isn't it? hey, it worked to destroy clinton-might as well 'dance with the crackhead that brung ya,' wright?

[bbbear]

Yes, the ad tends to take Obama off his economic message, but it's a way to obliquely attack Palin's bizarre notions regarding abortion and, perhaps, opens the door for the MSM to ask questions in other areas.

[mergina]

One would think that if the Obama camp simply TELLS THE TRUTH about this and the rest of the past 8 years McCain is connected at the hip to, all would turn out good for him....One would think.???

[MargaretO]

Wouldn't it be nice if a Republican EVER told the truth?

I had already lost respect for the Republican party over the years, but I always thought that John McCain would be an honorable man, but I was wrong. I cannot respect a man who has behaved the way he has during this campaign. He's out and out lied, constantly and then prostituted his military POW experience. Then he risks our country by choosing Palin??!! Trying to pull the wool over everyone's eyes and lying about her being properly vetted.

It's just sick!

I can understand and eagerly wish to debate facts on issues. I abhor liars. I haven't seen any of the Republicans do anything but stand up at their convention and push lies.

Tell the truth for your sake and the sake of our country.

[COINDIE420]

And these Rethug slime even want contraception considered abortion.
We need all the kids we can get to replenish our troops for the endless wars that they want to start.

[wedgie]

Sarah Palin should be asked why abstinence training didn't work with her family.
And she should be asked if birth control should be denied to girls of high school age.

Let's see if we can find out what kind of family planning Ms. Palin does support...

NONE.

She's the babies having babies candidate.

**

[DoTheMath]

The Palins' family planning technique is obviously the shot-gun wedding.