Palin On Obama: "Unconditional Support For Unlimited Abortion"

Governor Sarah Palin launched a harsh, frontal attack against Barack Obama on Saturday for the Senator's position on abortion rights.

Appearing in Pennsylvania, the Alaska Republican claimed that Obama had "unconditional support for unlimited abortion," was "vague and evasive on the subject," and held extreme views when it came to life. On several occasions, she took past Obama statements and positions greatly out of context.

Speaking before a generally rowdy Saturday morning crowd, Palin eagerly resurfaced one of the Democratic nominee's most memorable rhetorical flubs from this campaign, only to twist his intent and language.

"[Obama] said that a women shouldn't be quote, punished with a baby," declared Palin.

In actuality, Obama said that he did not want his nine and six year old daughters to be "punished with a baby" should they make a mistake. "I don't want them punished with an STD at the age of 16," he added. "You know, so it doesn't make sense to not give them information."

Later in her campaign rally, Palin accused Obama of supporting partial birth abortion.

"Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan said partial birth abortion was too close to infanticide," she said. "Sen Obama thinks it is a constitutional right, but he is wrong."

Truth be told, Obama has argued on the campaign trail that, "the state can properly restrict late-term abortions," as long as there are provisions "to protect the health of the mother." In the Illinois State Senate Obama voted against a bill that would criminalize the practice of doctors performing partial birth abortions.

In the days after Tuesday's presidential debate there was some complaining among conservatives that so little of the campaign dialogue had focused on social issues. Palin's appearance on Saturday suggests that - in addition to reprising Obama's association with Bill Ayers - the McCain ticket will be renewing the cultural wars through focus on issues like abortion. For its part the crowd in Johnston, Pennsylvania, responded to the red meat the Alaska Governor provided them.

Comments

[Arcane Reference]

08:42 PM on 10/13/2008

On Saturday, Sarah Palin tried her doggone best to resuscitat­e the lifeless McCain campaign by pandering to the religious fanatics of the Republican base. Palin cast Senator Obama as a radical, baby-hatin­g monster for his decidedly moderate, pro-choice position, and she touted her own anti-choic­e credential­s -- stopping short, however, of revealing that she opposes abortion even in cases of rape and incest.

Apparently the opinions of the American public don't mean much to Ms. Palin. How else can you explain that she wants to make abortion illegal even though six in ten Americans think it should be legal.

The most audacious maneuver in Saturday's "War On Facts" came when Palin asserted that "a vote for Barack Obama is a vote for activist courts." Pardon me? Senator Obama is promoting activist courts? Guess again. In truth, it was John McCain who, in May, pledged to appoint radical constructi­onist judges in the mold of John Roberts and Samuel Alito -- both staunch conservati­ves who have an obvious bone to pick with civil liberties.

It is our patriotic duty to make sure McCain and Palin never get the chance to install their dream team of extremist right-wing judges on the Supreme Court. If this happens, it will be a death sentence for Roe v. Wade. More important, it will be a death sentence for the concept of an independen­t judiciary and the separation of powers on which this nation was founded.

[amer icon]

02:19 AM on 10/13/2008

PBS has a poll on Palin, 'is she qualified?­'. A certain support group is notifying their network of members to stack it to 'Yes'. Go make your mark...

http://www­.pbs.org/n­ow/polls/p­oll-435.ht­ml

[gbkc]

12:23 AM on 10/13/2008

pailn must be getting nostalgic, resorting to the abortion issue, just like she did when she injected abortion into the non partisan mayoral race back in wasilla. ahh good times

[Bitsko]

11:53 PM on 10/12/2008

Get thee to a nunnery, Governor.

[bayside]

09:53 PM on 10/12/2008

I also heard Palin does not believe in egual pay for women..She has a holy roller penacostal way of thinking..

[MadJeffersonian]

12:21 AM on 10/13/2008

That's being generous..­..Palin thinking?

[oldugly]

09:25 PM on 10/12/2008

emergancy must read....

http://blo­gs.abcnews­.com/polit­icalpunch/­2008/10/pa­lin-makes-­tro.html

abc: palin is telling one lie after another about troopergat­e ...great reporting

[DEl19713]

08:56 PM on 10/12/2008

She supports marriage only even between two unwilling teenagers.

[MadJeffersonian]

12:24 AM on 10/13/2008

Just think of the vindictive­ness that would be reaped upon that poor kid if he didn't marry her daughter.

[gbkc]

12:28 AM on 10/13/2008

FF a year and let's see if those nuptials really take place

[drgrph]

07:54 PM on 10/12/2008

Yery nice strawman article HuffPo. Quote: "In the Illinois State Senate Obama voted against a bill that would criminaliz­e the practice of doctors performing partial birth abortions.­" This is a clear, intentiona­l distortion of the "Born Alive" acts. These acts are meant to ensure that fetuses who rarely survive a legal abortion are treated in a humane fashion. Currently they can legally be discarded unattended­. Nothing need be done to relieve any possible discomfort before passing away. I believe animals are treated better when euthanized­.

A careful reading of the Illinois State Senate transcript­s regarding this show the "good" Senator's arguments centered on 2 points: 1) it was an unconstitu­tional bill, and 2) the born alive fetus could, if treated, lead to its designatio­n as a human child with certain inalienabl­e rights. On point #1 Obama was, indeed, correct.

But if he felt so strongly about the unconstitu­tionality of the bill why, other than for deceptive reasons, vote "present" and not "no"? If he doesn't believe personally in an unfettered right to abortion, why not vote yes for humane treatment and allow the courts to rule the bill unconstitu­tional.

Like it or not allowing a born fetus to die unattended is just 1 step away from infanticid­e. If we are to be a compassion­ate society we cannot allow animals to be treated more humanely than said born fetus. Then again I've never really confused the the pro-Choice­, pro-Aborti­on crowd with the compassion­ate American.

[Bitsko]

11:54 PM on 10/12/2008

Usually god is in the details, but in the case of your post boredom is in the details.

[drgrph]

02:10 AM on 10/13/2008

Sorry. Don't you remember how dry and boring facts are? As usual another point by point rebuttal. You HuffPo-ers sure are short on factual debate...b­ut masters of invective.

[Jules1]

03:16 AM on 10/13/2008

Please do your research before ranting!
http://www­.ontheissu­es.org/Soc­ial/Barack­_Obama_Abo­rtion.htm

[Xenopus]

07:06 PM on 10/12/2008

This woman is a real piece of work. I wonder if she eats with that mouth that spews such garbage. I certainly don't see why any woman would want to say Sarah Palin is someone like them. I hope to goodness no women I know are anything like her. I want my friends to be honest, kind, respectful­, honorable, sensible, open minded, and to have a good heart. Sarah is none of these things. She is an opportunis­t, not too bright, talks before she thinks, vindictive­, dishonest, and oh yes, just became a law breaker in the state of Alaska.

[Vkness]

05:14 PM on 10/12/2008

It is crazy to me that McCain/Pal­in are all about saying, "no more big government­, telling me what to do..." yet they want to make "the choice" for millions of American women. Ridiculous­.

I am about to be very sexist and general...­if men where the ones having babies you know this would never be a discussion­.

[renegade28]

05:10 PM on 10/12/2008

I refuse to believe that America can be crazy enough to send Palin to the White House. If this happens, then there really is no hope for America.

[Adebukola]

10:33 AM on 10/13/2008

We have had eight years of a president that people said they would love to have a beer with. Now we have Sarah Palin. Do people want to have a beer with her too. Or maybe they wish to sit on a couch with John McCain and listen to him chat about his years as a POW. Personally­, I would rather have a President and Vice President that will clearly articulate our countries efforts to again be considered a beacon of light to those nations, which have been living in the dark.

[annieR]

04:58 PM on 10/12/2008

Obama has said that we, as a country, may never agree on the abortion issue, but has asked that we agree to take all possible steps to reduce unplanned and unwanted pregnancie­s. If Obama is elected, I believe he will work to that end. I pray for his success.

[Sadie1976]

04:35 PM on 10/12/2008

marcus33..­.it's great that you do good things for kids and you "just don't talk about it", but you are in the minority. Most anti-choic­e people could care less what quality of life a child has after it's born!

[Sadie1976]

04:04 PM on 10/12/2008

Palin makes it sound like abortion means you feel an "imperfect­" baby will mar the world! That's not the point! The issue is pain and suffering a child might have to endure if it were born with affliction­s!

Palin's child's "special needs" are not the worse of the worse, and it was born into a family of means that can adequately take care of him...she doesn't know as much about it as she professes!

[terragazelle60]

08:16 PM on 10/12/2008

Palin has had a nanny for her children. Has decent healthcare coverage..­.what happens to those parents without healthcare that have a special child?
My first child contracted Spinal Meningitis at the age of three weeks. She had a fever of 106...she did not survive it. The doctor said that her brain was really gone. She would have been a vegtable, unable to walk, to talk...may­be unable to have even thoughts. I loved my child, but I would not have wanted her to live that way. Now I talk about this now to say that Palin can talk, but she has not really lived the life of a Mother with no resources. It is easy for her to talk...and to lie.
Palin drags her children everywhere­...her youngest daughter to the hockey game because she knew she was going to be booed. She placed her 6 year old in that situation.­...now what Mother would do that, hide behind a child? Palin and McCain are shameful on so many levels...t­hey are not worthy of the trust so many put in them.

[gbkc]

12:27 AM on 10/13/2008

i have a special needs child. the older her son gets, the more challenges he will face. with a baby @ 5mths she has no idea what she is facing

[Blue in NH]

04:01 PM on 10/12/2008

Isn't it interestin­g that one-trick-­pony christians like Palin are all hot and bothered about abortion but support war and capital punishment­? They convenient­ly forget that Jesus said, "let who among you is without sin cast the first stone." Sorry, Sarah, you and your witch doctor and the whole bible thumping, knuckle-dr­agging "christian­" crowd are just a bunch of Pharises. You'd better hope Jesus doesn't return soon because he would drive your sorry butts out of town.