Obama is trying to hoodwink Evangelical voters. And he has a helper. Pastor Rick Warren is enabling this, with his ‘forum’. Now, this 'Christian leader' (tm - Huckabee) has the first forum, coming up in mid August where McCain and Obama will actually be together in the same stage. And what issues are of importance to Rev Warren for this important first joint appearance?
“I will be raising questions in these four areas beyond what political reporters typically ask. This includes pressing issues that are bridging divides in our nation, such as poverty, HIV/AIDS, climate and human rights.”
Really now. What a disappointing list of topics that will do little or nothing to tell us who is best to lead! Will he expect a candidate to come in favor of AIDS or against human rights? So whats the point - if not to blur distinctions on substance so it becomes a confab about style? The Elephant (or donkey) in the room are the major social/values issues least discussed in this race so far: Gay marriage, abortion/life, education, and judges.
Marriage: Redefining marriage to include homosexual unions is about to be instituted if California doesnt protect traditional marriage in its state constitution in the election this November. New York state is about to accept marriage licenses from California, and
so the de facto result will be the spread of gay marriage across many states.
McCain is for the Cali amendment protecting marriage. Obama is against it, and is therefore now in the pro-gay-marriage camp.
Abortion: Obama is a pro-abortion legislator, who has a 100% NARAL record and 0% right-to-life record. Obama even voted against a bill that would protect infants born alive after ‘botched’ abortions. McCain’s pro-life record is almost the opposite; Overall a strong pro-life record, but in favor of embyonic stem cell research. Both men need to be asked about their positions and asked to defend them.
Education: Obama’s opposition to abstinence education should be brought up, and their views on sex ed. McCain and Obama differ on school choice. The vital issue of education should be discussed, especially the areas of sex ed, educating moral values and citizenship, and school choice.
Judges: McCain voted for Roberts and Alito, Obama voted against both. Obama has expressed a desire to pick liberal activist judges who advance liberal ideals from the bench. Given the tawdry history of activist Judges who have ruled in ways that undermines America's heritage, our moral values. rule of law, etc., Obama's views are multi-pronged threat.The candidates need to be asked to defend their approach to selecting and approving judges.
Abortion/life, marriage, education, judges - these are fundamental issues that must be discussed!
Two hours devoted to the questions Rev Warren mentions instead of the above important differences between the two candidates will be a huge missed opportunity. The topics he wants to cover will inform us little:
Poverty: The US Federal Govt spend hundreds of billions of dollars redistributing wealth from taxpayers to address ‘poverty’. There is no leadership issue there, since it takes no leadership to take from Peter to give to Paul, just the power of the state. What would take leadership though is better economic management and economic growth policies that long-term will reduce poverty.
HIV/AIDS: unless the president is actively going to stop STDs, this is more of a “what taxpayer funded program shall we increase?” question. On that score, President Bush’s Africa AIDS initiative got strong bipartisan support.
Climate: The earth has stopped warming in the past 10 years. It would be better for candidates to say nothing on this, and just wait for the temperature record to tell us if global warming is real or not. So long as the earth is not warming, it’s a non-issue.
Human rights: It might be nice to see one candidate speak out on behalf of the US military and point out that by liberating 50 million people in the past 7 years, no organization has done more to advance human rights in that time period than the U.S. military, but I don’t expect it from Obama, who won’t even credit the military for the successes in Iraq.
On these 4 issues, we will get vague assurances from both candidates that they will ‘do the right thing’. They will not be much different. What’s the point of dwelling on something where they are the same? It will instead be a Kumbaya Social Justice confab that informs nobody and bamboozles many.
Somehow, somewhere, some one needs to call out Barack Obama on his extreme left views on marriage, abortion, judges, and education. It will discredit Rev Warren immensely if he allows himself to be party to a bamboozling by ignoring these issues.
