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Steven Waldman

Some extraordinarily beautiful and wise posts on my piece about the death of Joe Biden’s wife and baby daughter. One from Rich W. At age 16 I lost the sight in my left eye. Some kid was playing around with a belt and hit me in the eye, brusing and eventually detaching the retina. My…

Some Democrats are now making an unusual argument about abortion: that a Democratic administration might actually reduce abortions more than a Republican administration. On the surface, this seems preposterous. Republicans oppose abortion rights, Democrats support them. How could it possibly be that a Democratic approach would reduce abortion more? It’s actually quite plausible under certain…

The most obvious flaw in Maher’s documentary is that it’s one sided. He offers many examples of religion that’s extreme, dishonest, hypocritical, or anti-freedom. It’s an often-funny visual tour of bombs exploding and charlatans peddling faith-based snake-oil. In fact, most believers would agree with many of Maher’s attacks. The problem is his conclusion that flim-flam…

In national polls, it’s been looking like Obama’s outreach to moderate evangelicals has been unsuccessful. But recent state polls indicate he’s doing a bit better among evangelicals in certain states. A new ABCNews poll of Ohio voters has McCain winning white evangelicals 65%-30%, a smaller margin than Bush had 2004 (75%-23%). A recent Qunnipiac survey…

I don’t normally post links to my media appearances because when I see or hear them I’m usually obsessed with the things I forgot to say. But I wanted to bring your attention to two clips, and hear your reaction. First, is an interview I did with Terry Gross of Fresh Air. Do you think…

Maher declares at the outset that he’s just a reasonable man who seeks to raise the status of “doubt.” While religion sells a silly/dangerous “invisible product,” he says, “my product is doubt.” But by the end he declares, with fervor that would make Jimmy Swaggert proud, “Religion must die if mankind is to live.” There…

I was initially impressed that Bill Maher interviewed Francis Collins, the brilliant scientist who led the human genome project and who has written eloquently about being both a believer and a scientist. But in the movie, Collins seemed uncharacteristically confused, as he discussed the accuracy of the Bible, a topic I’d not seen him comment…

In the weeks after the debate, Sarah Palin was helping McCain, which is very unusual for a vice presidential pick. In the last week, she’s been a drag on the ticket, which is equally unusual. With this solid performance she merely goes back to being a normal vice presidential candidate – largely irrelevant to the…

Pro-choice activists have been so intent on portraying Sarah Palin as a right wing fundamentalist whacko who’s going to force back-alley abortions that they’ve ignored evidence that Palin is somewhere between flexible and confused when it comes to abortion.Pro-life activists have been so hopeful that the Republican ticket is genuinely pro-life that they, too, have…

I really admire this passage from Joe Biden’s memoir, Promises to Keep. It’s about the sudden death of his wife, Neilia (above), and their baby daughter Naomi in a car accident shortly after his election to the Senate in 1992. It is defiantly not an explication of the power of faith, but rather an honest…
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