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Steven Waldman

David Gibson has a fascinating post over at Progressive Revival in which he (and Mark Silk, by extension) argue that abortion shifts very few votes. They cite numerous studies, and make a persuasive case — when it comes to most Catholics. But one of the great myths of American politics is that the abortion fracas…

Where to begin? Palin doesn’t belong to a Pentecostal church now. When she did, we don’t know if she spoke in tongues. And most important, Speaking in Tongues is a religious practice in which Christians feel the direct presence of the Holy Spirit. Is that really something to mock? Did the Wa they run a…

I want to say at the outset that a) I believe the McCain’s ads have been much more dishonest than Obama’s, b) that the lying does matter (!) and c) conservative religious leaders ought to be smacking him but good for his violation of the 9th Commandment (8th if your Catholic or Lutheran).Having said that,…

Since we commonly ascribe Obama’s troubles with working class Catholics to his positions on abortion or his perceived “elitism” (how can you vote for a guy with a sub-80 bowling score???) it was useful to be reminded by a recent New York Times’ piece that sometimes substantive issues are excuses to cloak other factors: One…

What IS John McCain’s position on abortion and life issues? That may seem like an odd question. He has just appointed an antiabortion heroine to his ticket and approved the most antiabortion Republican platform ever. Surely if anything is certain in this shifting campaign it’s that John McCain is ardently against abortion. Not if you…

It’s become standard part of the Republican script to say that Obama supports not only killing of the unborn but of the born. As former Senator Fred Thompson put it during the Republican convention, “We need a President who doesn’t think that the protection of the unborn or a newly born baby is above his…

Doug Kmiec is a conservative Reagan administration official and leading pro-life legal scholar. Despite his strong anti-abortion views, he recently endorsed Barack Obama on the grounds that Obama cared more about the full range of “life” issues – including poverty and human rights – and because Kmiec believes that Obama’s “abortion reduction” agenda will have…

Statements on abortion from John McCain, Sarah Palin and the Republican Platform. (Below the fold)

Remember how it became a sport for reporters to try to detect the “dog whistle” lines in George W. Bush’s speeches – i.e. phrases that might excite evangelicals without generating fear, or notice, from anyone else? Joe Biden is trying out a key Catholic dog whistle expression. In today’s big economic speech he used the…

Several conservatives have been willing to criticize McCain for his dishonest campaign ads. Rod Dreher said the McCain lipstick ad was “totally unfair, and a distortion.” Senator Orrin Hatch agreed that Obama wasn’t calling Palin a pig: “I’m sure he didn’t mean it that way.” Fox News challenged McCain’s tax claims, and Steve Chapman, a…
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