I see the strategy, and can appreciate the tactic. However, I think the long-term price is too high. Selling people on human potential for great things (being president, etc) is false advertisement because most people will never achieve greateness, so defined. Moreover, what about the sick? The aged? They are unable to meet that social expectation for greatness, so why is their life valuable? I think event people who accept evolution can accept the personhood arguments being made by guys like Peter Kreeft and by the authors of the book Embryo: A Case for Life.

I agree with you that this is a clever add and has strong emotional appeal; and I mean that it a positive sense. However, by resting the argument on potential for good, the obvious rebuttle is potential for evil. I would rather see pro-lifers -and I am most certainly pro life- argue on the basis of intrinsic value, image of God, and personhood rather than one’s potential to overcome obsticles and achieve “great things.”

This type of thing is the right battle, AND the right battlefield.

I get your point but I do not think it refutes the ad the way you think it does.

The ad simply highlights the HOPE of life and the amazing possibility that is in every womb. Being that hope is a central theme for the Obama campaign I think the ad nails it in saying that if we are to be a nation of hope, we must not restrict it at its most formative and vulnerable stage. All new life carries with it tremendous unknown for good or evil, but that does not inhibit the fact that life must be given a chance to demonstrate its worth.