In today’s New York Times, Ross Douthat talks about what might have become of Sarah Palin’s political fortunes: “Had she refused John McCain, Palin would still be a popular female governor in a Republican Party starved for future stars. Her scandals would be the stuff of local politics, her daughter’s pregnancy a minor story in the Lower 48, her son Trig’s parentage a nonissue even for conspiracy theorists. There would still be plenty of time to ease into the national spotlight, to bone up on the issues, and to craft a persona more appealing than the Mrs. Spiro Agnew role the McCain campaign assigned to her. “Most important, nobody would…
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A Civil Rights Decision in New Hampshire?
Governor John Lynch signed a bill on Wednesday that makes New Hampshire the sixth state to legalize same-sex “marriage.” The governor has changed his position on the issue, having previously supported civil unions but not gay “marriage.” The New York Times reports:
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Obama Selects Sotomayor for Supreme Court
According to the New York Times, President Obama will select Sonia Sotomayor to fill Souter’s vacancy on the Supreme Court. “President Obama will nominate Judge Sonia Sotomayor of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit as his first appointment to the court, officials said Tuesday, and has scheduled an announcement for 10:15 a.m. at the White House. “If confirmed by the Democratic-controlled Senate, Judge Sotomayor, 54, would replace Justice David H. Souter to become the second woman on the court and only the third female justice in the history of the Supreme Court. She also would be the first Hispanic justice to serve on the Supreme Court.”
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The National Security Debate We Should Have Heard Last Fall
President Barack Obama and former Vice-President Dick Cheney squared-off on Thursday in a pair of dueling press conferences. Cheney and Obama advanced national security opinions that are diametrically opposed to one another. It was close, hand-to-hand, political combat. It was a good, clean fight and exactly the kind of debate that we should have heard last Fall during the general election but didn’t. In case you missed the speeches, I’m posting audio, video, and transcript links below. President Obama (audio), (transcript) [audio:http://www.whitehouse.gov/videos/2009/May/20090521_Protecting_Our_Security.mp3] Vice-President Cheney (audio), (transcript) [audio:http://static2.capitalreach.com/aei/media/10762.mp3]
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Talking about Talking about Abortion
R. Albert Mohler has written a response to President Obama’s speech at Notre Dame. Mohler also discussed the speech on the Monday edition of his radio program (listen below or download here). [audio:http://www.sbts.edu/media/audio/totl/2009/AMP_05_18_2009.mp3] Here’s an excerpt from Mohler’s essay, and the analysis is spot-on:
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Obama’s Hypocritical Strategy on Abortion
In last Friday’s The New York Times, Sheryl Gay Stolberg described President Obama’s approach to the abortion issue: “In nearly four months in office, President Obama has pursued a careful two-pronged strategy on abortion, enacting policies that secure a woman’s right to the procedure while vowing to move beyond the culture wars that have divided the nation on the issue for more than three decades.” This description is astonishingly candid, and it is no compliment to the President. Notice that Obama’s strategy has two parts: enacting and vowing. Essentially, she is saying that President Obama supports policies that are substantively pro-abortion, while adopting rhetoric that makes it sound as if…
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Obama Fails To Transcend Abortion Debate
I watched President Obama’s commencement speech at Notre Dame with some interest this afternoon (see video and transcript below). I was curious (along with everyone else in the country) about how he would address the protests surrounding his appearance at a Roman Catholic (and ostensibly pro-life) university. The buzz leading-up to the speech was that the President would address the issue head-on while attempting to transcend the old “culture war” debates about abortion.
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Americans More Pro-Life Than Ever?
For the first time since Gallup began tracking this issue in 1995, more Americans now identify themselves as pro-life (51%) than those who identify themselves as pro-choice (42%). Gallup says that the “bottom line” of their survey is this: ‘With the first pro-choice president in eight years already making changes to the nation’s policies on funding abortion overseas, expressing his support for the Freedom of Choice Act, and moving toward rescinding federal job protections for medical workers who refuse to participate in abortion procedures, Americans — and, in particular, Republicans — seem to be taking a step back from the pro-choice position. However, the retreat is evident among political moderates…
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Obama’s Supreme Court Philosophy
Peter Slevin describes in the Washington Post what qualities President Obama will be looking for as he appoints a new Justice to the Supreme Court. According to Slevin, the quality that Obama is chiefly concerned about is “empathy.” In other words, Obama is not so much looking for a Justice who will interpret the Constitution according to the framers’s intent. Rather, he is looking for a Justice who can go beyond the letter of the law and stand for justice when no one else will. Slevin’s article reveals (perhaps unconsciously) why Obama’s approach to appointing Justices is not sound. Ever since Marbury v. Madison, the Court’s most significant power is…
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Obama Engaged on Gay “Marriage”?
The New York Times has an interesting piece on President Obama’s engagement on “gay issues.” In short, gay activists think that Obama is not doing enough, and they are pressing him to advocate publicly for their causes. Here’s an excerpt: ‘WASHINGTON — President Obama was noticeably silent last month when the Iowa Supreme Court overturned the state’s ban on same-sex marriage. ‘But now Mr. Obama — who has said he opposes same-sex marriage as a Christian but describes himself as a “fierce advocate of equality” for gay men and lesbians — is under pressure to engage on a variety of gay issues that are coming to the fore amid a…