Senator John McCain has come out swinging. In a (un?)surprising move, he claimed that Roe Vs Wade should be overturned. Our fearless leader Dvorak has claimed for over a year that McCain was a shoe-in to be the next Republican candidate as part of a quid-pro-quo over his passive attitude from the last election. Is McCain trying to blow his chances? Or does he honestly believe this will help him?
“I do not support Roe versus Wade. It should be overturned,” the Arizona senator told about 800 people in South Carolina, one of the early voting states.
While perhaps not TOO shocking, the more telling aspect of his hopeful rule is in another statement of his.
McCain also vowed that if elected, he would appoint judges who “strictly interpret the Constitution of the United States and do not legislate from the bench.”
So what does that mean exactly?
Like Bill Maher recently said, McCain got off the “straight talking express” a long time ago. Sad.
So what does that mean exactly?
It means that he’s being a normal politician and whoring himself to try and win the votes he’s after.
McCain wants the chance to be the hero at the convention. He has already written off any possibility of the Republicans or himself winning the office in ’08.
Republican election chances were tied to the success of the ‘surge’. As the Surge is already apparently failed you will see the remnants of the republican leadership lobbying for the roll of the leader of the minority party.
Means he hired a campaign manager that is following Presidential campaign 101. Play the wedge issues. The LAST thing Republicans want to do is overturn Roe v Wade, they just want to drag it out for campaigns over and over again.
More pandering by McCain to the radical conservative Christian fundamentalist wing of the Republican Party. These people are our version of the radical conservative Islamic fundamentalist wing of Muslim countries. McCain bows to the radical Christian leader James Dobson while condemning his moral equivalent radical Muslim clerics in Islam. McCain has taken the playbook of hypocrisy from the Bush administration. This will not be the playbook to the presidency in ‘08.
He’s sold his soul to the devil for the sole selfish reason to be granted the title The President of The United States of America.
Choice is the hallmark of freedom. Without choice there is no freedom. Period.
#4,
Between 02 and 04, they probably had the political capital to pass a constutional amendment. That would have settled the issue for good.
The wedge issue tactic no longer works for them. Edwards actually went up in the polls during pandagate.
I mean, here is Edwards bringing a certifable nutcase onto his campaign. The right wing complained, legitmately I might add. And while Amanda resigned/was fired it ended up helping Edwards for about 3 points.
This is a serious problem for the republican party. They have used and refined those techniques over the past 30 years. They haven’t won an election without them. If they have to run on issues, they are doomed. The public at large has been against the republican issues since before watergate. On the issue of abortion for example, recent polling suggests about 70% of the population wants it at least some of the time. That support goes up to about 90% when you include rape or incest.
Another advantage the republicans have seem to have lost is the main stream media. Until recently the MSM was filled with republican sympathizers. However, as they have burnt their credibility down to near zero, alternative media has taken off. Recent polling also suggests even though they lost the 06 elections, their membership is still in decline.
Even worse is demograpgic changes. Even though the population of the united states is aging, “likely voters” are getting younger. When you break party affiliation and issues down by age, it is an electoral disaster.
Its a grim time to be a republican.
As an insider, McCain acknowledges who owns the Republikan Party. He kisses their collective butt in an effort to have them choose him as their next candidate.
Anyone surprised?
Here’s the problem, Roe v. Wade WAS a bad decision. IMO, a woman should have the right to choose whether to have an abortion, but it is not a decision that should be made nor protected by the Federal government. The Federal government and especially the Supreme Court has no authority to make that decision. It should have always been decided by the States. If a woman wants an abortion and currently resides in a State that outlaws them, then she should go to a State that does allow them.
So, in truth McCain is acting like a true Republican in his sense of fighting for State’s rights.
Actually, this is entirely political pandering and has nothing to do with the law.
Roe v. Wade is old law. The current standard is Planned Parenthood v. Casey. Saying we should overturn Roe v. Wade is like claiming to want to overturn Dredd v. Scott. (Which was never actually overturned, it’s just old law nowadays.)
Alex,
Dred Scott was never overturned in the courts. It was reversed by a series of constutional amendments.
Another bit of southern conservative revisionism on the civil war is to call it the war of nothern aggression. The north was defending its borders against slavers who were kidnapping their residents and taking them south to be slaves. Oh yah, and as they were doing that, they were murdering people in those northen states.
As a result we burned your ass to the ground and killed 30% of you people. Dont make us come down there and do it again.
He has been taking lessons from Mitt Romney who is apparently in a race with McCain to see who can run the farthest to the right.
I have lost any respect I ever had for McCain. I won’t vote for him or any candidate that panders to wing nuts of any stripe.
Mcain says im never winning the presidential bid. Go Guinliani, at least I’l like a presidential candidate this time, Even as a neo-conservative fascist, Mccain can’t keep it together for very long, this flip flopping sycophant is nothing to worry about.
#9, the problem with your idea is that people generally want laws to be basically similar across the states. I realize there are different laws about say shopping hours of stores on Sunday, or whether or not you can buy booze at any time.
however, with an issue like abortion, people ,whole whether or not they support abortion, would probably want the same law everywhere.
I get the biggest kick out of the posters on this blog. They seem to think that the political spectrum is made up of right-winged, facist, neo-con, Christian nut cases and Democrats
I like the hanger touch, believe it or not some was used to do the job.
#15
I disagree. The ever forgotten Amendment:
The Federal government was never intended to be the behemoth it is today. It was meant to be more of a referee in deciding cases of Constitutional rights and authority and settling issues of interstate commerce. Abortion fits into none of these categories. There is nothing in the Constitution that says anything about abortion nor does abortion have anything to do with interstate commerce.
If people want the same laws regarding abortion across the US, then each State should pass a similar bill. The Federal government does not nor should have the authority to make such a law. At the very least, you have to admit that if the desire to have a similar set of standards regarding abortion were desired (and we overlook whether the Federal government has the authority), then it should be Congress that makes it and not the Supreme Court.
Looks to me like just another unprincipled political deal. He’s going for the vocal fundie support. If it works, he’ll get a LOT of money in from both neocons and fundies. But it’s early enough that he probably believe people will forget statements like these by the time primary elections roll around.
Not much ever appealed to me about his politics, but at least he always had integrity going for him. That’s what he’s busily blowing off now. Will it matter? It didn’t stop Bush, Rove or Cheney. I don’t have much faith in the common sense of the American electorate. Or in the importance of integrity to political success.
16,
Correction: The RIGHT side of the politcal spectrum is (the rest of your comments here) and Democrats.
Hell, I’m not even an American!
This is nothing new from McCain. He has long been pro-life and has wanted to overturn Roe v. Wade. He’s also pandered to the left a little by pretending to be against overturning Roe. Here’s an example from 1999:
http://tinyurl.com/2j3z9l
#18 Thomas the commenters on this site don’t know the History of the united States. To most of them it’s THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. You must remember they are citizens limited to civil rights. Everything they do must be recognized by their owners.
Republicans never had the power to pass a Constitutional amendment on abortion, and such an amendment would be different from overturning Roe vs Wade. As usual, the posters on this blog get a court case wrong.
#11: Probably wouldn’t be as easy this time, as most of y’all’s mommas and daddies are down here living the good retired life. Besides, Stephen Colbert is from here (SC), and he’ll make y’all look like idiots.
People should be able to choose to use birth control,
so as to avoid having to make another choice.
Roe vs Wade
I like Dogs do you ?
The image makes a few mistakes:
1. It mixes a description of a back-alley abortion with a symbol of self-induced abortions.
2. It commits the misleading vividness fallacy.
“And by the way, during this period of name-choosing, thanks to one more touch of left-wing magic, thousands of abortionists’ offices were slowly and mysteriously turning into family-planning clinics.
And on the subject of those places, I think the left really ought to do something about this needlessly emotional phrase back-alley abortions. ‘We don’t want to go back to the days of back-alley abortions.’ Please. It’s over-descriptive; how many abortions ever took place in back alleys? Or, okay, in places where the entrance was through a back alley?
Long before Roe v Wade, when I was a young man, every abortion I ever paid for took place in an ordinary doctor’s office, in a medical building. We came in through the front door and took the elevator. The three of us. Of course, as we were leaving, the elevator carried a lighter load.” – George Carlin
I agree that the problem of abortion should not have gone to a federal court!
Abortion is something that can harm women, emotionally and through cancer. it is risky, so is drinking or smoking. but it souldn’t be outlawed, that would cause problems because people would have botched home abortions or unsafe black-mail ones.
the Constitution is a living document, and can be ammended to suit the needs of people. the 19th ammendment is an example of when an ammendment was needed. however, our founders probably didn’t write the Constitution as a document we can bend or stretch to fit our wants. Where in the Constitution does it mention abortion be legal or illegal?
it is incredibly ignorant to make statements of the stupidity or kiss-butt qualities of politicians. every party, Replican or Democrat has politicians. it is how they get ellected. yes, Obama is a politician too. insulting them will not change anything. those of you who said this sound like a bunch or cranky middle-schoolers, like those in my class. it’s sad. if you want something changed, do something about it! VOTE! learn about our government, about the laws that will and have been passed. stop complaining and get involved. this is America after all!
(as a side not, you can also present your opinion in other logical, un-biased way. these is a place in the middle, a gray, and to get any one to listen, you have to adress the good in both sides.)