American Missive

LONG BEACH— I missed the televised Civil Forum at Saddleback. However, I’ve read through the transcripts.  Doing so is an interesting way to catch up. For those who viewed the discourse a whole different level of dialogue was present that is lacking in the transcripts. Body language, facial expressions, and pauses in delivery are a few of the forms of communication that are missing in the written transcript.  Reading it leaves one with only the content of the speech, or answer, and little of the physical context. So it is quite interesting to read and analyze from this perspective.

I’m focusing on the biggest sound bite that came from this forum. I’m a reader of Real Clear Politics, so I’ve seen the national discourse on this event and the most talked about or repeated portion of the event is apparent.  That would be Mr. Obama’s response to “the abortion question”. Below is the dialogue as obtained from Rick Warren’s website, cut to get to the actual question.

Rick Warren:  … Now, let’s deal with abortion. 40 million abortions since Roe v. Wade. You know, as a pastor I have to deal with this all the time; all of the pain and all of the conflicts. I know this is a very complex issue. 40 million abortions. At what point does a baby get human rights in your view?

Barack Obama:  Well, I think that whether you are looking at it from a theological perspective or a scientific perspective, answering that question with specificity, you know, is above my pay grade.

But let me just speak more generally about the issue of abortion because this is something obviously the country wrestles with.  One thing that I’m absolutely convinced of is there is a moral and ethical content to this issue.  So I think that anybody who tries to deny the moral difficulties and gravity of the abortion issue I think is not paying attention.  So that would be point number one.

But point number two, I am pro-choice.  I believe in Roe v. Wade and come to that conclusion not because I’m pro-abortion, but because ultimately I don’t think women make these decisions casually.  They wrestle with these things in profound ways in consultation with their pastors or spouses or their doctors and their family members.  And so for me, the goal right now should be — and this is where I think we can find common ground, and, by the way, I have now inserted this into the Democrat Party platform, is how do we reduce the number of abortions? Because the fact is that although we’ve had a President who is opposed to abortions over the last eight years, abortions have not gone down.
— Saddleback Civil Forum on the Presidency, Aug 16, 2008

In reading the transcript and the initial responses from both sides of this particular question I’ve noticed a few things.

First, it appears that Mr. Obama supporters are in denial over the out come of the entire forum and in the reception of his answer to this particular question.

For the denial one merely needs to look at the supporters’ responses and excuses. One of the excuses is that Mr. McCain cheated by not being in “the cone of silence”. Another is that Mr. McCain did not respond with honesty and merely regurgitated his stump speech.  These two views refute each other.  If Mr. McCain was merely repeating a stump speech then it really wouldn’t matter where he was at the time Mr. Obama was answering the questions.  Additionally, if Mr. McCain did cheat, how was his answer dramatically different than his overall message to date, in particular, with respect to this, the most discussed question? Mr. McCain has a long record of being Pro-Life. Hearing Mr. Obama’s response wouldn’t alter this fact.  So was the cheating done by simplifying his responses? Is that what debate cheating is? “You, sir are a cheater! Your answer was shorter than mine!”

Second, Mr. Obama never answered the question, and his beating around the bush on the subject did little to help in his attempt to make himself appear as a leader. It may have helped him appear as a thoughtful person, but not as a leader.

Rick Warren:  At what point does a baby get human rights in your view?

Notice Pastor Rick didn’t ask Mr. Obama at what point is a baby human.  Though I can see where this point would come into the matter, it is a different level of the discussion. The question was, when does a baby get his rights? This is a question that law makers must answer in some way.  When coming to a conclusion on this debate any law maker should consort theological and scientific sources to insure a justifiable position. The issue here is Mr. Obama is running for President, at what point in time does he intend to actually come to a conclusion? It is nice that he admits there are different points of view which must be considered, but eventually one must settle on an answer. And, as a leader, people will be looking to him to have that answer if only to demonstrate the ability to come to a conclusion whether one agrees with it or not.

Third, “above my pay grade” is not a valid response, even after rambling through the basis for different opinions. He is currently a law maker. How can he make or vote on a law if he considers the question to be above him? With this response he leaves open the possibility that the end result and answer could be different than his own position.  The utterance of this response would imply that no law maker can make this decision of when a baby is afforded his rights.  It begs the question; would it not be best to err on the side of caution if no one in the House or Senate is of the pay grade to make such a choice?

Fourth, his two points are basically pointless.  Here they are summed up:

Point One: “I think that anybody who tries to deny the moral difficulties and gravity of the abortion issue, I think, is not paying attention”.

Point Two:  “I am Pro Choice.”

Thank you, Mr. Obama. That was very thoughtful of you to clear all that up.  Now, the question was, when do babies get their rights?  Your response was, “it’s a tough question, above me anyway, and I’m Pro Choice.”  Great! So, when do babies get their rights?  Even a Pro Choice advocate has a point in time for this.  The nation is divided on the exact time, but that never prevented anyone on either side from coming to a conclusion and defending it.

Mr. Obama admitted he was Pro Choice. Is the Pro Choice caucus excited to know that Mr. Obama is on their side but unwilling to defend their position?  Does it appeal to this block that Mr. Obama left open the very real possibility that this position might not be defensible?  Mr. Obama did state that the answer to this question is above his pay grade. He left the audience with one of the following impressions: that he doesn’t know the answer, knows the answer but cannot defend it, has an answer but believes it is indefensible or worse yet, has an answer, believes it to be the infallible truth yet views his fellow citizens as incapable of fully understanding and respecting it.

Mr. Obama lost on this question because the larger debate is over who the nation wants to lead them. All Mr. Obama did with this question is emphasize either his lack of desire, or lack of ability to lead.