John McCain's Domestic Terrorism Problem (new video)
When it came to fighting violence against abortion clinics, John McCain put his radical "pro-life" politics first -- putting women and their doctors at risk:
YouTube link
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barath gets a big shout out for picking out the perfect music for this video.
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Here's how the New York Times summarized the legislation John McCain voted against (not just once, but twice):
The Senate voted overwhelmingly today for a Federal law to prohibit bombings, arson and blockades at abortion clinics, and shootings and threats of violence against doctors and nurses who perform abortions.
The vote was 69 to 30. Twenty-eight senators who voted against Federal financing of abortions six weeks ago supported the measure, seeing it as a law-and-order matter rather than as an abortion issue.
As you can see, McCain was one of a distinct minority of radical "pro-life" senators. A number of senators who opposed abortion nonetheless voted for the legislation because they thought it would protect women and their doctors. It was only the extremists who opposed the bill -- and McCain was one of them.
One important detail about this legislation is that it was a standalone bill. In other words, McCain was opposed to this particular policy; he can't say that he opposed the bill for some unrelated reason.
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Clearly, this issue is not the most pressing issue in the campaign -- the economy is, and I fully expect Barack Obama himself to stay focused on it.
However, John McCain has basically waved the white flag of surrender on the economy, and since he's going to spending the rest of the campaign talking about anything and everything but the economy, it's useful to have issues like this, the Keating Five, and the Alaska Independence Party to throw back in his face.
This isn't about going negative on McCain, this is about giving the media the tools they need to be able to provide balance. If we didn't put these kind of issues out there, much of the debate would be dominated by whatever attack John McCain has made. But by putting things like this out there, it deprives McCain of the opportunity to take an unfettered shot.
And depriving him of that opportunity is one of the most important tactical considerations of the next 29 days.
jedreport.com |
