About Last Night
By ANDREW ROSENTHAL
NYT
Right-wing politicians never miss a chance to declare their religious piety and “family values,” or to accuse those who disagrees with them of lacking both.
At last night’s debate in Arizona, the moderator, John King of CNN, read a question from CNN’s website noting that contraception had become an issue in the campaign and asking which of the candidates believe in birth control. The audience booed the question, indicating to the contenders—as if they hadn’t already realized it—that Mr. King had given them a great opportunity for grand-standing.
Mr. Gingrich, who can play the crowd like no other, went first, and didn’t even try to answer the question. In a rather amazing about-face, he accused President Obama of having “voted in favor of legalizing infanticide” and to “protect doctors who killed babies who survived the abortion.” He also complained that the “elite media” had never raised this issue in 2008. Leaving aside the absurdity of a candidate for president calling anyone else “elite,” Mr. Gingrich was misrepresenting both Mr. Obama’s record, and the news coverage. What a shock.
In 2001, 2002 and 2003, when Mr. Obama was a state senator, pro-lifers proposed bills that would have classified a fetus that survived an abortion as a person with full legal rights. The bill would never have survived judicial scrutiny, but in any case Illinois law already required doctors to try to save viable fetuses. It had no purpose other than the declaration of “personhood,” so Mr. Obama opposed it. Far from getting a pass from the “elite media,” many outlets reported on this tempest-in-a-teacup during the 2008 campaign.
(More here.)
NYT
Right-wing politicians never miss a chance to declare their religious piety and “family values,” or to accuse those who disagrees with them of lacking both.
At last night’s debate in Arizona, the moderator, John King of CNN, read a question from CNN’s website noting that contraception had become an issue in the campaign and asking which of the candidates believe in birth control. The audience booed the question, indicating to the contenders—as if they hadn’t already realized it—that Mr. King had given them a great opportunity for grand-standing.
Mr. Gingrich, who can play the crowd like no other, went first, and didn’t even try to answer the question. In a rather amazing about-face, he accused President Obama of having “voted in favor of legalizing infanticide” and to “protect doctors who killed babies who survived the abortion.” He also complained that the “elite media” had never raised this issue in 2008. Leaving aside the absurdity of a candidate for president calling anyone else “elite,” Mr. Gingrich was misrepresenting both Mr. Obama’s record, and the news coverage. What a shock.
In 2001, 2002 and 2003, when Mr. Obama was a state senator, pro-lifers proposed bills that would have classified a fetus that survived an abortion as a person with full legal rights. The bill would never have survived judicial scrutiny, but in any case Illinois law already required doctors to try to save viable fetuses. It had no purpose other than the declaration of “personhood,” so Mr. Obama opposed it. Far from getting a pass from the “elite media,” many outlets reported on this tempest-in-a-teacup during the 2008 campaign.
(More here.)
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