{"id":386,"date":"2008-10-20T12:44:18","date_gmt":"2008-10-20T12:44:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/stevenwaldman\/2008\/10\/in-defense-of-mccains-born-ali.html"},"modified":"2008-10-20T12:44:18","modified_gmt":"2008-10-20T12:44:18","slug":"in-defense-of-mccains-born-ali","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/2008\/10\/in-defense-of-mccains-born-ali.html","title":{"rendered":"In Defense of McCain’s “Born Alive” Robocalls"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m not defending robocalls as a genre of campagning. Nor am I saying it’s politically wise<\/em> for the McCain campaign to be spending much time on the “born alive” issue. But I will say this: the language of the robocalls on born-alive is close-to-accurate and that piece of legislation is a legitimate issue for those concerned about abortion policy.
\nIn the taped message,<\/a> apparently coming to voters in key battleround states, a woman says:<\/p>\n

“Barack Obama and his Democrat allies in the Illinois Senate opposed a bill requiring doctors to care for babies born alive after surviving attempted abortions.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The ad does not say (as many other Republicans have) that Obama “supports” the “killing” of infants. It actually hews pretty close to the details of the proposed law. No, it doesn’t offer Obama’s key stated rationale — that the law already required such medical intervention for babies — and is somewhat misleading that way. Nor does reveal some of the nuance that makes Obama’s behavior seem less egregious.<\/a>
\nBut that’s probably a bit much to expect, and in any event this ad is far more accurate than others on this topic and others that the McCain campaign has put out.
\nMy full take on the “born alive” bill and Obama here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m not defending robocalls as a genre of campagning. Nor am I saying it’s politically wise for the McCain campaign to be spending much time on the “born alive” issue. But I will say this: the language of the robocalls on born-alive is close-to-accurate and that piece of legislation is a legitimate issue for those…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nIn Defense of McCain's "Born Alive" Robocalls - Steven Waldman<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/2008\/10\/in-defense-of-mccains-born-ali.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"In Defense of McCain's "Born Alive" Robocalls - Steven Waldman\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I’m not defending robocalls as a genre of campagning. 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He's also the author of the Founding Faith: Politics, Providence, and the Birth of Religious Freedom in America, which has been published by Random House. Before co-founding Beliefnet in 1999, Waldman was a political journalist, serving as National Editor of U.S. News & World Report and National Correspondent for Newsweek. 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