I am getting rather surprised that the GOP field keeps agreeing to them. Conservatives generally complain that liberals talk in sound bites, and that is all these debates are set up to provide. I would prefer a format with maybe 2 good questions and each candidate being given 5 minutes to elucidate his/her thoughts on, plus a little time for cross-talk.
It gives them an interesting audience for free. Beats paying for advertisements.
Maybe they want to energize the fanatical abortion rights/ Emily’s List faction of their party to get more campaign $$. Obviously they don’t want any moderates - even socially moderates to vote for Romney. If they lose the independents then they’re sunk. Their only option is to divide - pit groups against each other and win that way.
To create a windmill to tip at.
They are trying to paint the Right to Life movement as a right wing extremist group. After the defeat of the referendum in Mississippi to establish legal protection of the unborn, it is a good time to do that. If such a referendum could be defeated in Mississippi, of all places, this proves that the Right to Life agenda is extremist. Never mind the facts. By associating Romney with an “extremist” position, you raise questions in the voter’s minds about what else he may be extremist about. The point is to paint their own positions as middle of the road and sensible, even though in reality they may be left of center. It’s an attempt to move the bounderies and make what is actually a moderate position for many voters seem extreme.
The Mississippi amendment lost because the pro abortion forces went in to Mississippi spreading myths that the amendment was going to ban contraception, ban IVF, women who miscarried were going to be charged with murder etc.
* Among likely Republican voters surveyed Sunday, Nov. 6, Cain led the field with 40 percent. On Monday, he was third with 22 percent. By Wednesday, just 19 percent of those surveyed said they supported Cain for the nomination - [Politico](http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1111/68273.html)* Anti-Gingrich emails [start popping up](http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1111/68244.html): "The email is a reminder of the challenge Gingrich faces ahead of him, if he really has to go through the same level of vetting as other credible GOP presidential candidates -- like Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann did when they were on the upswing in the polls. But it's also a sign that Gingrich's rise is being taken seriously by his opponents inside the party."To New’t advantage most people are are very aware of his “baggage”. He will, however, have to keep reminding people that the story he served in divorce papers on his 1st wife while she was in the hospital being treated for cancer is a falsehood that contains to be propagated by the left
You may be right. I don’t know why it lost. I do know that the Church itself took no position on the referendum, only recommending that voters be informed about the issues. The point of my post was to say that after the loss, especially in a state like Mississippi where folks tend to be very pro life, any similar amendment in any other state can be painted as an extremist position by those opposing that position. Even the people in Mississippi rejected recognizing the unborn as deserving of rights, is what the refrain will be, and those who are uninformed about the issue will believe it. This is one reason it is good to paint Romney with this losing position. It makes him look like an extremist on the position.
Pro choicers need to look at the polls which show the majority of Americans are pro life, the millennial generation the most pro life. To be pro life is not isolated, rare or extremist.
I absolutely agree with you. In fact, I would even categorize the pro life position as a classical liberal position (Yes, I understand that this is a heretical statement on this forum) in that it expands the traditional bounderies of human rights and who has them in society. We (Catholics and other people of faith) have to do a better job of confronting those who would label the pro life position as extremist. It is not extremist in the least.
It makes those Republicans who are sitting out this election (Palin, Jindal, et.al.) look wise, doesn’t it? Still, one can never tell what will happen between now and election day.
good question. Does anyone name any names?
Actually there might be another option believe it or not. Republican consultant Ed Rolllins said tonight on one of the cable programs that whoever emerges from this 2012 GOP field can not lose both Ohio and Florida because there is no pathway to an Electoral College majority for Republicans without one of them. I imagine some of that huge Ohio vote last wk in opposition to the Ohio Republican governor’s policy and in support of labor included independents. Both their GOP governor and his Republican Tea Party counterpart in FL have seen their support plummet in less than the year each has been office. And there has been recent polling showing Obama up in Ohio and Romney in FL but within the margin of error and both close. So it appears an option for Democrats would be to win OH and FL basd on GOP policy.
There may be truth to that, maybe not. Either way, a year in politics is an eternity. I will probably volunteer to get the vote out to oust Obama. I don’t think our country can take another four years of his failed policies. Especially I don’t want him to have any say whatsover on supreme court justices, as I believe that human life is sacred and take the Catholic teaching on that subject seriously.
How strange then it is mostly liberals impinging on the human rights of the unborn.