Political Punch

Tom Ridge - wasn't he the bush puppet who moved the TERROR WATCH SCALE UP & DOWN. Sorry but all I saw was a willing fool playing gergie boys game going from yellow to orange to red in the lead up to the election. Trust him about as much as I would get in a cage with a tiger who hadn't had a meal for 2 months. these people are the sleeze of politics of all time.

That is not a good enough response from Ridge. The American pro-life voter wants to know that the man that President Elect McCain picks as his VP holds the same values and positions that he has. Something that he, himself, has expressed in the past. We in the pro-life movement would not be pleased with this change of attitude - either you are pro-life or you aren't! If you were pro-choice then, you can't be pro-life now - it isn't that easy! This would be a very, very bad decision for President Elect McCain. We would hope that if approached, Tom Ridge would say no!

If McCain picks ridge, Obama is going to have a hard time winning Pennsylvania.

mrspeel - war is made up of grown humans. They choose to engage in that arena. For a woman to choose to take the life of her child is a completely different issue. To mix the two is a distorted view of reality. We are talking about choosing.. The woman by choosing abortion does get to have a say, the men and women going to war have made a judgment call and so they too are being heard. They may feel differently later on, but then so will many women that choose to end the life of their child. I fully understand many of the reasons women choose to have an abortion, but it doesn't change the fact that morally it is the wrong decision and from my perspective has done so much damage to the moral foundation of the world.

Is it just me or is McCain messing up this whole VP thing. If he picks a right winger now he is accused of pandering, and if he picks an anti abortion guy like Ridge, then either you have a frustrated religious right or a flip flopper.

Melissa, I respect your opinion but I think you're missing a key point. I'm not saying you have to agree but the key question is at what point life begins. If one believes that life begins at conception than your argument about the costs, children flooding the system are irrelevant. You can disagree on when life begins; but nobody can argue that if life begins at conception that we can justify abortion because of the burden the extra children will put on society.

Eyes opening, cast your eyes to google and go to the New Republican online, then type in keywords for search. I don't remember if there was a listing of the entire 48 prospective members, since I read it several days ago. Maybe there was a sample of names of the membership. Thank you for your concern about women's reproductive rights!

kat"

"His proposed judiciary committee has 48 individuals who all have pro-life convictions and will help select supreme court and federal level judges."
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SEMPER PERATES.... OR SOME SUCH.,.. AND HE WASN'T EVEN A MARINE!

SO.......WHO ARE THEY?

Hmm, Yes, according to the New Republic, an Arizona publication.

KAT:

proposed judiciary committee has 48 individuals who all have pro-life convictions and will help select supreme court and federal level judges

So Alexander Solzhenitsyn heard John McCain's story and copied it.

Yep, I bet the Vietnamese guard told a Russian who told his buddy who worked in the Gulag who mentioned it to Solzhenitsyn. LOL. First the Packers now God. What won't he lie about?

HOLY SMOKE! The "cross in the dirt" story doesn't appear in anything McCain said or wrote until 1999 and is does sound very similar to what the Russian writer wrote in 1973.

If Obama did this you people would crawling so far up that only your feet would be visible.

Debra, Ellen Degeneres getting married won't stop McCain's mission of appointing pro-life judges to the Supreme and federal courts. He's unequivocally stated his opposition to Roe vs. Wade and has already selected 48 candidates, all who share his views, to his judiciary committee to appoint judges to the supreme and federal courts. If only the marriage of Ellen and Portia could portend continued reproductive choice for women!

McCain has been unequivocal in his position to overturn Roe vs Wade. His proposed judiciary committee has 48 individuals who all have pro-life convictions and will help select supreme court and federal level judges. As Tom Ridge asserts, his pro-abortion is inconsequential (to McCain's mission).

You can be a Republican and be pro choice...I have voted Rep, 80% of the time, but I still believe a woman has a right to choose. We'll never go back to pre Roe v. Wade days, not in today's sexualized culture. We never turn back the hands of time, just as we won't go back to the draft either. We're inching closer and closer to changing marriage laws and once that sticks, we won't change that back either. Hell Ellen Degeneres got married yesterday.

Mike, you are absolutely wrong. There are misguided individuals who go off the deep end. The Republican Party does not condone the acts that you describe. To the contrary 99.99% of us condemn these acts; and want the perpetrators to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

dl, I was only correcting the notion that abortions had gone up during these past 7 1/2 years. I gave NO conclusions or assumptions as to why that occurred. I just stated the fact.

Now as to my comment to Willem van Oranje, obviously individuals who faithfully practice abstinence cannot become pregnant. So to say that abstinence has a 100% failure rate is absolutely false. It is the only 100% fool proof method of pregnancy prevention. What he should have said was something on the order of abstinence only education is just as ineffective as "safe sex" education.

Ridge cannot be a real Republican until he recognizes the right to life of everyone except Democratic politicians (who Republicans think its ok to send anthrax to), or Obstetricians (who Republicans think its ok to blow the brains out of), or Unitarians (who the Republicans think its ok to murder in front of their kids).

Lots of talk Hillary is back in play because Obama is in real trouble this early.

Even Kerry was leading by near 10 points around this time 4 years ago.

It may be over for Obama. Heck, he was not really a credible candidate. He was created by the media like Paris & Britney.

If McCain chooses Mitt Romney, Michigan Colorado & Nevada may be out of play for Barack Obama. Throw in Florida and it's Game, Set and Match.

Barack Obama is in deep trouble. He is sliding in all the polls:

Here are the latest avgs from REAL CLEAR POLITICS:

Battleground States Obama McCain Spread
Colorado 45.3 45.8 McCain +0.5
Virginia 45.7 46.3 McCain +0.6
Missouri 45.0 47.3 McCain +2.3
Michigan 46.0 42.8 Obama +3.2
Ohio 45.3 46.8 McCain +1.5
Florida 45.4 47.2 McCain +1.8

DEAD EVEN IN GALLUP NATIONALLY

Ridge is the perfect partner for McCain.. the lame leading the blind. Maybe he will pass out some duct tape and plastic sheets as souvenirs of his tenure directing Homeland Security. I am surprised we haven't heard that Karl Rove, Ralph Reed or Phil Gramm are possible running mates since they are running his campaign from the sidelines. Why not . Mary Matalin for Secretary of State..Jason Corsi for Ambassador to the UN.... After eight nightmarish years of Bush it is astounding that there is any serious person who believes that a Bushie like McCain can run this country with or without the help of another blunderer like Ridge!! Enough is enough.

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"the cross in the sand doesnt prove anything for mccains religious strength! come on it said alot about the other guys but nada abut mccains what is he trying to prove?"
Melissa

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Of Course!

An epiphany can happen only once!

Remind Obama!

John McCain lied about the POW story how a guard drew a croos in the dirt he ripped it off a Russian who wrote about his time in the gulags in 1966. John McCain and Mark Salter are huge fans of this writer and they first told this story in 1999

McCain is obsessed by memories of an old war and visions of new ones. He is a scary old man.

and you all do realize how sarah weddington won roe vs. wade right?

just for information whether it be right or wrong...

that the us govt. long before roe vs. wade

...has never in any form or law...or notion recognized a fetus as a person.

she argues that the us census would have to start counting pregnant women as 2...and that she would have to be taxed twice...and that a pregnant woman would have to pay for 2 tickets on a plane...etc...

I was lucky enough to have dinner with Sarah Weddington when I was in college and she ran all this down for me.

It is a decision based on law of what the federal government recognizes as a life.

Whether it is morally wrong or not ...I don't know and I am glad I don't have to be put in that situation.

James Danley most experts believe that abortions have gone down for a number of reasons but seeing as we have one of the the highest levels of fertility in an industrialized nation ...it probably has little to do with abstinence and more about women deciding to keep the pregnancy to full term.

so please acknowlegdge the real statistics that most have seen come to those numbers...

and that drop has happened I will also say without criminalizing women and doctors.

Obama is right

Look at abortion rates around the world it has nothing to do with it's legality or illegality. Which means there is a high ratio that aboprtions won't go down they will just have to be done in predominantly worse ...secretive and illegal ways.

The problem we face is not criminalizing a similar number of the public...our issue should be first...getting the rate down ...like in countries like Japan and western europe where they see rates at 1/8 what we do.

but that has to do with the promotion of contraceptives in those countries...which the same group fights...ugh.

God must be so proud of those people who argue for abstinence and not contraceptices and then argue that women who get pregnant should be criminalized...if they falter.

sad sad sad the hypocrisy.

Willem van Oranje, according to the Guttmacher Institute's report, which came out in January, abortions in the U. S. in 2005 (the latest year in their study) dropped to 1.2 million--the fewest abortions since 1974.

Now then surely you jest when you wrote: "Abstinence has a 100% failure rate."

it is worth repeating this over and over again: countries or conservative cultures were abortion is illegal or heavily frowned upon have the highest abortion rates; countries were abortion is legal, have the lowest.
Liberal countries who have invested in proper sex education, have by far the lowest abortion rates (Netherlands, Belgium); conservative countries who have heavily invested in ‘abstinence’ education have far higher abortion rates (US). Under Reagan, Bush 1 and Bush 2, abortion rates went up; Clinton brought abortion rates down.
Abstinence has a 100% failure rate.

McCain can't risks his base by chosing a pro-choice VP candidate. This is the first time in a while Democrat is leading amongst people of faith. McCain can't risk the gap to widen.

So Alexander Solzhenitsyn heard John McCain's story and copied it.

Worried ?
Not worried.

Just curious. I would find it pretty chilling Mccain took a story he read in a book to make such a point to the audience, particularly when the truth of his courage in the Pow camp was powerful enough in itself.
It goes to the character issue. In itself, it doesn't change anything. But it would certainly show a side of john Mccain many people are not aware of ...

Pamela, are you really worried about McCain's cross-in-the-sand story?

First of all, drawing a cross is a fairly prevalent way of signaling that you're a Christian. The fact that it happened to one person doesn't mean that it didn't also happen to another.

Secondly, you're worried about this but you're not worried about Rev. Wright, Bill Ayers, "typical white" grandma, Tony Rezko, bitter people clinging to their religion, or a candidate who's totally unqualified for the office of president? How about the fact that Obama flipflops all over both sides of every issue to pander for votes? You're not worried about any of those things? Really?

After watching Obama's spiritual mentor for twenty years speak, I don't believe Obama has any spiritual convictions aside from hating "whitey."
If John McCain appoints a pro-abortion VP, I'll vote for him anyway. The abortion issue has cost the Republicans the majority female vote for too long anyway. Unless you try to force someone to have an abortion, it is legal and the indivudual who has their child removed and the doctor that destroys it must deal with their act agains the unborn.

the cross in the sand doesnt prove anything for mccains religious strength! come on it said alot about the other guys but nada abut mccains what is he trying to prove?

Ridge is saying that if something happened to McCain he would not become his own man, run his presidency by his own views, that he would follow McCain's lead even then? I don't think so.

like i said before how many of these pro- life people are willing to take in all the children that will flood the system? If not How many are willing to pay all of the cost to take care of these kids?
there is NO way that we are going to find enough people who are willing to foster/ adopt all these kids for the love of god we are having a hard time now!!
people want to stand on a pedestal and point fingers but my guess is few of these people have been part of the solution to the problem we already have and they want to add to!

Ridge is a "light weight".
Sorry folks.
Obama or McCain? We're screwed!

Mike
Could not have said it better my self now that is some truth amen!!!

Sounds like Ridge wants the vp slot pretty bad and McCain told him to go test the waters. Ridge probably popped to the top of the list by being a good soldier....but there will be an outcry tomorrow from the far right. This is probably the most important vetting that can be done. Tomorrow will be interesting. I'm betting the ploy fails.

Doesn't "Pro-Life" mean you're in favor of life as opposed to death? Then how can a person who professes to be passionately pro-life enjoy war as much as John McCain does? He says he hates war, but right now you can bet your bippy he's hoping we take Russia on and defeat them. He's a Pro-Life War-Monger!