Abortion, Health Care “Reform,” and Obama’s Falling Popularity
Abortion, Health Care “Reform,” and Obama’s Falling Popularity
By Dave Andrusko
One recent headline read, “Will Obama Continue to Defy Gravity?” If he doesn’t, if politically he falls to earth, it will likely be in no small measure because his signature initiative—health care reform—crashed and burned.
Another headline (from the Associated Press) helps us understand why that this “reform” could be in grave danger: “Gov’t insurance would allow coverage for abortion.”
Pro-abortion
President Barack Obama
Richard Alonso-Zaldivar begins his story with a very telling observation. Thanks in large part to NRLC, the truth is ever-so-gradually making its way through rock-hard media resistance, rather like a dandelion breaking through a concrete sidewalk.
Alonso-Zaldivar wrote, “Health care legislation before Congress would allow a new government-sponsored insurance plan to cover abortions, a decision that would affect millions of women and recast federal policy on the divisive issue.”
A few paragraphs later he adds, “Advocates on both sides are preparing for a renewed battle over abortion, which could jeopardize political support for President Barack Obama’s health care initiative aimed at covering nearly 50 million uninsured and restraining medical costs.”
The August issue of National Right to Life News is chock-full of articles you need to read, both about the abortion-enhancing propensities of the proposed bills and the threat of rationing as well. If you are not a subscriber, call us at 202-626-8828 and we will get the issue out to you post-haste.
People on the Hill who are much savvier than I am always remind us to “follow the money.” Pro-abortionists may hem and haw, may (or may not) temporarily put part of their agenda on hold, and will for sure look to the heavens and vow that they are working diligently to find a “compromise.” (If you are looking for their truth quotient, take those assurances, divide by 10, and then multiply by zero.)
But access to hundreds of millions of dollars, parceled out to the likes of Planned Parenthood to grease the gears of the killing machine, this is not negotiable. Please remember that over the next month when you go to listen to your congressman and senators talk about their position on health care “reform.”
On a related note, you read the same stories I do, so you know pro-abortion President Barack Obama’s popularity, if not in free fall, is clearly heading south.
There are many ways of measuring that besides public opinion polls. Let me offer what’s going on in Virginia, the state my family lives in, as an object lesson.
Virginia and New Jersey are the only states with gubernatorial elections this year. We have a solid pro-life Republican and a pro-abortion Democrat. The headline the Washington Post speaks volumes: “Is Race for Governor More About Obama?”
The Democrat, R. Creigh Deeds, finds himself in the unenviable position of trying to keep the increasingly less popular Obama at arms length at the same time maintaining the loyalty of those Virginians who remain in the President’s camp.
“There is no empirical evidence at this point in Virginia’s race for governor showing that huge numbers of voters think like [a particular voter profiled in the story] and will respond by sending a message to Washington,” writes the Post this morning. “But Obama’s policies are nonetheless having immediate consequences in the campaign as the candidates adjust their strategies to account for the president’s controversial domestic agenda, which has overshadowed many state issues. “
I don’t know this for a fact, but I’m sure both Deeds and his Republican counterpart, Bob McDonnell, have done extensive polling and know exactly whether Obama is increasingly a life preserver, who will buoy Deeds, or an anchor, who will help drag Deeds down to defeat in November.
Final thought for today. Another article in the Post this morning is headlined, “Obama Returns to Grass Roots for Reform; White House Using Internet Campaigns to Try to Influence Health-Care Debate.” It details how Obama is going back to the future, to try to gear up the “online world of grass-roots activism” that was so important in his successful campaign “in an attempt to reclaim control of the debate.”
The difference is, of course, that his opponents, including pro-lifers, learned from Obama. NRLC is exponentially more effective in quickly countering the Obama message machine and, thanks to your help via social networking (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) getting that information distributed to an ever-growing network.
Keep reading TN&V and visit NRLC by clicking here. We need to be able to act just as quickly and as universally as the pro-abortionists.