THE CANDIDATE OF THE DEATH LOBBY:

Once-confident Dems nervous (Adam Nagourney, 8/24/08, The New York Times)

Obama's aides said they had learned from what they described as the mistake of the 2004 Democratic convention - when aides to Sen. John Kerry's campaign sought to forbid convention speakers from going after President Bush - and would use these four days to draw sharp contrasts with Sen. John McCain, particularly on the economy and McCain's opposition to abortion rights.

"The stakes of this election will be made very clear," said David Axelrod, Obama's chief strategist. "We are going to define the choice."

Even though we haven't elected an openly pro-abortion president since Richard Nixon, it probably isn't determinative. The problem for Senator Obama is that for someone who is such a cipher to heavily emphasize abortion runs the risk that he will become just the candidate of Death. That's just too creepy to reassure an uncertain electorate.

You can tell the McCain campaign welcomes this development from Maverick's radio address this week, John McCain Criticizes Barack Obama on Abortion, Opposing Infanticide Bill (Steven Ertelt, August 24, 2008, LifeNews.com)

Barack Obama may have captured the headlines over the weekend with his pick of pro-abortion running mate Joe Biden. But, presidential hopeful John McCain made news of his own with a weekly radio address containing his most extensive criticism yet of Obama on abortion issues.

McCain also waded into the heated debate over a bill that Obama opposed in the Illinois legislature that would offer medical care for newborns who survive botched abortions. [...]

"Senator Obama's carefully hedged answers obscure more than they explain, and this was the case in his conversation with Rick Warren," he said. "Listening to my opponent at Saddleback, you would never know that this is a politician who long since left behind any middle ground on the abortion issue."

"He is against parental notification laws, and against restrictions on taxpayer funding for abortions," McCain pointed out. "In the Illinois Senate, a bipartisan majority passed legislation to prevent the horrific practice of partial-birth abortion. Senator Obama opposed that bill, voting against it in committee and voting 'present' on the Senate floor."

Then, he brought up the Illinois bills and Obama's position putting him out of step with virtually all Americans.

"In 2002, Congress unanimously passed a federal law to require medical care for babies who survive abortions -- living, breathing babies whom Senator Obama described as, quote 'previable,'" McCain said. "This merciful law was called the Born Alive Infants Protection Act. Illinois had a version of the same law, and Barack Obama voted against it."

"At Saddleback, he assured a reporter that he'd have voted 'yes' on that bill if it had contained language similar to the federal version of the Born Alive Infants Protection Act," he explained. "Even though the language of both the state and federal bills was identical, Senator Obama said people were, quote, 'lying' about his record."

"When that record was later produced, he dropped the subject but didn't withdraw the slander. And now even Senator Obama's campaign has conceded that his claims and accusations were false," McCain said.

Senator Obama already chose a running mate who confirms the abortion extremist theme, can he really afford to run a convention that entrenches it in peoples' minds?

Posted by Orrin Judd at August 25, 2008 7:35 AM