Hidden messages in Obama ad

An ad has run quite a few times on the radio over the past few days, and it goes something like this. A mother’s voice says, “Eight times a day I have to test my daughter’s blood sugar, because she’s diabetic, and eight times a day I pray [her voice deepens] I pray for a cure. Obama supports stem cell research, but McCain is opposed to the stem cell research that could cure my little girl.”

Wow, so many subliminal messages in one ad! Where do I begin? First of all, the ad is profoundly dishonest. McCain SUPPORTS adult stem cell research, which is very-well funded, and which does indeed offer great medical promise. He opposes embryonic stem cell research. The ad does not make this distinction. (As it happens, embryonic stem cell research has proven unsuccessful — adult stem cells are far more promising.)

Now to identify the hidden messages: #1. Liberals pray too (“Eight times a day I PRAY”) so religious people shouldn’t be afraid of Democrats. #2 Abortion is a GOOD thing — it can save children’s lives. #3 Ergo, pro-lifers do not hold the moral high ground, just the opposite — they are directly harming sick children and dashing their hopes. #4 Conservative Christians are religious nuts who are callous to children’s suffering.

Once you identify all the messages, refuting them is unnecessary. The one point about this that I find most fascinating is the unconscious discomfort that pro-choicers still feel about abortion. In so many ways pro-lifers do seem to hold the moral high ground — and Sarah Palin’s allowing her Down’s Syndrome baby to live underscores this. So pro-choicers have to find ways to calm their uneasy conscience. But the fact that the ad did not use the words “embryonic” or “abortion” is very telling.

The only thing I want to add is that it’s possible Jewish law would permit embryonic stem cell research, provided the cells were taken from a very early-stage embryo. Jewish law does not agree with those Christians who think that there is a full human being present from the moment a sperm enters an egg cell. Were Roe v Wade ever to be overturned, the issue would go back to all fifty state legislatures, and would be decided in fifty different ways by the normal democratic process. All or most states would permit the “morning after pill” and all would permit abortion under varying circumstances, some a bit more restrictive and some a bit less.

Right now despite our differing beliefs about when, exactly, life begins, we must recognize that it is the pro-life side and not the pro-“choice” side that does in fact hold the moral high ground. Our Torah says, “Choose life.” It is no small thing to turn a blind eye to the suffering of millions of human souls whose lives are snuffed out each year, many of them past the point of viability, just because their parents find it inconvenient to let them live.

Fortunately we don’t have to snuff out these lives in order to advance medical research. The choice between the life of an unborn baby vs the life of a little girl with diabetes is a false choice. The true choice is the choice between a culture of pleasure and death vs a culture of responsibility and life.

You may also like...

24 Responses

  1. Ezzie says:

    Where in that ad did you see any implication of abortion!?!

  2. Elad says:

    “Our Torah says, “Choose life.””

    Hm, I have a problem with this quote. It’s taking something from the Torah and making it incredibly simple to fit a political agenda. Exactly the opposite of why we study the Torah. In truth, there are a few instances where abortion is permissible, and even necessary, in the Torah. There are even opinions that life doesn’t begin until 40 days into pregnancy. And this is an orthodox opinion.

    I think it is important that we as Jews do not let our politics become our religion and to remember that the strength of us as a people is to be able to see past the black and white to truth.

  3. brian says:

    I came to this article via a link and am unaware of your prior comments on life issues .. that said I commend you and wish you all the best in unmasking Obama ,, he is an unabashed Marxist ,, he is currently pressuring states AG’s in Missouri to conduct brownshirt like criminal investigations on anyone who says anything against him and he is threatening first ammendment rights in many states by insinuating that TV stations broadcast licenses may be revoked if they don’t stop running NRA adverts and he gains power …

    Abortion is a holocaust greater than “the holocaust” ,, 1 billion dead worldwide in 40 years vs about 14 million … I don’t know how God will deal with this but Obama is no friend of the people,, born or unborn.

  4. KansasGirl says:

    Here we go again. This is similar to John Edwards saying Christopher Reeves would walk again if only we would elect him for President. Amazing how people actually believe this tripe.

  5. Ori says:

    Embryonic stem cell research is legal, in the same way that religious day schools are legal. You can do it, you just have to pay for it without using taxes. Given how much money a diabetes cure would generate, I don’t see why the pharmaceuticals aren’t researching it – unless they don’t think it’ll actually generate such a cure.

    Besides, our DNA is very similar to chimpanzee DNA. Why isn’t anybody researching chimp embryonic stem cells? Only the Catholic members of PETA would object ;-).

  6. Paul, Just This Guy, You Know? says:

    I’m sorry to point out that Sen. Obama’s ad is even more dishonest than you’ve acknowledged. Sen. McCain recently ran an ad reiterating his support for stem cell research.

    When asked, his spokesman confirmed that this included support for embryo-destructive stem cell research. Despite his promising remarks on the topic at Saddleback, McCain has a history of supporting federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, which has not changed. I wish this were not true.

  7. Chaim Fisher says:

    Of course liberals pray. What’s wrong with that?

    Did the Jewish Republicans patent prayer now?

  8. LOberstein says:

    It hurts to be a Democrat who might actually “pull the lever”(figuratively because we don’t have those kinds of machines in Maryland anymore) for the Republican this time. I find the whole election business very disgusting. The people who make a living creating ads are scum of the earth, lower than slugs.They distort everything and have no morals or values ,except making money by lying.
    For example, any legislator votes for the same bill numerous times until the final version is passed. Sometimes he votes for or against it because there is something he doesn’t want in the final bill. These lowlifes then distort the vote to say the candidate voted against something good. Obama didn’t vote for sex eduction in kindegarden, he voted for age appropriate lessons in avoiding sexual predators. This was distorted. Both sides are guilt as sin and there is no redeeming quality,unless winning is the only thing that matters.
    It isn’t McCain or Obama, it is the whole class of political operatives wo make a living from this and dream up worse ways to distort someone’s position. They lie because they find a kernal of truth to distort. It is the corruption that comes from unlimited money spent on political campaigns. If anyone honestly believes that either candidate will change Washington, then you are naive . Washington wins because there is the permanent political class and the figurehead politicians come and go. On that note HAVE A HAPPY AND HEALTHY NEW YEAR.\ or as we said back in Alabama ” A gut gebenchte yohr”

  9. Adamchik says:

    You guys are much better when discussing halakha or hashkafa.

    Politics is a dirty business. You don’t want to even go to a discussion of how poor McCain’s judgment is – even Kathleen Parker over at National Review (yes, that National Review) is calling for Palin’s resignation.

    And the Wall Street Journal (yes, that Wall Street Journal) said in a stinging editorial, that, McCain “can probably get to the bottom of the whole [economic] mess just by cross-examining the people riding on his campaign bus”:

    This is a disaster all of the way around – you don’t want to get involved in a political discussion, do you?

  10. Charles B. Hall says:

    “it’s possible Jewish law would permit embryonic stem cell research”

    Not just possible: The OU and RCA support federal funding of embryonic stem cell research:

    http://www.rabbis.org/news/article.cfm?id=100553

    They also support cloning research under limited conditions:

    http://www.ou.org/public_affairs/article/ou_rca_joint_statement_on_cloning_research_jewish_tradition_public_policy/

    It is also worth noting Rabbi Dr. Moshe Tendler’s position on this issue; here is an example from one of his many public statements on the issue:

    ““Our stance is based on the laws of the Torah. Unlike Catholicism, where a pope has the authority to change the law, you can’t add or subtract from our position,” Tendler said.

    “Christian theology says human life begins when sperm cells fertilize an egg, even in utero, but we cannot consider it human tissue if it is in a petri dish outside a woman’s body,” he said. “They call it abortion, but we call it medical therapy.” ”

    http://www.njjewishnews.com/njjn.com/2005/031705/mwmulti.html

    John McCain used to support embryonic stem cell research, but his campaign internet site does not indicate that he supports it anymore, and he opposes cloning:

    http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/Issues/95b18512-d5b6-456e-90a2-12028d71df58.htm

    I’ve seen reports that he may be running an ad in some parts of the country in which he says that he *does* support embryonic stem cell research, but since I live in a blue county in a blue city in a blue state, and don’t watch television, I haven’t seen it. Notwithstanding obfuscation and distortions from both sides, it may well be that on this issue Sen. Obama is closer to the OU/RCA position than Sen. McCain.

    ‘All or most states would permit the “morning after pill” and all would permit abortion under varying circumstances, some a bit more restrictive and some a bit less.’

    About half of all state legislatures will vote to ban almost all abortion within a year if Roe v. Wade is overturned, and most will likely make only one exception: To save the life of the mother, as that is the standard position of most anti-abortion groups in the US. (But not elsewhere: In Nicaragua the government, at the behest of the Catholic Church, banned abortions under even when the mother’s life is at risk.) And anti-abortion groups including the American Life League consider most hormonal contraceptives, including the “morning after pill” drugs, to be forms of abortion. (I won’t post a link to their site because there is a fair amount of inaccurate information there and I don’t want to put a stumbling block before the blind, especially on Erev Rosh Hashanah.)

    What I don’t understand is why people don’t look at the countries that have really low abortion rates to see what they are doing that is different. This summer I had a nice conversation with a statistician from the Netherlands, which in most surveys shows the lowest rate of abortions among countries with reliable statistics — and this despite the fact that abortions are free to Dutch citizens, paid for by the universal health insurance. (Their rate is roughly half that of the United States. Israel’s rate is much closer to that of the Netherlands than to that of the US.) She said that the culture there is that couples don’t have sex unless they are trying to conceive a child or are using birth control, and that there has been consensus from most of society to promote this ethic. I’ve often thought that the way to change society is from the ground up rather than from top down and this would seem to be evidence for that: Change the culture, not the law.

    It might also be worth mentioning that the reported abortion rate in the US has declined somewhat in recent years; I don’t know whether those statistics include medical abortions using methotrexate of mifepristone, though. Medical abortions can be performed much earlier in pregnancy and thus may raise fewer halachic issues.

  11. Ori says:

    LOberstein: I find the whole election business very disgusting.

    Ori: That’s because you compare it to things that are healthy and sane. Politics is more like a lunatic asylum, a maximum security prison, or a criminal interrogation room. It’s a dirty, nasty job that has to be done, lest it spill over and pollute the entire society.

    I believe we are doing a good job of it, relatively speaking. In most places, and in most times through history, political change was bloody. The peaceful transitions we have are actually the exception.

    Shana Tova ve Gmar Chatima Tova

  12. mycroft says:

    Yahadus is not liberal nor conservative, it is not GOP or Democratic-Yahadus is a system that attempts to spread dvar hashem-the word of God. We should certainly try and spread it by proper behavior so that all will say “Blessed is the God of x” x referring to any Jew especially one known as an observant Jew. We are approaching Rosh Hashana where such ideas predominate where we paray for kingdom of hashem over ALL MANKIND.
    There is much positive in the ideas spread by Cross-Current writers-it does not advance the cause to enter the political thicket.

  13. YM says:

    What concerns me is the “partial birth abortions”; the only thing false about this phrase is the word “partial” – the baby is born alive and then killed or thrown in the garbage. At the same time, much sicker babies are rushed to the NICU and saved. The only difference between “delivery” and “abortion” here are what they are going to do to the baby after it is born. Mr. Obama voted against banning this practice; I guess he feels that as long as the baby hasn’t been born yet, it is ok to induce delivery and then kill the baby. Note that at this point in time, a baby weighing 500 grams can now live because of advances in neonatal intensive care.

  14. One Christian's perspective says:

    Thank you for a beautiful article that glorifies G-d.

    I have a very good friend who is alive today after receiving an adult stem cell transplant from her living sister for treatment of non-Hodgkins lymphoma in 2001.

    You know praying for a cure was my first reaction but it was the day I was driving home from bible study while listening to someone give thanks to G-d for her purse being stolen in a foreign land that jolted me awake. This she did at every stop at every agency in route to reclaiming her identity, her passport, her airline tickets, her money. G-d provided everything she needed and more. When I listened to this testimony, I said to myself “I could never thank God that my friend has lymphoma”.

    Yet, I couldn’t bring myself to drive straight home and forget this testimony. It was like a stone in my shoe. I continued to drive around for almost an hour praying through this test of my faith. In the end, I came to the conclusion that everything G-d does is good and He hears prayers of those who love Him. With a gulp and with a snippet of faith, I thanked Him that my very good friend had lymphoma and I placed her in His hands and thanked Him for watching over my friend as no one else could. Today, in looking back on those hard days, I can still see His hand on my friend as she walked through the valley of the shadow of death many times. When her port tested positive for a raging infection, it was found to be free of every trace when retested a few days later as the technician scratched his head in disbelief and her doctors sent her home. When planes were flying into buildings on 9-11, we prayed the 23rd Psalm. There have been and continue to be many examples of of G-d’s mercy and grace. We don’t always see the green pastures…..at first.

    Today, my friend has been asked to be in a study by NIH to see why her experience of graft vs host was so very minimal. She continues to thrive with her sister’s immune system and has not had one one asthma attack. Her sister, a science teacher, continues to share with her science students their experience and takes their very interesting and deep questions back to the NIH doctors.

    I am not a scientist by a long shot and wouldn’t even begin to understand why adult stem cells seem to be advantageous but I like to think that G-d honors those who honor Him.

  15. Toby Katz says:

    “Where in that ad did you see any implication of abortion!?!”

    Comment by Ezzie

    When the ad falsely said, McCain opposes stem cell research.

    ======

    “Our Torah says, “Choose life.””

    “Hm, I have a problem with this quote. It’s taking something from the Torah and making it incredibly simple to fit a political agenda. ”

    Comment by Elad

    People keep expecting every five-paragraph post to be a whole book complete with footnotes. As Hillel said, “Love your fellow as yourself. The rest is commentary. Now go and study”

    =============

    “I think it is important that we as Jews do not let our politics become our religion ”
    Comment by Elad

    I agree 100%. That’s one of the reasons I am so opposed to the Conservative and Reform movements.

    ==========================================

    “I came to this article via a link and am unaware of your prior comments on life issues .. that said I commend you and wish you all the best in unmasking Obama ”
    Comment by brian

    Thank you! What link was it?

    ===============

    “I’m sorry to point out that Sen. Obama’s ad is even more dishonest than you’ve acknowledged. Sen. McCain recently ran an ad reiterating his support for stem cell research.

    ….McCain has a history of supporting federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, which has not changed. I wish this were not true.”

    Comment by Paul, Just This Guy, You Know?

    To get a bit more into the nitty gritty, McCain in the past has supported embryonic stem cell research using cells from early-stage embryos (tiny balls of cells up to two weeks after conception) that were created in IVF clinics and would otherwise have been discarded. He is opposed to using stem cells obtained via abortion, or creating embryos JUST to destroy them and do research on them. He obviously does not agree with the strict Catholic position that destroying a ball of cells in a petri dish IS abortion. Jewish law would seem to agree with McCain’s position re using cells from a two-week ball in an IVF clinic.

    ================

    Of course liberals pray. What’s wrong with that?

    Comment by Chaim Fisher

    Liberals should pray more.

    =======================

    “The people who make a living creating ads are scum of the earth, lower than slugs.They distort everything… Obama didn’t vote for sex eduction in kindegarden, he voted for age appropriate lessons in avoiding sexual predators. This was distorted.
    …On that note HAVE A HAPPY AND HEALTHY NEW YEAR.\ or as we said back in Alabama ” A gut gebenchte yohr”

    Comment by LOberstein

    Actually the PRO-Obama spin was distorted. He didn’t /only/ support age appropriate lessons on avoiding sexual predators, as the spin machine now says. The bill he supported also called for “age appropriate” lessons in accepting deviant lifestyles, beginning in kindergarten, and explicitly called for the schools to counter parental and societal influence if the parents are deemed to be “bigots” i.e., if the parents think that homosexual activity is sinful.

    “HAVE A HAPPY AND HEALTHY NEW YEAR.\ or as we said back in Alabama ‘A gut gebenchte yohr’ ”

    You too, and Shana Tova to all our readers!

  16. Toby Katz says:

    “What concerns me is the “partial birth abortions”; the only thing false about this phrase is the word “partial” – the baby is born alive and then killed or thrown in the garbage.”

    Comment by YM

    This is not correct. Partial birth abortion is a late-term abortion done in a particularly gruesome way in order to make absolutely certain that the baby will NOT be born alive. Its purpose is to obviate the need to make that messy decision, whether to rush the preemie to the NICU or put him in the garbage chute.

    In partial birth abortion, labor is induced and then the baby is delivered feet first and then, before the head is delivered, the abortionist reaches in with forceps and crushes the baby’s skull, and then completes the delivery of the baby.

    Because the baby’s head is the hardest part to deliver, crushing the skull also makes this delivery a teeny bit easier on the mother, but the main advantage is to make sure that the baby is born dead. This procedure is so gruesome that even many liberal pro-choicers are opposed to it. Those in favor of it falsely claim that the procedure is rare and is only done to save the mother’s life, but both of those claims are false.

  17. Barry Simon says:

    I am disappointed to see warmed over rightwing talking points with a rather weak connection to Jewish issues on Cross-Currents but even more disappointed that you have some important facts wrong, especially those relevant to the connection to Jewish issues.

    “As it happens, embryonic stem cell research has proven unsuccessful — adult stem cells are far more promising”. This is just plain wrong. What has been a surprise is that adult stem cells are more promising than expected relative to embryonic but it remains that embryonic are more promising. Moreover, the real point is that this is basic research and without doing the research we don’t know what will work. Anyhow, I’d be interested if the author has any evidence to cite in favor of her assertion.

    “Abortion is a GOOD thing”. Huh. The author seems to be under the impression that embryonic stem cells come from aborted fetuses – that is, embryos that were once implanted in a woman. This is just false. Embryonic stem cells come from the detritus of in vitro fertilizations. Basically, more eggs are fertilized outside the body in an in vitro procedure than can be used. The extra ones are destroyed. Instead of destroying them, they can be harvested for experiment to produce lines of embryonic stem cells.

    The sad thing is that while this has nothing to do with abortion and even if you believe every time a human egg is fertilized, it produces a life, your objection should be to in vitro fertilization. The con argument is entirely that this is a slippery slope.

    Finally, while I am not a Rabbi, it is clear the halacha has no objection to using eggs fertilized outside the body. If you want to use “choose life”, the choice here is to favor potentially lifesaving embryonic stem cell research.

    By the way, you’ll notice my discussion, like the article has almost nothing to do with Jewish issues. I am baffled that Cross-Currents has decided to publish political attacks that have nothing to do with its core function.

    Barry Simon
    IBM Professor of Mathematics and Theoretical Physics
    Caltech
    (affiliation for identification purposes only)

  18. Toby Katz says:

    “Abortion is a GOOD thing”. Huh. The author seems to be under the impression that embryonic stem cells come from aborted fetuses – that is, embryos that were once implanted in a woman. This is just false. Embryonic stem cells come from the detritus of in vitro fertilizations. Basically, more eggs are fertilized outside the body in an in vitro procedure than can be used. The extra ones are destroyed. Instead of destroying them, they can be harvested for experiment to produce lines of embryonic stem cells.

    Comment by Barry Simon — October 5, 2008 @ 1:20 am

    _____________

    You seem to have assumed that I was thoughtlessly using right-wing talking points before reading what I wrote, and therefore you did not read it or did not understand it.

    You do not seem to have read this: “The only thing I want to add is that it’s possible Jewish law would permit embryonic stem cell research, provided the cells were taken from a very early-stage embryo. Jewish law does not agree with those Christians who think that there is a full human being present from the moment a sperm enters an egg cell.”

    Furthermore, the point I was trying to make is that it is Obama and those who create his ads who are falsely trying to create the impression that a fetus must be destroyed in order for stem cell research to be carried on. They are the ones who are trying to make the case that if you are opposed to abortion, you are preventing cures for diseases like diabetes. To put it another way, THEY — the liberals — are trying to make the case that being pro-choice is a GOOD thing because abortion will bring about great advances in medicine.

    http://www.cbhd.org/resources/stemcells/mcconchie_2004-06-16.htm

    and

    http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1724391/posts

    There are literally several thousand google entries on this subject, you can spend hours reading if you like. As a professor of math and physics, you probably don’t follow medical research that closely, or it would not have come as such a surprise to you to hear that embryonic stem cell research so far has yielded only very disquieting results. Attempts to treat Parkinson’s or diabetes with embryonic stem cells have only resulted in tumors forming in lab animals. Adult stem cell research has proven far more promising.

  19. Eytan Kobre says:

    Barry Simon:

    1) You wrote that “I’d be interested if the author has any evidence to cite in favor of her assertion.” For starters, see Maureen Condic’s piece “What We Know About Embryonic Stem Cells” in the January 2007 issue of First Things. Admittedly, I don’t know what the state of research is since then.

    2) You wrote that Mrs. Katz’ post had almost no connection to “Jewish issues” nor to Cross Currents’ “core function.” What is your notion of that “core function” and how do you define “Jewish issues”?

    3) Might your displeasure with Mrs. Katz’ post have something to do with your characterization of that post as “warmed-over right-wing talking points” and “political attacks”?

  20. Charles B. Hall says:

    One reason that embryonic stem cell research has produced few results is that it takes years, sometimes decades, for basic research to be translated into clinical practice. But another reason is that the Bush administration’s executive order banning funding for any new stem cell lines. Basic medical research is expensive and of course there would be little success when there is little funding. Another significant cultural issue is that a grant from the National Institutes of Health is looked upon as much more prestigious than a grant from a private foundation; the best junior researchers who want to advance their careers of necessity steer themselves into research that the National Institutes of Health is willing to fund.

    The politicization of scientific research by the Bush administration has been unprecedented, and either McCain or Obama would represent a tremendous improvement based on their public statments. Here is an example:

    http://www.sciencedebate2008.com/www/index.php?id=42

    Note that in his response to this questionnaire, McCain expresses support for federal funding of embryonic stem cell research.

    To Ori who asked why pharmaceutical companies do not do embryonic stem cell research: They have to concentrate on research that has a high probability of producing a profitable therapy in the short to medium term, as they have an obligation to their investors to be profitable. They do not have extensive expertise in basic research areas such as this and would be unlikely to want to devote scarce financial resources to this area. And regarding your suggestion to use chimpanzee stem cells there are two problems. First, chimpanzees are an endangered species! Second, there are huge concerns regarding cross-species transplants. We do not know what diseases exist in chimpanzees that could wreck havoc in human populations. Indeed HIV has been shown to have originated in chimpanzees and crossed into humans. The reason that the Bush administration’s “approved” embryonic stem cell lines can not be used in humans is that they have been exposed to mouse tissue.

    And as I implied earlier, as far as Jews are concerned, embryonic stem cell research has nothing to do with abortion. Toby, you wrote: “Obama and those who create his ads who are falsely trying to create the impression that a fetus must be destroyed in order for stem cell research to be carried on.” But as far as the Catholic Church and some (not all) Protestant churches are concerned, that impression is not false at all! The Catholic Church claims that every single one of those frozen embryos is a full human. Judaism does not agree. Should we be promoting a Catholic position incompatible with ours?

  21. Chaim Fisher says:

    I do not understand. First Ms. Katz gets mad at Obama for running ads encouraging prayer, then she says liberals should pray more.

    I guess those lib’rals can’t get nothin’ right.

  22. Steve Brizel says:

    I agree with Mycroft, Drs. Simon and Hall, regardless of who I will vote for, which remains my choice and right as an American citizen. We tend to forget that the same Torah contains Shemittah, Yovel and that Chazal instituted Pruzbul. IMO, one cannot and should not claim that Halacha is liberal, conservative, Democratic or Republican in nature. To do so is about as mistaken as rabbis siding with socialists in 19th Century Russia, rabbis in the US claiming that either the North or the South was correct during the Civil War or writing a letter to Hitler Yimach Shmo and hoping that he would protect the Jews of Germany against Communists ( i.e. Seredei Aish). FWIW, there is a lot of historical evidence that documents all of the above instances of rabbis conflating Judaism with any one political trend or lending the support of halacha exclusively to any one trend, all of which if were read today, would seem at the least mistaken and extraordinarily embarassing to other educated readers.

    One cannot seriously maintain that stem cell research is against Halacha and that the Halachic position on abortion approximates either the right to life or reproductive rights perspectives. IMO, it is a grave misnomer to claim that either perspective is embraced by Halacha.

  23. LOberstein says:

    http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/clips/vp-debate-open-palin-biden/727421/

    This is the link to the Saturday Night Live version of the Biden-Palin Debate. Tina Fey, who plays Palin does an excellent job, she is really talented. She looks and sounds just like her and makes Palin seem very unfit to be President. Unfortunately, there is a kernel of truth in the comedy. Up until recently in American history, nobody said a Vice President had to be qualified to take over on day one as President. This is a new standard . Palin is a great asset as a speaker and she attracts the biggest crowds but she is really not ready for running the USA. Unfortunately, neither is the next President, Barak Obama. He is going to win, that is the long and the short of it. The economy is in bad shape and the in party is getting blamed.
    I don’t know if there is a Democratic or a Republican solution, there has to be a bi-partisan solution.

    My prediction as of this moment is that there will be a Democratic landslide on November 4 and that the Democrats will have such a majority in both houses of congress that they will bear full responsibility for the economy and for all the other issues. I hope they use this power wisely and find solutions.

    What worries me is that the Arabs will buy up the US economy. Stocks are so low that the Arabs can come in and buy up controlling shares of major industries. They are taking our gas money and buying our country from under us in plain sight. This could be the start of a major decline of the United States as a world leader. If this happens, it won’t be the fault of Obama alone, because the Republicans have a major share in getting us into this mess. We needed to achieve energy independence a long time ago but we were not allowed to by those who were paid off to keep us dependent. The lobbyists for the energy companies and the foreign oil producers colluded to keep us dependent on foreign oil and now we are dependent on others to help bail us out of this mess. It is a shame.

    Lately, I am seriously thinking of voting for the Democrats including for President. The Republicans got us into this mess and they gave us very poor leadership. Now, let’s let the other guys clean it up. I don’t care for Obama but look what 8 years of Bush got us.

    I want to point out the importance of Saturday Night Live. Tina Fey has actually planted doubts in my “sophisticated” mind about Palin. I know she is just an actress, but there is too much truth in her ridicule. It has an effect. I do not know what , if anything, can change the outcome. The only hope the Republicans have is planting doubts about Obama in the minds of white working class Americans. If that happens, they have a chance,but not unless the stock market starts to recover in the next few weeks and big time.
    What do you think?

    ——————————————————————————–

  24. Charles B. Hall says:

    In the interest of full disclosure I should mention that my employer conducts stem cell research.

    I personally have not collaborated on any research involving stem cells of any type.

Pin It on Pinterest

Share This