It was only a matter of time before these ads started cropping up. As I wrote yesterday, every Republican running for office should use this epsiode to embarass and throw opponents off-message. Being forced to clarify that one opposes booing God and Jerusalem isn't exactly the political terrain on which most Democrats would prefer to fight. It must burn the Left that Rep. Allen West won the 'booing God' derby, especially since he's smartly exploiting their own revealing, self-inflicted wound:
Democrats need to do a better job of making sure their base conceals its true feelings, at least when the cameras are rolling. But it's not just the grassroots; it's the party bosses, too. Bloomberg's Margaret Carlson, no conservative, worries that Democrats' relentless abortion celebration in Charlotte is projecting a problematic message:
I hate to bring up abortion during the Democrats’ festivities, which are going so swimmingly, but I have a question. Why has the party removed the sentence “Abortion should be safe, legal, and rare” from its platform? It was in the 2004 document but not in 2008’s or this year’s. Can’t Democrats just throw a crumb to the many millions who are pro-choice but not pro-abortion? ... Democrats have gone too far in the other direction, threatening their hold on the great American middle ... show we are becoming a pro-life country; a slight majority likes to call itself that even though most Americans still support the pro-choice position in the first three months of pregnancy. For years, Republicans have pushed legislation designed to expose the moral quandaries inherent in abortion. They laid traps for Democrats, coming up with a grisly name -- partial-birth abortion -- and laws requiring doctors to provide medical care to any baby surviving a late-term abortion (Baby Born Alive acts).
With respect, the term 'partial birth abortion' isn't what's grisly. The procedure is. And Barack Obama fell into the 'Born Alive' trap because he's a radical on the issue. This convention perfectly encapsulates his views on abortion.