Time Magazine reporter Michael Scherer cranked out a doozy of an apology for Barack Obama's support of infanticide with a healthy dose of smear against John McCain and Sarah Palin today.
His article attempts to piece together Obama's record on the Born Alive Infant Protection Act, which has been largely obfuscated by Obama's own staff who have repeatedly distorted his position on the legislation.
For Townhall Magazine I wrote a lengthy piece describing Obama's out and out lies about his support of BAIPA. It is available for the first time on Townhall.com HERE.
My piece details how recently discovered documents from the Illinois state archives prove Barack Obama has lied about his opposition as an Illinois state senator to legislation requiring health officials to provide care to babies who survived abortion.
Obama has repeatedly claimed he would have voted for Illinois' version of the BAIPA had it included language to protect abortion rights guaranteed by Roe v. Wade, as the federal version of the bill did, which sailed through the U.S. Senate 98-0. Contrary to what Obama has said, forgotten records from the Illinois Senate archives show Obama did vote against a BAIPA bill that included such a neutrality clause virtually identical to the federal bill.
In Scherer's piece, titled "How Valid is Palin's Abortion Attack on Obama," Scherer says "without any clear context" Palin has "seemed to suggest that Obama supported a form of infanticide" by using words "carefully chosen for maximum effect, without employing any outright falsehoods" on the campaign trail and in a radio interview with Laura Ingraham.
In reality, Palin was quite explicit when she discussed Obama's record in Johnstown, Pennsylvania last week.
Senator Obama has voted against bills to end partial-birth abortion. In the Illinois Senate, a bipartisan majority passed legislation against that practice. Senator Obama opposed that bill. He voted against it in committee, and voted 'present' on the Senate floor…Most troubling, as a state senator, Barack Obama wouldn't even stand up for the rights of infants born alive during an abortion. These infants – often babies with special needs – are simply left to die….In 2002, Congress unanimously passed a federal law to require medical care for those babies who survive an abortion. They're living, breathing babies, but Senator Obama describes them as "pre-viable." This merciful law was called the Born Alive Infants Protection Act. Illinois had a version of the same law. Obama voted against it."
All of Palin's statements are accurate. On the Ingraham program Palin specifically attacked Obama for these votes adding, "I think if more Americans could understand how absolutely extreme that position is there would be a heckuva lot more outrage than we've already seen."
Scherer, however, believes Palin is deliberately distorting Obama's record and makes the same charge, using even the same words, against McCain. Oddly enough, in the very next sentence Scherer admits the charges are true.
"Like Palin's statements last week, McCain's radio address was carefully written to avoid outright falsehoods, while effectively misleading voters about the background of Obama's votes," Scherer writes. "It is true that Obama voted against a state bill that had language similar to a federal law."
It's very odd to me Scherer concludes McCain and Palin are the ones "misleading" voters about Obama's record on abortion. If anything, Obama's the one who has clearly misled voters, which is why I titled my piece "Obama's Infanticide Lie." Unlike the title of his piece, mine didn't end in a question mark.