Barack Obama Campaign Feuds With McCain Backer on Abortion, Judges
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
June 16, 2008
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — A Barack Obama campaign representative is feuding with a leading pro-life advocate over presidential candidate John McCain and judicial appointments. The debate came after McCain held a virtual town hall over the weekend where he said he wouldn’t have a litmus test on judges.
McCain contrasted his position with Obama’s — as his Democratic opponent has pledged to only nominate judges who will keep unlimited abortions legal another 35 years.
Obama campaign spokesman Hari Sevugan responded to the town hall by saying McCain has a litmus test as well — pledging to appoint pro-life judges who will allow abortion limits.
He pointed to a comment from pro-life advocate Gary Bauer, who told the New Yorker in 2005, "I wanted a commitment from … John McCain that if elected he would appoint pro-life judges to the Supreme Court. McCain, in private, assured me he would appoint pro-life judges."
Sevugan told CBN News that the quote shows an inconsistency in McCain’s message.
"In telling his conservative base one thing behind closed doors and independent voters another thing in public, John McCain’s raised serious questions about whether he can be trusted by either," he claimed.
But Bauer also talked with the Christian news service and said that McCain’s statement to him gave him the confidence that he would appoint judges open to allowing pro-life advocates to limit abortions.
"When I met privately with Senator McCain in 2000 he did not tell me that he would have a pro-life ‘litmus test’ for judges," Bauer explained. "Instead he described the type of judicial philosophy he would require in his judicial appointments. I interpreted that judicial philosophy to be one that would reject judicial activism."
Bauer told CBN News that it is Obama who has the extreme position on judges, not McCain.
"Senator Obama is the one with a credibility problem, not Senator McCain," Bauer said.
"Senator Obama says he wants a compassionate American where the ‘little guy’ is protected," Bauer said. "Instead he proudly supports partial birth abortion, and abortions in the last months of pregnancy. He abandons the littlest guy of all – our unborn children."
