Obama Speech for Pro-Abortion Candidate Coakley Disrupted by Pro-Life Heckler
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
January 18, 2010
Boston, MA (LifeNews.com) — A Sunday speech by pro-abortion President Barack Obama at a rally for pro-abortion Massachusetts senate candidate Martha Coakley was interrupted by a pro-life heckler. The pro-life advocate managed to tie up the speech for three minutes and eventually caused Obama to lose his place.
The rally took place at a venue at Northeastern University that holds 3,000, but only 2,000-2,500 turned up for the Obama event.
One participant was a pro-life advocate who, during the speech, help up a sign with fetal development pictures of unborn children and language saying, "Jesus Loves All Babies."
The crowd booed the man as he interrupted the speech and talked about how Obama has promoted abortion as president.
The heckler according to writer Rick Moran in The American Thinker, was able to completely fluster Obama.
"Of course, he was drowned out by Coakley supporters but our president seemed a bit taken aback that anyone would dare interrupt him and not be struck by a bolt of lightening," Moran wrote.
Moran was surprised that Obama appeared to be unable to handle the criticism.
"Watch Obama wait…and wait…and wait not quite knowing how to handle the situation and then, tellingly, losing his place on the teleprompter," he wrote.
Moran was also surprised by the low turnout.
"We are repeatedly being told over the last week or so that President Obama is still wildly popular in Massachusetts. The White House must have believed this since Obama decided to expend some capital and make a pitch for Martha Coakley on the ground yesterday in Boston," he said.
"But if Obama is so popular, why was the hall at Northeastern University where the president was scheduled to speak not bursting at the seams with good Democrats?" he wondered.
Conservative writer Ed Morrissey also commented.
"The big news here isn’t so much that a heckler appeared at a Coakley rally – with passions this high, it would have been news if one hadn’t – but that a series of hecklers threw Obama so far off his stride. It didn’t matter to the people who attended this rally, of course, but it’s a bit strange to see an experienced politician allow a couple of loud voices to interrupt for as long as this goes … and then to ask ‘Where were we?’" he wrote.
Justin Miller of The Atlantic also noted Obama’s off response.
"The Boston audience didn’t pay attention to Obama when a heckler harangued him. The president stopped speaking, looked at the heckler, tried repeatedly to return to script, then awkwardly said ‘We’re OK’ as the audience looked at the heckler," he recalled.
"Obama seemed as feckless to control the crowd as a substitute teacher can be to a class. You can dismiss this as a silly episode, but it shows clearly the president doesn’t like to fight and is not spontaneous," he added.
"If Coakley loses, Obama will have to get much tougher on the GOP than he was with that heckler. Otherwise, Coakley will be far, far from the last Democrat to lose this year," Miller concludes.
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See the video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJIg3c-rg3g
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