The President had an extended and apparently enjoyable vacation in August. While at Martha's Vineyard, he had time to read, reflect and step outside the constraints of the ideologues that generally surround him. Fantasize, for a moment, how Obama's September 8, Joint Session speech would have been received had liberal democrats listened to opening remarks that included discussion of the following doctrinal "change"...
The scene: The Joint Session of Congress, September 8, 2009.
After ten minutes of applause, screams, tears, and chants of "Yes, we can!", the President ignores the teleprompter and opens by stating that he is now opposed to...
Time stops and all in the Joint Session become frozen. The reader is flashed back to Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, August 2008...
While taking the kids to the Vineyard Vine's sponsored community fair, Obama saunters over to the National Right to Life booth. Initially in a defensive posture, his shoulders progressively lower as he flips through a pamphlet providing information on partial birth abortion. Despite the neighboring Planned Parenthood booth workers' attempts to pull the document from his hands (not to mention their attempts to have the Right to Life's models and illustrations removed from the fair as a whole on the grounds that they are offensive), Obama reviews illustrations of the procedure (http://www.nrlc.org/abortion/pba/ ). He then reads an excerpt from the text: "Partial-birth abortions are usually performed in the fifth and sixth months of pregnancy. Keep in mind that in the fifth and sixth months, premature labor usually results in live birth, and after the fifth month, many born-alive babies survive indefinitely."
Upon reflection at the cotton candy vendor, our now sticky-fingered President decides he regrets his 2001-2003 Illinois Senate "no" votes on legislation that would have defined any aborted fetus that showed signs of life as a "born alive infant". A "yes" vote would have entitled said infant to legal protection. In his mind, Obama plays back some of his words on the Illinois Senate floor in 2001:
Number one, whenever we define a pre-viable fetus as a person that is protected by the equal protection clause or the other elements in the Constitution, what we're really saying is, in fact, that they are persons that are entitled to the kinds of protections that would be provided to a - a child, a nine-month-old - child that was delivered to term. That determination then, essentially, if it was accepted by a court, would forbid abortions to take place. I mean, it - it would essentially bar abortions, because the equal protection clause does not allow somebody to kill a child, and if this is a child, then this would be an antiabortion statute. "
Even then, he understood that, in such a late term procedure, babies are at times born alive and thus, do not need to be killed in order to save the life of the mother.
While chilling at the beach, and after skimming Hot, Flat and Crowded by Thomas Friedman, a body guard hands Obama WON BY LOVE, the autobiography by Norma McCorvey. The Jane Roe of Roe v. Wade, McCorvey chronicles her journey from being vehemently pro-abortion, to becoming a Christian through the love of an eight year-old girl, to spending her life encouraging women to make pro-life choices. He is moved by the exploitation she experienced by the lawyers who represented her in the Supreme Court case and by the reasoning behind her extreme change in philosophy...
The reader is returned back to September in Washington. The characters are now unfrozen (though some appear unchanged)...
As Obama stands before the Congress, he states that he is now opposed to partial-birth abortion, and possibly abortion in general. He then details a few of the many consequences of his decision: A loss of millions of dollars from pro-abortion groups, the loss of certain feminist voting blocks, and Obama's conviction to now nominate constructionist Supreme Court judges, judges who note that, unlike most rulings, the Roe v. Wade case included no analysis of legal precedent nor any analysis of the Constitution and is therefore vulnerable. "Blasphemy," cries Harry Reid. Obama can palpate the death rays emanating from the Nancy Pelosi's eyes and onto his moist, upper back. Over the din of Republican, as well as a number of Democrat cheers, he wonders what Michelle is thinking.
