Another Traditional Cultural Value at Risk in this Election

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1815820715/bctid1822459319

Dad

Here's why the candidates' stances on abortion will not determine my vote in this election. . .

I am vigorously opposed to abortion. I think it is a grave (yet, forgivable) sin in all but very rare circumstances, involving rape, incest and the life of the mother. I think the doctrine of the church is completely clear on this. I also think that Church doctrine, when understood, does not allow for one to be "personally against" abortion, while maintaining that it should be legal in order to protect "freedom of choice".

That all said, I will not base my vote solely on the abortion issue for at least two reasons.

First, I'm not convinced McCain is as committed to the issue as some may think. I recognize that he has a track record of anti-abortion votes. I also acknowledge that he has made the standard claim -- made by all Republicans seeking the nomination -- that he will appoint another "Scalia". I have read press articles, however, that lead me to believe that he does not like to discuss the issue, and does not want to make it a centerpiece of his campaign. That makes me think that it is not a super-important issue to him.

This impression is under-girded by McCain's history of not advocating for conservative judicial nominees who were on the record as believing that Roe v. Wade was bad law. I'm speaking of his involvement with the infamous "Gang of 14" -- a group of Republican and Democratic senators that banded together to prevent the filibuster of Bush's nominees in the senate, as well as the procedural mechanism threatened by the Republican leadership (a/k/a the "nuclear option"), which would have allowed them to avoid such filibusters and appoint the nominees. As a result of the actions of the Gang of 14, several qualified anti-abortion nominees were not confirmed. If McCain was a true believer, why did he do this?

Second, I believe that at this point in time -- over 30 years after Roe v. Wade was decided -- the president has little control over the abortion jurisprudence of the country. For at least the last 16 years, I have heard how each election is "the most important ever" because it could effect abortion rights. Nevertheless, there have not been any landmark changes in abortion jurisprudence since at least 1988. (I recognize that there have been cases dealing with it since then). All of the cases decided for the last 20 years, have applied the Roe v. Wade framework.

Moreover, there is no guarantee that a certain appointee to the Supreme Court will even vote to over turn Roe v. Wade, if given the chance. Look at Reagan (O'Connor and Kennedy) and Bush I (Souter), both of whom appointed justices who voted to uphold the Roe v. Wade framework. It goes to show that, despite the promises of the politicians, getting the Court to overturn a landmark decision that has been in place for 30-plus years is a difficult proposition, and will be come more difficult as the years pass. (It is much more likely that the conservatives on the Court will leave the decision intact, and try instead to narrow its impact over time. Some commentators have suggested that this is Chief Justice John Robert's intent.)

In light of this history, I feel that, while both sides use the abortion issue as a means to rally the base and fundraise, it is likely that neither candidate really believes that he will be able to do anything about the state of the law. I hope that I might be wrong about this, but I'm not sure enough about it to base my vote for the presidency entirely on it. I think there are a number of other issues that deserve attention.

RZA

Melanie I am sorry to hear about your layoff experience. Of course we will keep you and
Ryan in our prayers. I know the Lord will bless you.

I, for one apparently, love Sarah Palin. She is fiesty and sharp enough to be President. I am
voting for her! Obama is very articulate but lacks any real knowledge of the world. I don't
like his dismissive attitude about Rev. Wright and Ares. They both have proven to be radical
individuals who one has tried to destroy a government facility and kill Americans and the other has expressed hate for white americans. It makes me feel like Obama is hiding his
true self. In other words "say anything to get elected". Biden is a jerk and a liar. Also blatantly
lies indicating he thinks that the means justify the end result. I have great respect for McCain
and what he suffered in Vietnam. You know that he has a great love for this country. I like
the fact that he has made legislation choices that many say were wrong. That shows guts!
I would imagine that after returning to the U.S. after what he experienced in Vietnam probably was a difficult adjustment and I wouldn't blame him if he had a hard time returning to normalcy. As far as taxes and important decisions in the White House, any president has
great ideas but relies a number of advisors to put the ideas on paper and then get it to the
legislators.

Sara Palin has the ability to look forward and has proven that she can get things done.
She and McCain are my picks this time!

mom

See Jon, I might not be the only crazy liberal in this family

My political views right now: still undecided, but I think Tina Fey does a great job of imitating Sarah Palin.

I was just going to let you all know that I got laid off this week. I feel like I'm back at square one and I'm headed for months of discouraging unemployment. I did not really like my job but sometimes the safety of having a job is better then not having one. It wouldn't really have been that bad but my boss handled everything very poorly and insulted me on many levels. Please remember Ryan and me in your prayers.

thanks.

Reasons why RBB is leaning towards Obama

1. Mitt Romney – Meg Whitman 2012

2. Convention Music—There was no rap music at Obama's convention. At the Dem convention, I heard Stevie Wonder and a good house band. The Republican convention used a Van Halen song as the theme, which was good as well. I’m sorry to break this to you RMB, but there is nothing wholesome about the country music industry.

3. Education—I don't get why Right-wingers hold Obama's education against him. Obama was an underprivileged kid, with no connections to military commanders or country club elitists. Obama excelled at Columbia and Harvard Law School. Whatever role affirmative action may have played in Obama's gaining entry to Columbia and Harvard Law School is irrelevant as his record indicates excellence. In contrast, McCain was lazy, insubordinate, and a problem kid at the Naval Academy. McCain has been spoon-fed every position he has held. I want someone in the Oval Office who reads, thinks, and can analyze. Leadership is not merely decisive action, but should be well-informed decisive action that produces the best result. The latter requires more brain power than McCain is capable.

4. The next few years are going to be an era centered around the drafting of new regulations and laws regarding the destructive, haphazard, and under-regulated mortgage industry. We need a president who can understand the legal principles contained in the regulations as the president is responsible for signing them in. This task is over McCain's head and perfect for someone who excelled in a legal career.

5. Character Issue—McCain has remarked that his years as a POW changed him. But when he returned, McCain took advantage of his fame, cheating on his wife with multiple women only to settle down when he found "the right one," who also happened to be an heiress to a large beer fortune and who was addicted to pain killers. What do the Brethren think of McCain's twenty years of infidelity or Cindy McCain's willingness to sleep with a married man and dependence on illegally prescribed drugs? Obama has been forthright about his experimentation with drugs as a teenager. I guess this is the difference between McCain and Obama: McCain has a forty-year history of poor character whereas Obama has a brief history of drug abuse in his teenage years and no evidence of infidelity. The Right shouldn't make arguments against Obama's character when McCain has proven to be just as immoral as Bill Clinton.

6. McCain’s VP selection was shortsighted. I like Palin and she would be a fine VP, but Meg Whitman would have been a better strategic selection. McCain chose Palin to electrify the conservative base, which Palin did. However, the conservative base did not need to be electried so much as the middle-of-the-road people needed to be won over. The fence-sitters will be won over by whomever sounds better on the economy. The McCain-Palin ticket has failed in convincing the middle class that they are the best economic choice. Had Meg Whitman been on the ticket, the republican party would’ve not only had generated the excitement that comes with selecting a woman but would’ve also had an economic authority not to be matched by either Biden, Obama, or any other person the Democratice party could’ve produced. The economy is the big issue in this election and the McCain campaign missed its opportunity.

7. Taxes and Spending—I like the sound of Obama’s tax proposal. I have no problem with increasing marginal tax rates for the top 5%. Executive compensation is ridiculous and often undeserved. The idea of an obliging nobility that will pass its wealth down to the working class is foolish. The spirit of capitalism has proven to abound even when the wealthy are taxed at higher rates than the middle and lower classes. Capitalism isn't going anywhere. At the same time, however, I don’t believe anyone can take Obama’s (or any candidate’s) tax promises seriously because tax revenues are a question secondary to government spending. The government proposes a budget and will adjust taxes based on what the budget calls for. We need a President who will cut spending by not signing in bills that will necessitate higher revenues. Some of the things that Obama has proposed (federal healthcare, federal energy initiative) will increase spending. Obama has proposed cutting spending on our war effort. McCain has not made solid proposals on taxes and spending other than he has promised to cut spending, which I believe he will do. Still, I believe the most fiscally conservative thing our country can do right now is to tax its wealthiest members. More on this later.

8. I believe that we have won in Iraq and should now scale back spending, redeploy troops back to the US borders, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. I cite the fact that there is an economic surplus, peace relative to what conditions were once like, and elections in Iraq--all courtesy of the US Government. Why can we not say, “We’ve done our job.” McCain claims there is more to do in Iraq. I disagree. I believe our security interests have been served there. Obama needs to admit this but hasn’t. So I agree with Obama’s end result, which is to redeploy to Afghanistan, Pakistan, and back to the U.S. but I disagree with Obama’s analysis that we’ve failed in Iraq. I support more covert operations against small Taliban militias in the mountains of Afghanistan and cities of Pakistan.

9 I want there to be a war tax. Bush signed the spending bill, proposed by Congress, which included borrowing billions from China in order to fund our war effort. The U.S. has sacrificed nothing in order to pay for our war. Bush should have vetoed the bill. I don’t know whether McCain or Obama voted on it, but I disagree with this fiscal policy. I support the “pay-as-you-go” system which the liberal Congress has attempted to implement in the face of executive politicians who claimed to be fiscal conservatives (i.e.: Bush). Bottom line, the most fiscally conservative thing for our country to do is to tax the rich as well as the middle class in order to pay for the money we've borrowed from foreign countries.

10. We need someone in the Whitehouse who gets the economy. I’m not saying Obama is better with it. I am saying it is above McCain’s head. The republican party should not have selected McCain. Romney was a superior choice. If McCain wins, there is little chance that Romney could run and win in 2012 because it would be the democrats turn, more than it is this election.

A Dose of Reality to East Coast Elitism

1. Both Obama and his running mate obtained substantial real estate assets from shady resources. Obama received a favorable valuation and lower than market loan for a residence in Chicago via the influence (and probably direct pay-outs) of an individual indicted for felony misdeeds; Biden somehow acquired hundreds of thousands of dollars of improvements to structures and real property for his personal residence on a senator's salary via cronyism, kickbacks, and "favors" from businesses and the investment banking firm where his son worked (I wonder who got his son that job?) for which he exerted influence on their behalf from his powerful Washington D.C. legislative position. Biden is the "pork" king of Delaware.

2. Obama fails to understand the requirements of leadership at a time when as a senator and leader of his party that leadership is needed as the country faces a financial crisis. Obama tests which way the wind is blowing before he acts, McCain instinctively knows where he is needed to help and lead. Obama is an analyzer who is easily confused and drowns in the facts, McCain has clarity of thinking and is decisive.

3. Obama supports partial birth abortion and, in fact, voted unbelievably while a legislator in Illinois against measures that would save a born baby's life that was born alive via a botched abortion. ("Thou shalt not kill. . . nor do anything like unto it." D&C 59:6) We have no record of Obama's chastity during the time he was a student at Columbia University and prior to his marriage because the record of his activities is murkey and he is not forthcoming about that time in his life. We do know through the admissions in his book that he often partook of illegal drugs as a young man though to this day he has not admitted the extent to which he partook of illegal drugs. McCain admitted publicly that he was primarily responsible for the single greatest moral failure of his life as being the failure of his marriage. Obama has never admitted he was wrong about anything or taken any personal responsibility for the many moral failures that are certainly part of his life's history. McCain is a true hero who suffered horribly in the service ofhis country.

4. Obama has a history of flip-flops, including most recently the various positions he took on the Russian invasion of Georgia, contradictory statements of the success of the surge in Iraq, senate votes to not fund our troops, his broken promise to subscribe to campaign finance reform during the pre-election period, etc. etc. Obama has misrepresented his relationship with a known "weatherman" terrorist and contrived excuses for his curious lack of knowledge about the preachings of his pastor, Reverend Wright, for twenty plus years as his faithful parishoner.

5. That is a matter of taste. If you like rap and soul music then I suppose the music at Obama's convention is for you. I prefer the wholesomness of country and classic, which was the fare at McCain's convention. I believe the music at McCain's convention tended to be more gospel acceptable and more in line with what the brethren would probably approve.

6. I believe it was a member of the first presidency who years ago stated something like a democrat (or maybe it was a liberal) is simply a member of the Church without a testimony. I think Bob Hope's clip has it about right in our day.

7. Obama voted a year and a half ago for a tax increase to Americans making as low as $42,000 a year. Obama does not count the roll back of the Bush tax cuts which he advocates as a tax increase, which it is. Also, it doesn't matter what a politician like Obama states on the campaign trail, it is what he most assuredly will do if elected. Can a serious person doubt with a straight face that Obama and the democrats will significantly raise taxes on everyone to fund their vision of government expansion?

8. Many of the problems in our country can trace themselves to the abuse of legal thinking that is pervasive. We have a lot of messed up lawyers in our country. Yep, that David Souter is a real legal intellect and Ruth Bader Ginsberg sure sees the Constitution from her former ACLU perch the same way I do. Runaway jury awards induced by trial lawyers have ruined whole industries--including the health industry. That trial lawyer, John Edwards, is the portrait of moral terpitude. Sarah Palin is more elegantly expressive, clearly understandable, and wise from her lifes' experiences than the stuttering Obama and windbag Biden will ever be. And McCain--he is a man of few words but decisive action, which is the definition of leadership.

9. Palin connects with main street America. She is a winner and instinctively optimistic. She believes in our country and makes no excuses for it. Her experience as an executive (Governor, Mayor, Oil Industry Regulator) exceeds Obama's slim background as an "Organizer" and State Legislator. The population of her State is not the issue--she has governed a huge area that provides a significant portion of our country's energy output. I wonder how many Delaware's would fit within the State of Alaska? Under her leadership her State has financed and constructed a $40B natural gas pipeline. She is obviously a great wife and mother and it is inappropriate to superficially make a judgment regarding her family situation. We do not know what makes it work for them, just as we don't know the requirements of many LDS women who are required to work outside the home due to their specific circumstance. It was obvious in tonight's debate that Palin was the genuine article and Biden a slimy, insincere politician who has only used words as a weapon for 36 yers. One report counted 16 misrepresentations in Biden's debate performance.

10. McCain doesn't remind me of the incarnation of Norman Bates (Tony Perkins) of the movie Psycho.

RMB

Ten reasons why I might vote for Obama (in no particular order):

1. Obama has not relied for economic support on those who inherited money obtained by means of the "evils and designs which do and will exist in the hearts of conspiring men in the last days." See D&C 89:4. Nor does his running mate have an odd fascination with those who identify themselves as "Joe Six-pack".

2. Obama didn't suspend his campaign for a single day last week -- even when he had other things to worry about.

3. Obama is still married to his first wife. I've heard no stories of unfaithfulness to -- or poor treatment of -- his first wife. I cannot say the same thing for his opponent.

4. In an effort to win the election, McCain has changed some of the positions he held, and embraced groups and ideas that he disavowed, when he ran against George W. Bush eight years ago. (I supported him -- and not GWB -- in the 2000 primary, for what its worth.) I think McCain was blatantly dishonest in his campaign against Mitt Romney. I think McCain has run a very negative campaign in the general election -- one based in part on evident half-truths and obvious misrepresentations -- despite his promise not to do so. Thus, I am not convinced that he is honorable or that I can trust him.

5. His convention had much better live music.

6. "Latter-day Saints as citizens are to seek out and then uphold leaders who will act with integrity and are wise, good, and honest. Principles compatible with the gospel may be found in various political parties". First Presidency Letter, September 22, 2008.

7. I make less than $250,000 a year and am, therefore, not sure I need to worry about a tax increase. In any event, I'm not convinced that it’s a bad idea for people who make large sums of money to have to give more back to society.

8. I like the idea of a president who can speak in complete sentences, use proper grammar and display a degree of eloquence in his oratory. I like the idea of a president trained in the law. I like the idea of a president who is a deep-thinker with a well-defined world view. These traits can be found in all of the great presidents like Lincoln, Adams and Jefferson.

9. I'm starting to believe that McCain demonstrated poor decision-making skills -- from both an election and administrative perspective -- by choosing a running mate whose main qualification is being the executive of a jurisdiction with a population the same size as that of Memphis and who seems incapable of providing cogent answers to questions when interviewed. I like the "idea" of Sarah Palin a lot more than I like the actual person I see in the interviews and debates. (On a side note, is anyone surprised by the number of otherwise conservative Mormons who seem to have no problem with the fact that Palin is seeking a very demanding job outside the home, notwithstanding the fact that she still has several young children?)

10. Obama doesn't remind me of Mr. Burns from the Simpsons.

RZA