At the National Right to Life Committee’s annual convention just outside DC this week, it was abundantly clear which presidential candidate the activists didn’t like. But the group’s support for his opponent is considerably less clear.
From the speakers to the rank and file at the Arlington, Va., event, there was near-unanimity Thursday in their strong opposition to the presumptive Democratic nominee.
Audience members vigorously applauded as former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson delivered an extended attack on Obama in his keynote address. Calling the Illinois senator a “last gasp” of 1960s-era radicalism and “George McGovern without the experience,” Thompson sternly warned the crowd that Obama would appoint Supreme Court justices unfriendly to their agenda.
Thompson noted that during his career in the Illinois Legislature, Obama opposed a version of the Born Alive Infants Protection Act, a bill that made it illegal to harm an infant born after surviving an abortion.
Observing that even the National Abortion Rights Advocacy League had not opposed this legislation, Thompson joked: “I trust [Obama] is explaining how he’s to the left of NARAL during the religious outreach meetings he’s holding.”
Quotes from attendees on Obama were fairly predictable. He’s a “radical,” an “extremist,” and a “nightmare” to those who oppose reproductive rights.
But when asked about John McCain, the rhetoric is far less predictable.
Eric Zimmermann reported on the annual gathering, and the activists’ reluctance to rally behind their candidate.
Danielle Wibeto might be John McCain’s worst nightmare. A 23-year old pro-life Christian, Wibeto travels around the country promoting a children’s book — Justice Loves Babies, which she wrote with her twin sister, Darlene — about a child trying to save his unborn sister from being aborted. The Wibeto sisters, from a small, conservative town in central California and staunchly pro-life, are the kind of voters that McCain needs near unanimous support from if he has any chance of defeating Barack Obama. Will she vote for McCain? “I’m still praying on it,” she says.
Wibeto is one of hundreds of pro-life voters who convened today for the start of the National Right to Life Convention in Arlington. The organization is gritting its teeth and swallowing hard to support John McCain, who has supported embryonic stem cell research and fiercely criticized George Bush in 2000 for his refusal to alter the Republican Platform to support abortions resulting from rape and incest. While the movement’s leadership is toeing the party line, many of the delegates here expressed doubts–most of them will still vote for McCain, but some will stay home and others will likely not organize for the Arizona senator the way they did for Bush. (When I ask delegates here about their feelings on McCain, most just give a terse smile and say, “I’ll vote for him.”) If the Republican candidate for president has to spend time and money reassuring and energizing delegates to the National Right to Life Convention, he’s not in good shape.
Over at the official McCain campaign booth, a flat-screen TV shows a video of McCain being interviewed about his time in Vietnam. The host asks him if he prayed to God while in Vietnam. “No,” McCain answers. “When I was flying in combat I was rendering unto Caesar.” His answer reveals a lot about McCain’s difficulty connecting to the Christian right. Though quoting scripture, McCain’s was a poor impersonation of President Bush, who has perfected the art of paying clever lip-service to the pro-life movement by speaking of his own faith and turning to God for counsel.
And so a lingering sense of resignation permeates the convention hall, most notably in President Wanda Franz’s address to the general assembly. In a speech full of the movement’s trademark rhetoric — “the blood of the innocent is still spilt over a million times each year” — Franz tepidly urges the audience to set aside their qualms about McCain. “The perfect is the enemy of the good,” she says, employing odd rhetoric for a movement that thinks and speaks in moral absolutes.
It sounds like McCain still has quite a bit of work to do, doesn’t it?