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OBAMA A "MODERATE DEMOCRAT?" That's how Planned Parenthood understood him during his time in the Illinois legislature, according to reporting from ABC News. With the organization's blessing, Obama voted "present" rather than "no" when it came time to oppose a "partial birth abortion" ban and parental notification requirements for minors seeking abortion.
Thanks to Lynn Harris at Salon's Broadsheet for pointing this out. Harris uses my reporting of the Planned Parenthood speeches yesterday as a jumping off point for her own assessment of the campaigns' reproductive justice platforms, and comes away liking Elizabeth Edwards, who, she writes, "really threw down."
UPDATE: TAP's own Garance Franke-Ruta was actually all over Obama's reproductive rights voting record in this March piece on Hillary Clinton. Garance is pretty tough, writing, "Barack Obama, by contrast, has not been willing to stake out strong opinions in this arena."
--Dana Goldstein
COMMENTS (4)
Planned Parenthood doesn't get to decide IN GENERAL who is and isn't moderate, conservative, and liberal. PP can make endorsements or policy scorecards on their issues but it's very wrong to make label generalizations on the single issue of abortion. How would Planned Parenthood characterize Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio - moderate, conservative, progressive? Would it be accurate?
If Planned Parenthood wants to give Obama less than high marks for his record on their issue that's their prerogative but it's ridiculous to allow PP to be the arbiter of who is and isn't moderate. By their standard Rep. Ellen Tauscher is the most virtuous Democrat in the land because of her 100% rating, nevermind her views on trade, labor issues, or the Iraq War.
Posted by: joejoejoe | July 18, 2007 6:21 PM
My point is that these labels are already damn near useless. They become ridiculous when single issue groups appropriate them as generic labels, which smart reporters then lazily repeat.
Posted by: joejoejoe | July 18, 2007 6:30 PM
Anyone who makes this a single issue election centered on abortion rights is secretly working for the Republican Party.
Posted by: Anonymous | July 18, 2007 9:08 PM
The question which the Harris/ABCblog piece doesn't answer is whether Obama was coming to Sutherland as one of the moderates seeking a protective strategy, or as a Senate leader coming on their behalf to design a strategy where moderates got protect by Obama's voting with them on this.
Posted by: Adam B. | July 19, 2007 5:06 PM