Meet The Press: Michael Steele Thinks Obama Doesn't Deserve Notre Dame Degree

Run time: 02:48 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-HQEDNuGuA   Posted on YouTube: May 17, 2009 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: May 17, 2009 By DU Member: Hissyspit Views on DU: 1089

 
WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama ventures to America's foremost Roman Catholic University, where the country's deep divisions over abortion and stem-cell research have moved to the forefront in a time of war and recession.

A storm blew up immediately after Notre Dame invited Obama to address Sunday's commencement exercises. It still rages, with anti-abortion activists promising to disrupt the president's appearance, where he was to receive an honorary degree.

Students opposed to abortion rights attended an open-air Mass on campus and an all-night prayer vigil to protest Obama's visit, and 200 people prayed at a packed Alumni Hall Chapel. More than 100 people met at the school's front gate and held anti-abortion signs while Obama flew from Washington to Indiana.

More than 100 protesters gathered and 23 marched onto the campus Saturday. Police say they arrested 19 for trespassing and four were also charged with resisting law enforcement.

In Washington on Sunday, the head of the Republican Party said Obama should be denied the honorary degree.

Says procedure should be rare
Obama supports abortion rights but says the procedure should be rare. At Notre Dame, he finds himself at the vortex of the abortion rights controversy that has riven U.S. society for decades.

Recriminations against Obama's appearance in South Bend, Ind., have echoed across the Internet, on cable television and newspaper editorial pages.

The Catholic Church and many other Christian denominations hold that abortion or the use of embryos for stem cell research amounts to the destruction of human life, is morally wrong and should be banned by law.

The contrary argument holds that women have the right to terminate any pregnancy and that unused embryos created outside the womb for couples who cannot otherwise conceive should be available for stem cell research. Such research holds the promise of finding treatments for some of mankind's most debilitating ailments.

Within weeks of taking office in January, Obama eased a Bush administration executive order that limited this research to a small number of stem-cell strains that existed when President George W. Bush issued his stem cell directive.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Obama in his commencement speech "obviously would make mention of the debate that's been had" over abortion, while emphasizing that "this is exactly the kind of give and take that is had on college campus all over the country."

'Pro-choice' is overtaken
Obama's appearance at Notre Dame would appear to be complicated by new polls that show Americans' attitudes on the issue have shifted toward the anti-abortion position.

A Gallup survey released Friday found that 51 percent of those questioned call themselves "pro-life" on the issue of abortion and 42 percent "pro-choice." This is the first time a majority of U.S. adults have identified themselves as "pro-life" since Gallup began asking this question in 1995.

Just a year ago, Gallup found that 50 percent termed themselves "pro-choice" while 44 percent described their beliefs as "pro-life."

A Pew Research Center survey found public opinion about abortion more closely divided than it has been in several years.

Pew said its latest polling found that 28 percent said abortion should be legal in most cases while 18 percent said all cases. Forty-four percent of those surveyed were opposed to abortion in most or all cases.

Gallup said shifting opinions lay almost entirely with Republicans or independents who lean Republican, with opposition among those groups rising over the past year from 60 percent to 70 percent.

:eyes:

On a scale of one to ten, if you add up republican maturity points, the GOP is permanently stuck in the negative numbers.

Not in this country. Not in the rest of the world. Abortion rates go up dramatically with the Republicans' withholding of birth control and family planning resources. Third world countries are particularly hurt by the Republicans' passive aggression and disdain for contraceptives and other birth control, as well as their abstinence only education.

If Republicans really cared about reducing or stopping abortions they would not take so many steps to ensure that the number of abortions inevitably increase.

They don't want to stop abortions at all. They just want to appear as if they want to in order to pander to their clueless base.

Bill Clinton, the evil, sex having, pro-choice President prevented far more abortions than any Republican president ever has.

If Republicans are so dead-set against abortions they should try preventing some for once.

Republicans had control of the White House, House and Senate for the first six years of the Bush Administration. I saw no significant movement toward overturning Roe v. Wade during that time. This shows me that the so-called "pro-life" activists and politicians are just playing the voters for fools to take their money for campaigns and other causes.

If abortions became illegal things would become really messy for the Republicans in a big hurry. Coat hangar abortions, women leaving their home state, even the country to have abortions, women filling up the hospitals with half-aborted babies, women dying from complications of back alley abortions, babies left in dumpsters, women dying.

The Republicans would have to figure out what the penalty should be for women who "murder" the foetuses they didn't want to carry. Should they put these murdering women to death? The Republicans would also have to begin "inspecting" women who return from abroad, lest they have abortions on foreign soil. Who will perform these very intimate inspections?

Would the Republicans have to start wars with the "terrorist" countries (Canada,Mexico,EU countries) that kill American foetuses? Perhaps economic sanctions against our former allies in North America and Europe will suffice.

The whole anti-choice crusade is so impractical that it's nothing but a neverending charade.

Degree from Notre Dame and michael steele has an honorary degree from the rush limpbaugh school of bowing and scraping.

Right before Tim Kaine starts to speak Gregory points and nods to Kaine and then calls Kaine Chairman Steele!