Barack Obama – “Punished with a baby!”

Video: Barack Obama - "Punished with a baby!"
Barack Obama - "Punished with a baby!"
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This is an examination of Barack Obama’s infamous quote in which he said that if his daughters were to get pregnant by “mistake” that he didn’t want them “punished with a baby!” Obama thinks some babies are “punishments” for “mistakes.” What a contrast to Sarah Palin who accepted her daughter’s baby and her own Downes Syndrome baby with open loving arms.

1 Comment

Mr. Rogers,

You mischaracterize Sen. Obama's point, which was about his concern that his girls get pregnant as teenagers prior to marriage or contracting a STD, abortion was not a topic of discussion nor was it even implied. Here is the full context of his reply to a question:
http://mediamatters.org/items/200803310013?f=s_search

I would argue that most rational parents would not want their unwed teenage daughters having sex as Obama clearly implied in his statement that you chose to not include in your quotemine. I would also argue that many rational parents would concede that if they did have sex, they'd prefer they not contract a STD or get pregnant from such an encounter. That was Obama's point. You may not agree with these positions, but I assume you would agree they are respectful, arguable positions for rational parents looking out for their child’s best interests to take.

By contrasting Obama’s incomplete statement with Gov. Palin's last pregnancy and using an audio clip that cuts off the full context, you strongly imply that Obama is referring to a personal desire of his that his teenage child have the right to abort her baby and his desire she do so (please note I did not use a “OR” operator, but instead an “AND” operator). That was certainly my understanding of your post prior to my doing some research at a factchecker site to discover the truth. You clearly mischaracterize his point in this specific clip, pretty disingenuous.

I call this bearing false witness. I also call it propaganda.

Certainly Obama's use of the word, "punish" was a poor choice of words. Given it was a verbal response used once, I forgive him just like I would politicians who I oppose who are caught misspeaking (e.g, Sen. McCain’s statement about not meeting with Spain being one of many). If I were to expect perfect standards from all politicos, than McCain, President Bush 43 or Palin would go down in flames relative to their opponents and if we expected perfection on every ad hoc statement they make. This is a standard I do not set on obvious one-time verbal miscues though I have extremely high standards for honesty; in fact I counted Palin lying or making a false assertion forty-two times in her debate with Sen. Biden to his six. Post debate I discovered that others found three Palin lies I missed.

If Obama were to use this phrase continuously in his verbal talking points or use it from written text; that would be a matter of concern. But it wasn't, it was an ad hoc statement whose central point was benign and reasonable, i.e., he doesn’t want his kids having sex, or contracting an STD or getting pregnant if they did.

Gov. Palin has been recorded lying aprox. 16 times, this number has been validated by the legitimate media, please see Andrew Sullivan’s blog given that he is keeping track. My lie count in the debate remains unvalidated by the press though I’m comfortable defending my findings. Many of these lies have been continually repeated even after being fisked. Her latest lie was in her debate in which she claimed that she led and supported Alaska disinvestment in Sudan assets when in fact she was the primary power who opposed and killed the proposal for disinvestment (that was one of the lies I missed in my count). I don't see any blogs on your post about the lack of honesty for Gov. Palin, not a concern I assume? Bearing false witness is A-OK if your promoting a social conservative; is that how it works? And yes, I know, you’re voting for the “Constitution” Party candidate. However it’s pretty obvious you promote an Obama loss and a McCain/Palin victory, even if they need help by lying for them.

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