[Home] [Headlines] [Latest Articles] [Latest Comments] [Post] [Mail] [Sign-in] [Setup] [Help] [Register]
Status: Not Logged In; Sign In
politics and politicians Title: That was then, this is now: Scott Walker suddenly a hard-liner on abortion as he vaults to 2016 GOP front-runner status Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is learning that major leagues pitchers throw harder than in the minors, as journalists are piling on the newly minted Republican front-runner first with gotcha questions and now with questions about an abortion flip-flop over a period of just four months. The New York Times highlighted on Monday a campaign ad Walker made in October as he fought through a tough re-election contest. 'I'm pro-life,' he says in the video, but Walker also announced his support for 'legislation to increase safety, and to provie more information to a woman considering her options. The bill leaves the final decision to a woman and her doctor.' SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEOS FRONT-RUNNER: Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has surged to the front of the GOP presidential pack, opening him up to instant media slaps about inconsistencies in his political record FOUR MONTHS AGO: Walker made a campaign ad in October 2014 saying he supported legislation that would keep abortion legal, albeit 'safer,' although he insisted he was pro-life POLITICAL MINEFIELD: Pro-life partisans make up a large part of the Republican electorate that will decide who is nominated for president next year and they could stay home on Election Day if a pro-choice candidate is named But last month, according to a witness who spoke with The New York Times, Walker met privately with potential donors to his nascent presidential campaign and boasted that he supported a 'personhood amendment' which holds that human life begins at conception and practicaly bans abortions along with so-called 'morning after contraceptives.' His evolution from a blue-state governor to a potential GOP primary winner is similar to that of Mitt Romney four years ago: Walker must straddle between his moderate positions at home and the need to appeal to the Republican Party's evangelical Christian base. Abortion is one of America's most hotly contested and emotionally charged political issues. Entire lobbying industries have sprung up to defend abortion clinics especially those run by the moneyed Planned Parenthood and to push a rollback of the 1973 'Roe v. Wade' Supreme Court decision that enshrined the practice in American law. Walker delivered a breakout Jan. 24 speech In Iowa, crescendoing on a boast that he had 'defunded Planned Parenthood' in hist state's budgets, something that GOP conservatives wand to see replicated at the federal level. But in October he dodged questions from The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about his support for a proposed 'partial birth' abortion ban a law that would prohibit terminating a pregnancy that was more than 20 weeks old. The Times reports that Walker has also expressed a preference for abortion bans even in cases of incest and rape. In his Iowa speech, he he drew loud applause from a red-meat audience when he recalled signing 'pro-life legislation.' AMERICAN CROSSROADS: The battle over abortion continues to hold Americans' attention and generate protests more than 40 years after it came to a head in the Supreme Court WALKER'S HOME STATE: University students and staff braved cold weather this month to protest Walker's proposal to cut state spending on higher education Walker is learly a front-runner, more than 16 months from the Cleveland, Ohio convention that will annoint a GOP presidential nominee. One surprise poll result, published Monday, has him in a statistical tie for the lead with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz in the lone-star state, one of America's largest and most conservative political strongholds. Cruz attracted 20 per cent of support from Texas Republicans, followed by Walker with 19. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, favored by moderates and already lapping the field in fundraising, was a distant third with just 9 per cent. Uber-conservative doctor Ben Carson came in with the same number. Walker is expected to give Bush a run for his donors' money, potentially representing a political consensus between the establishment and the right wing FLIP-FLOPPER? Walker isn't the only public figure to have a change of heart on abortion: Norma McCorvey, the 'Jane Roe' in 'Roe v. Wade' who sued for her right to have an abortion, is now an anti-abortion activist 'I think hes going to make the case we nominate the most conservative person possible who has the ability to win in a general election,' Republican Party of South Carolina chairman Matt Moore told the Times. Walker's team is already learning how to make hay when reporters ambush him with emotionally charged questions deigned to throw him off-balance. Fundraising emails went out shortly after The Washington Post cornered him on Friday by asking if he thought President Barack Obama is a Christian. By Sunday night his appeal for money pledged that Walker 'refuses to be distracted by the small, petty, and pale ideas that the "gotcha" headline writers for the Liberal Media want to talk about.'
Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top Page Up Full Thread Page Down Bottom/Latest Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 2.
#1. To: cranky (#0)
Walker has to take a hard line on abortion to get the vote of people like me. He has been a pretty consistent person at doing what he said, so even if this conversion to the hard-core on this issue is expedient, if his record is any indication, having taken the position, he will stand by it. His position is right too: babies are people. Therefore, I support him. And I will vote for him in the Presidential election if he stays the course.
Same here. In fact looking at all the candidates for the GOP, Walker seems to be the only one that has endured the full cannons of the left. He was elected, then won a recall and then re-elected. Of course the national scene is much different.
There are no replies to Comment # 2. End Trace Mode for Comment # 2.
Top Page Up Full Thread Page Down Bottom/Latest |
[Home] [Headlines] [Latest Articles] [Latest Comments] [Post] [Mail] [Sign-in] [Setup] [Help] [Register]
|