Mark Shields on NewsHour yesterday afternoon, discussing the Palin vice presidential nomination:
And I think that what we have to bear in mind is this, that there's enormous excitement. I think that there's no question that her position on pro-life, where she has not simply talked the talk, she's walked the walk.She and her husband found out they were going to have a Down syndrome baby at a time when that's become, you know, fairly common procedure to terminate a pregnancy. She said publicly, "We consider it a gift from God," and they are raising the child.
What a condescending asshole. Look, if she had chosen to abort that or any other pregnancy, it would have been 100% her choice and nothing for which she would owe anyone an apology. Her having chosen to carry the pregnancy to term, I believe exactly the same. Notice how any of her decisions regarding her own pregnancy fit neatly into the pro-choice conception of reproductive rights? "Walking the walk" if she were pro-choice would not have involved some kind of compulsory abortion. She just walked the pro-choice walk. In fact, truly walking the pro-life walk would have meant being forcibly compelled to have the child against her own wishes. It is not possible to walk a pro-life walk absent oppressive forces not yet holding total sway over our politics.
And can anyone imagine a male candidate for office being singled out for praise for choosing to keep and raise a child with Down Syndrome? Yeesh.
P.S. No, I would never vote for McCain or this woman. It's going to be a fun couple of months, explaining how I can object to the idiotic coverage about to avalanche this woman AND not sabotage my core politics by voting for her ticket.