About one hour into the debate…
….the moderator finally raised the subjects everyone avoided until now.
Schieffer: All right. Let’s stop there and go to another question. And this one goes to Sen. McCain. Sen. McCain, you believe Roe v. Wade should be overturned. Sen. Obama, you believe it shouldn’t.
Could either of you ever nominate someone to the Supreme Court who disagrees with you on this issue? Sen. McCain?
McCain: I would never and have never in all the years I’ve been there imposed a litmus test on any nominee to the court. That’s not appropriate to do.
Schieffer: But you don’t want Roe v. Wade to be overturned?
McCain: I thought it was a bad decision. I think there were a lot of decisions that were bad. I think that decisions should rest in the hands of the states. I’m a federalist. And I believe strongly that we should have nominees to the United States Supreme Court based on their qualifications rather than any litmus test.
Obama: Well, I think it’s true that we shouldn’t apply a strict litmus test and the most important thing in any judge is their capacity to provide fairness and justice to the American people.
And it is true that this is going to be, I think, one of the most consequential decisions of the next president. It is very likely that one of us will be making at least one and probably more than one appointments and Roe versus Wade probably hangs in the balance.
Now I would not provide a litmus test. But I am somebody who believes that Roe versus Wade was rightly decided….I will look for those judges who have an outstanding judicial record, who have the intellect, and who hopefully have a sense of what real-world folks are going through.
First, judges apply the constitution, not their sense of what real-world folks are going through.
Second, either Obama wasn’t totally honest in this answer, or he has changed his mind.
Democrat Barack Obama has made unity a major theme of his campaign, although his statement on Roe left little room for pro-lifers…
“Thirty-five years after the Supreme Court decided Roe v. Wade, it’s never been more important to protect a woman’s right to choose,” Obama said. “Last year, the Supreme Court decided by a vote of 5-4 to uphold the Federal [Partial-Birth] Abortion Ban, and in doing so undermined an important principle of Roe v. Wade: that we must always protect women’s health.
(Never mind the incoherence of that statement.)
With one more vacancy on the Supreme Court, we could be looking at a majority hostile to a women’s fundamental right to choose for the first time since Roe v. Wade. The next president may be asked to nominate that Supreme Court justice. That is what is at stake in this election.
That is a litmus test. The judicial philosophy behind it is the most important issue at stake in this election.
