DNC-Day 2

As the chattering classes ponder the second day of the Democratic National Convention in Denver, let me join them for a moment by adding my thoughts. First, I’ll give a few bullet-pointed observations and then I’ll offer a more fully developed thought I think is of consequence in this race.

A Few Observations
It should be of more than passing interest that a Gallop poll shows McCain pulling ahead of Obama since Joe Biden was added to the ticket. Obama will get a bump in the polls from the convention, but given that he went in even with McCain and not ahead and given that the Republican Convention follows the Denver event, I doubt the bump will prove significant. I suggest this is a dynamic not lost of Democratic strategists and it will turn their language in the next few weeks toward the harsh and the scathing.

It will prove a mistake for Obama to have given two nights of the convention to the Clintons. He could easily have made the first night “Clinton Night,” honored them for their leadership and support, and then moved on in theme the next three nights. This is what the Republicans are doing. Both President Bush and Vice-President Cheney are speaking on Monday night—which is Labor Day, by the way, surely the least watched evening—and then the convention will shift focus from the past to the “McCain Era.” This was smart. Obama’s team has allowed this convention to be dominated largely by unknowns and his political enemies. By the time he mounts the podium Thursday night, only Michelle’s speech will have been on message among those by heavy-hitters and it will have receded into memory a bit. A better approach would have been Clinton Night, Michele headlining Tuesday, Biden Wednesday, and then Obama for the close. Oh well, they didn’t ask me first. Shocking.

The best speech of this convention so far was given last night by the Governor of Montana, Brian Schweitzer. A folksy rancher who holds a Master of Science in agriculture, Schwietzer did what other speakers should have: speak for the man on the street, tout the glory of his values, wring smiles and laughter from the crowd, and have the entire convention on its feet shouting, “Yes, we can.” As you know, I’m not a Democrat, but I do know an effective speech when I see one. Schweitzer showed how much of a snore this convention has been so far. You’ll be hearing his name again.

Now, a Broader Thought
One of the most important statements during this convention was made away from the hall. Apparently a number of U.S. Catholic bishops are showing the strength of their convictions and challenging both Biden and Nancy Pelosi on their pro-abortion stand. A bishop in Denver even suggested that Biden ought not present himself for communion. This is, as you may recall from the Kerry campaign, the usual tug-of-war between Roman Catholic clergy and their “personally against abortion/politically pro-choice” parishioners.

Over the weekend, though, Nancy Pelosi went so far as to challenge the eminent theologians of the church by asserting on “Meet the Press” that “doctors of the church” have not been able to define when life begins. When the archbishops of Washington and Denver charged her with error, a spokesman for Pelosi said that she “fully appreciates the sanctity of family” but based her statement on the ``views of Saint Augustine, who said: '... the law does not provide that the act (abortion) pertains to homicide, for there cannot yet be said to be a live soul in a body that lacks sensation ...'''

I give Pelosi credit for basing her views on something more than popular convenience and whim, but she is wrong. Christian teaching through the centuries has seldom wavered from the view that the child in the womb, from conception, is a human being deserving of protection. I have on my desk as I write these words a volume of “Early Christian Writings” in which the Didache, dating from the middle of the First Century, forbids abortion and infanticide. The Bible speaks too clearly to the spiritual viability of the child in the womb and the Roman world insisted too certainly on the prerogatives of “patres familias” for the early church fathers not to have spoken forcefully to the issue. They did, as the church has ever since.

The larger issue is the political schizophrenia of Mrs. Pelosi and her tribe. A politician believing privately that a human being is being murdered in a process which, publicly, that politician defends is a monstrous evil.

My Democratic friends are beginning to understand that abortion is much of their trouble. Pro-life Democrats have been trying to awaken the party leadership to this reality for years. Presidential elections are won in America based on what a middle slice of the electorate—often called “Reagan Democrats”—does. Many of them, though, are pro-life Catholics and this is why pro-life presidents have won more elections in recent decades than pro-choice. Abortion is the issue, morally, spiritually, and politically in this country. The path that Obama, Biden and Pelosi have chosen—either “I’m personally opposed to abortion but publicly in favor” or “No one is sure when life begins”—is not going to work. The moral ambivalence is hurting Democrats before the nation, as we saw in an otherwise articulate Obama’s clumsy response to Rick Warren’s question on abortion that the issue was “Above my pay grade.” This was foolish and he knew it, but it is his own soul’s conflict on this issue that lands him in such an inarticulate state. So it is with his party as a whole.

More soon