McCain chooses Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin for V.P.
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About Dr. Warren Throckmorton

Warren Throckmorton, PhD is Associate Professor of Psychology and Fellow for Psychology and Public Policy at Grove City College (PA). He is the producer of the critically acclaimed documentary, I Do Exist, regarding sexual orientation. His academic articles have been published by journals of the American Psychological Association and he is past president of the American Mental Health Counselors Association. Over 60 newspapers have published his columns and he is co-author, along with David Blakeslee of the monograph, Health Education as Social Advocacy. He can be reached at ewthrockmorton@gcc.edu.

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Dr. Warren Throckmorton

Columnist, Speaker, Professor of Psychology and Fellow for Psychology and Public Policy at Grove City College

  • Friday, August 29, 2008
    McCain-Palin, 2008

    Looks like the Veepstakes goes to Sarah Palin…

    CNN says it is so.

    Here is what the McCain campaign is saying about the pick:

    My Friends,
    I am honored to announce that I have chosen Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska as my choice for the Republican nominee for Vice President. As a father with three daughters, I can’t express how proud I am to choose the first female Republican Vice-Presidential nominee.
    Sarah Palin is a trailblazer and a reformer. As the first female governor of Alaska, she challenged a corrupt system and has been a tireless advocate for reform - passing a landmark bill on ethics reform. She has taken on the old politics in Alaska and reformed the state’s energy industry. She rejects wasteful pork barrel spending. She’s fearless - exactly the type of leader I want at my side and the type of leadership we will bring to Washington.

    My friends, together Sarah Palin and I make the strongest presidential ticket and I know that she joins me in asking for your support as we head into our Convention week in Minnesota. We’re shaking things up in this campaign - and Governor Palin and I are ready to bring real reform to Washington.

    From the FOXNews account:

    Born in Sandpoint, Idaho, on Feb. 11, 1964, Palin moved with her family at the age of three months to Wasilla, Alaska, though she returned to her birth state to attend the University of Idaho, where she studied journalism and graduated in 1987 with a bachelor’s degree.

    Palin is the mother of five children — Bristol, Willow, Piper, Track and Trig, who was born in April with Down syndrome.

    She grew up in Wasilla, just outside of Anchorage, played on Wasilla’s state champion girls’ basketball team in 1982, wore the crown of Miss Wasilla in 1984 and competed in the Miss Alaska contest.

    She began her professional career as a television sports reporter, but after she married her husband, Todd, she helped run his family’s commercial fishing business. Other professional endeavors included the ownership of a snow machine, watercraft and all-terrain-vehicle business.

    She ran for Wasilla City Council in 1992, winning her seat by opposing tax increases. Four years later, she was elected mayor of Wasilla at age 32 by knocking off a three-term incumbent.

    At the end of her second term, party leaders encouraged her to enter the 2002 race for the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor. Against veteran legislators with far more experience, Palin finished second by fewer than 2,000 votes, making a name for herself in statewide politics.

    Palin had exceptionally high approval ratings through mid-2007 and received high marks for her accessibility, a change from Frank Murkowski’s administration.

    The Susan B. Anthony List today issued this statement:

    Washington – Today, in response to the announcement that Sen. John McCain chose Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate, the President of the Susan B. Anthony List offered the following statement:

    "Sarah Palin is the whole package. There couldn't be a better vice presidential pick," said Susan B. Anthony List President Marjorie Dannenfelser. "Women voters are electrified, and Sarah is someone who is truly in sync with the way real American women think. She is a reform-minded woman who will give all Americans, born and unborn, the authentic leadership they deserve."

    "The majority of American women support commonsense restrictions on abortion. Adding Palin to the GOP ticket will resonate with independent women voters nationwide. By choosing the boldly pro-life Sarah Palin as his running mate, John McCain has taken his stand as the one true, authentic pro-life ticket."

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  • From the Hill last night:

    The public feud over abortion between the Speaker of the House and the archbishop of Washington intensified Tuesday as Rep. Nancy Pelosi responded to his recent criticism and the archbishop fired another salvo at the California Democrat.

    The latest development came Tuesday evening, when Washington Archbishop Donald Wuerl issued a statement to The Hill that brushed aside Pelosi’s explanation of her comments about conception on Sunday’s edition of “Meet the Press.”

    Wuerl rebuked Pelosi for suggesting that the Catholic Church has long debated the moment of conception. Wuerl said that the church has taught that life begins at conception and has thus opposed abortion as a “moral evil” since the 1st century.

    Pelosi’s office initially didn’t comment on Wuerl’s remarks. After getting questions from the media, Pelosi spokesman Brendan Daly issued a statement on Tuesday that cited St. Augustine: “Her views on when life begins were informed by the views of St. 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.' ”

    Wuerl swiftly denounced Pelosi’s statement, saying, “As the Catechism and early Church documents make clear, abortion is always an evil. That is an unchanging teaching. The question on when the soul enters the body was a philosophical question that grew out of a lack of scientific data at the time of St. Augustine. We have the data today which shows the embryo is human. There no longer is any discussion of whether the unborn is human and so the philosophical discussion of St. Augustine’s time is not relevant today.”

    Although I am not Catholic, I am going to have to go with the archbishop on this as I assume he knows Catholic teaching more accurately than Rep. Pelosi.

    UPDATE: 8/27/08 - Cardinal Edward Egan weighed in today with a response to Rep. Pelosi.

    Also, recall Hillary Clinton's former OB-GYN William Harrison's description of when life begins.  Dr. Harrison does not think it is above his pay grade to determine when life begins.

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  • Nancy Pelosi tried to help Barack Obama on when life begins in a recent interview with Tom Brokaw. According to the American Catholic Bishops, she got it wrong. Here is the Pelosi interview and the Bishop's statement.

    MR. BROKAW:  Senator Obama saying the question of when life begins is above his pay grade, whether you're looking at it scientifically or theologically. If he were to come to you and say, "Help me out here, Madame Speaker.  When does life begin?" what would you tell him?

    REP. PELOSI:  I would say that as an ardent, practicing Catholic, this is an issue that I have studied for a long time.  And what I know is, over the centuries, the doctors of the church have not been able to make that definition.  And Senator-St. Augustine said at three months.  We don't know. The point is, is that it shouldn't have an impact on the woman's right to choose.  Roe v. Wade talks about very clear definitions of when the child-first trimester, certain considerations; second trimester; not so third trimester.  There's very clear distinctions.  This isn't about abortion on demand, it's about a careful, careful consideration of all factors and-to-that a woman has to make with her doctor and her god.  And so I don't think anybody can tell you when life begins, human life begins.  As I say, the Catholic Church for centuries has been discussing this, and there are those who've decided...

    MR. BROKAW:  The Catholic Church at the moment feels very strongly that it...

    REP. PELOSI:  I understand that.

    MR. BROKAW:  ...begins at the point of conception.

    REP. PELOSI:  I understand.  And this is like maybe 50 years or something like that.  So again, over the history of the church, this is an issue of controversy.  But it is, it is also true that God has given us, each of us, a free will and a responsibility to answer for our actions.  And we want abortions to be safe, rare, and reduce the number of abortions.  That's why we have this fight in Congress over contraception.  My Republican colleagues do not support contraception.  If you want to reduce the number of abortions, and we all do, we must-it would behoove you to support family planning and, and contraception, you would think.  But that is not the case.  So we have to take-you know, we have to handle this as respectfully-this is sacred ground. We have to handle it very respectfully and not politicize it, as it has been-and I'm not saying Rick Warren did, because I don't think he did, but others will try to.

    MSNBC
     
     
    Bishops respond to House Speaker Pelosi's misrepresentation of Church teaching against abortion
     
    WASHINGTON--Cardinal Justin F. Rigali, chairman of the U.S. Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, and Bishop William E. Lori, chairman of the U.S. Bishops’ Committee on Doctrine, have issued the following statement:

    In the course of a “Meet the Press” interview on abortion and other public issues on August 24, 2008, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi misrepresented the history and nature of the authentic teaching of the Catholic Church against abortion.

    The Church has always taught that human life deserves respect from its very beginning and that procured abortion is a grave moral evil. In the Middle Ages, uninformed and inadequate theories about embryology led some theologians to speculate that specifically human life capable of receiving an immortal soul may not exist until a few weeks into pregnancy. While in canon law these theories led to a distinction in penalties between very early and later abortions, the Church’s moral teaching never justified or permitted abortion at any stage of development.

    These mistaken biological theories became obsolete over 150 years ago when scientists discovered that a new human individual comes into being from the union of sperm and egg at fertilization. In keeping with this modern understanding, the Church has long taught that from the time of conception (fertilization), each member of the human species must be given the full respect due to a human person, beginning with respect for the fundamental right to life.
     
     
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  • Barack Obama is this election's pro-choice candidate. He supports the Freedom of Choice Act which would prohibit state and federal laws which restrict abortion. He said, "I believe in Roe versus Wade" to Rick Warren as a part of the Saddleback Civil Forum.  And he continues to be embroiled in a controversy over his opposition to the Born Alive Infant Protection Act in Illinois.

     

    Last week, visiting Lynchburg, VA, Obama again tried to clarify his abortion views. As reported by the Family Research Council, Obama told Lynchburg ABC News affiliate reporter, Rebecca Cooper:

     

    "I don't think this issue has to resolved in terms of when life begins. that is a theological question or scientific question. I as a Christian have a belief that the potential for life is sacred at the moment of conception. But I also believe that it is not decisive in determining who makes the decision that difficult in questions like abortion."

     

    I am not sure what he meant. Having the potential for life is sacred at conception, but not sacred enough to trigger legal protection? He must have raised his pay grade because he made an assessment about the sacredness of the potential for life. This may morph into a view that says he is personally against abortion but cannot impose his views on others.

     

    I continue to follow this topic because I believe it may be the pivotal social issue for Evangelicals considering an Obama-Biden vote.

     

     

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  • Barack Obama’s choice of Joe Biden is curious. While the current analysis is that Biden adds experience to the ticket, he simultaneously highlights Obama’s lack of experience.. During the primaries, Joe Biden said Barack Obama was not ready to lead the country. Roll the tape…

     
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