What if Bob McDonnell wrote this about abortion in his thesis?
By JR Hoeft | Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009 | PoliticsImagine if in McDonnell’s thesis written so many years ago about the value of family and marriage that he included a thought about abortion only being for the “poor” and “desperate.”
Would that make national news? Would it get the left in a lather?
I bet it would.
And there’s one candidate in this race that does believe it….but it ain’t Bob. And it wasn’t uttered twenty years ago.
It was Creigh Deeds two weeks ago.
So, will the WaPO editors or other MSM ask Deeds to clarify…or will they allow Deeds’ “thesis” – uttered recently and bordering on eugenics – a free pass?
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Conservative to the core; liberal with his opinion! J.R. has been involved in politics for over a decade and has worked on several campaigns in Hampton Roads. He has served on the Executive Committee of the Republican Party of Chesapeake and the Central Committee of the Republican Party of Virginia. He is also the director of “Blogs United” in Virginia. E-mail J.R.. Follow J.R. on Twitter.
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27 Responses to "What if Bob McDonnell wrote this about abortion in his thesis?"
This is beneath you. You are lying.
aznew, are you that much of a Kool Aid drinker to say that Hoeft is lying when he provides a link to the post where there is audio of Deeds saying this?
aznew,
Why don’t you listen to the audio of Deeds making the comment? How is it a lie when the words come out of Deeds’ own mouth?
aznew,
The facts, and the audio, prove you wrong.
Riley, Mike and CCC: I didn’t write that lightly, and the facts prove me correct. Mr. Hoeft is affirmatively distorting Creigh’s statements and taking them out of context.
I was disturbed by Mr. Hoeft’s distortion of Creigh’s remarks at the time of his original post. Here is a post I wrote about it on Aug. 18 that discusses how Mr. Hoeft distorts the comment in detail:
http://virginiademocrat.blogspot.com/2009/08/mcdonnells-online-defenders-show-their.html
Disappointing, because this is one of my regular Conservative reads. I don’t mind aggressive spin, and can appreciate that Conservatives see the world quite differently than I do, but this kind of attack is beyond the pale.
Please don’t bother citing the dozens of instances where you think Democrats have stepped over the line in attacking Republicans. I agree that it has happened — a lot. It is not a defense of the dreck Mr. Hoeft is pitching here.
Aznew, here’s the “context” from your blog
Deeds: “Abortion is not an easy thing to talk about. My wife and I have been party to four wonderful pregnancies. We have four children that we love very much and that love us. And it [abortion] is a very difficult thing to think about, but frankly, from my perspective I’ve never been so poor or so desperate, that I would think about abortion.”
What does that change? Sounds to me like he thinks if you’re poor or desperate, that’s when you’d think about abortion. Sounds to me like he said a reason he never thought about abortion was he was never “so poor” or “so desperate.”
I’ve read it, in context, and it’s not from a college paper. It’s from a radio show during THIS CAMPAIGN.
It’s not so much a lie, but a stretching of the truth. It wasn’t Deed’s intention to say that government should restrict access to abortions to only the “poor” and the “desperate”.
McDonnell’s thesis makes the argument for government’s treatment of people based on their gender, religious views, and sexual orientation.
Brian: As you could see form my post, Vivian said the clip was taken out of context.
I can’t be sure, but listening to the clip Mr. Hoeft provides, whether Creigh was setting forth a policy would depend upon the question he was asked.
To me, it seems he was probably asked whether he (more accurately, his wife) would ever choose abortion. He is saying that poverty and desperation would be circumstances that might cause him to consider it.
To read this as Creigh making a policy statement is disngenuous, at best. If I come down hard on Mr. Hoeft, it is because he is an intelligent and saavy observer, and IMHO he knows exactly what is going on here.
Well, I guess that’s just politics, and it will include a certain amount of agitprop that is not intended as meaningful discussion.
Aznew, so if Vivian told you to jump off a bridge…..
You have the gall to guess what question he was asked? Talk about taking things out of context. You’re imagining a context to justify the statements you’ve already made.
First you said JR was “lying.”
Then you said it was a “distortion.”
Now you say you can’t be sure, but Vivian said so.
Joel, McDonnell was also writing in a time period where married people got smaller tax deductions than single people. If two single people lived together, they got a bigger tax break than two married people.
Brian, please. Vivian was at the event.
But I didn’t guess as to the question. I deduced what the question might have been based on Creigh’s words, tone and what I know of the man personally.
I tried to find the interview on the Internet, but couldn’t. Anjd it seems Mr. Hoeft holds the key to all this, so perhaps he would be kind enough to direct us to the entire recording from which he pulled this clip? That way, we don’t have to deduce what question Creigh was asked; we can listen for ourselves.
I’ll presume in advance that if a link to the full context is not forthcoming, it means I was right.
“But I didn’t guess as to the question. I deduced what the question might have been”
You’ve GOT to be kidding, right?
I don’t get your point. Mine was my deduction was based on a set of relevant facts, not merely a wild guess. But, of course, you knew that.
But that’s a side argument, anyway. I’ll stipulate I’m not as intelligent as you are.
So, lets just get the full recording, and we can all see the full context of Creigh’s response, and judge for ourselves whether Creigh is making a statement of policy here.
Mr. Hoeft has it — let him produce it.
If Deeds can find a 20-year old college paper, he can defend something he said less than a month ago.
Shorter Brian Kirwin:
If Deeds can find….. er… If Bob McDonald brings up his own thesis in an interview with the wibwul media, then we are free to make egregious distortions about Deeds! ***(see footnote)
Brian, i do commend you for not mentioning wooden, acoustic guitars and hippies in your recent post. Bravo.
AZNEW is of course correct. Taking the Hoeft hackery….
>> “Deeds believes abortion only being for the “poor” and “desperate.”
And comparing it to what he Deeds said (if we can trust BK to accurately quote somone, which i admit is a stretch):
>> from my perspective I’ve never been so poor or so desperate, that I would think about abortion.”
Only in bizarro land (bearingdrift) does one believe that Deeds comment means that “abortion is only for the poor”.
AZNEW – i do take exception to your comment: “If I come down hard on Mr. Hoeft, it is because he is an intelligent and saavy observer”. “Intelligence and savviness” are not qualities that come to mind when one reads such distortions.
________
*** footnote splained: distortions = politics. deeds and bobbymac both do it. but when its demonstrably false, the distortioners look like chumps.
Well, it’s been about seven hours since I first asked Mr. Hoeft to produce the full tape, but he hasn’t done so.
Perhaps he is travelling or otherwise occupied today. How long do you think is a fair time to give him so we can all hear the tape and make our own judgments about the context of Creigh’s remarks?
Anytime you want to get the Republican nominee’s name right, Foobar, it’ll make your insults at least not be as funny.
[chirping]
I’m sure the Republicans would take the high road, and just ignore the old issue just like the GOP did when they dug up one off-the-cuff comment by Justice Sotomayor from what 15 years ago? Remember how it wasn’t the only subject of the committee hearing? Remember how it wasn’t constantly repeated day after day on tv, in the paper, in the news weeklies? Remember how Newt, Rush and others didn’t decide that this ONE comment meant that she was a racist who hated white men?
Yea, me neither.
Fact is my friend both parties dig up whatever crud they can on the other – and more to the point, regarding this case, do you really not believe that a Master’s Thesis, authored when the candidate was 34, was NOT a well-thought out rendition of his beliefs and thoughts?
Yea, me neither.
I really know better than to chime in here but lordy sakes I just can’t help it……when exactly can we see Obama’s college writings? I’d ask abour Deeds but ya know I kinda like the guy and figure he’s just all mixed up in this whole governor campaign thing. SHUT UP OR PUT UP LIBS.
Yeah now I’ll get blasted. Folks kinda went easy on Aznew. I caught the devil during the whole Virginia Republican Chairmanship thingy. But hey I’m still reading and I don’t much refrain from being blunt.
WE ARE GONNA BRING OUT THE COLLEGE THESIS DEAL NOW? UHHHHHH HELLLOOOOOOOOO DEMS, could we please see some college records from your ONE AND ONLY?
put up please or shut up.
And just my own little note to McDonnell………please no apologies. Fer Real.
And more to the point, Mark, how old exactly was Obama when he finally gave up and dissed his preacher man, Rev. Wright, after sitting in the pew for 20 years more or less? Oh I think he was in his 40′s and close to being elected president.
Spare me please.
This is not the macaca moment you folks are desparately hoping for….unless McDonnell makes it so…….
Up to him and his advisers. I don’t really hold my breath. Time will tell but it’s ridiculous to read and hear the outrage from the left about this college thesis………bout as outrageous as the Kennedy funeral…….uhhhhhhhhhhh
hello……..
I am sorry but credibility is gone for you guys.
Another Conservative – I think the folks here take it easy on me because they pity me for being so deluded
In any event, still waiting for the full recording of the Deeds interview so we can all hear the context of his remarks.
It’s been 18 hours.
[...] have a long list of legislative accomplishments by Bob McDonnell to judge his character by and an audio clip from Deeds where he claims abortion is basically for the poor and [...]
Are you serious? Are you really defending the GOP? The same Republicans who attacked and attacked and attacked Obama for his book, his writings, the relationships he had and even for those he didn’t have – remember Palin’s comment about Obama “palling around with terrorists”? There is nothing off-limits to the GOP – I still can’t believe we witnessed a party attack the patriotism of a combat-wounded Vietnam Veteran while putting two draft dodgers in office. The GOP’s propaganda machine is incredible – and proves Stalin’s argument that a lie repeated becomes the truth.
Sorry dude the GOP is the party of smear and nasty no-holds barred campaigning – frankly it’s all y’all do – never any ideas, never any policy just an endless mud-fest of “death panels” and patriotism questioning. If I were still a Republican I’d leave my party for the insanity and hypocrisy. Heck, with the stuff I see GOP party “leaders” pulling every day it makes me wish I could leave the party again.
Mark. Meet Creigh Deeds. Tell him you think Democrats have all the ideas. He’ll ask you what one is.
Not shocking that you hold Stalin in such high regard, though.
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