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JOHNSTOWN, Pa. A day after John McCain tried to soften the rhetoric of his angry supporters toward Barack Obama, running mate Sarah Palin described Obama as a radical supporter of abortion rights, saying it's not negative or mean-spirited to talk about the Democratic candidate's record.
Speaking at a rally in a packed minor-league hockey arena in Johnstown, Palin accused Obama of consistently supporting abortion legislation as a legislator in Illinois and in Washington.
“In times like these with wars and financial crisis, I know it may be easy to forget even as deep and abiding concern as a right to life, and it seems that our opponent will forget that,” Palin told about 6,000 supporters in the arena. “He hopes he you won't notice how radical, absolutely radical, his ideas on this and his record is until it's too late.”
She criticized Obama for not supporting so-called “Born Alive” bills in the Illinois Legislature in 2001, 2002 and 2003. They would have defined any aborted fetus that showed signs of life as a “born alive infant” due legal protection, even if doctors thought the fetus could not survive.
Obama opposed the 2001 and 2002 measures because he thought they were backdoor attempts to undermine Roe v. Wade. Obama said he would have been “fully in support” of a similar federal “born alive” bill that President Bush signed in 2002, because it contained wording protecting legalized abortion, according to FactCheck.org, a nonpartisan, nonprofit watchdog Web site operated by the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg Public Policy Center.
But Obama voted in committee against the 2003 version of the state bill that was almost identical the federal act with similar federal abortion protection clauses, FactCheck.org found.
Palin reminded the audience of a comment Obama made in Johnstown in March. Reacting to a question about HIV/AIDS, Obama said he backed a curriculum that includes abstinence and contraception.
“I've got two daughters — 9 years old and 6 years old,” he told the gathering. “I am going to teach them first of all about values and morals. But if they make a mistake, I don't want them punished with a baby. … So it doesn't make sense to not give them information.”
“We called him on it,” Palin told the crowd. “Americans need to see his record for what it is. And, please, it is not negative, it is not mean-spirited, to talk about his record.”
Palin's remarks about Obama provoked boos and at least one cry of “Killer” from the audience. The barrage came a day after McCain sought to quell rising anger among his supporters toward Obama at campaign events.
When a woman at a town hall meeting in Minnesota called Obama an Arab on Friday, McCain took the microphone from her and told the crowd that his Democratic rival is a Christian.
“I have to tell you, he is a decent person and a person that you do not have to be scared of as president of the United States,” McCain said to boos and groans from his supporters.
The crowd at Palin's rally on Saturday wasn't as raucous or vitriolic as audiences at some recent McCain-Palin events. One man toward the rear of the arena occasionally shouted “Terrorists,” “Throw (House of Representatives Speaker Nancy) Pelosi in Jail,” or “Socialist.”
The man, Toby Caudill of Shade Gap, Pa., said he was shouting because he's angry because he believes all “terrorist states support Obama.”
