Exit polls or final results: where's truth?

[Beet]

he's going through one of the standard stages of left-wing denial.

Various stages include: (a) blaming the nominee, (b) blaming the electorate, (c) blaming the oppostion, ad naseum.

Kerry did slightly better than I expected he would because he was largely sucessful in running away from his record.

Example: How many of the voters know how Kerry voted on the Laci Peterson law?  Of those who did know how he voted, how did they vote?

Many saw that as a subtle step towards banning abortions under the guise of an emotional ploy.

Thats because it was. Would Republicans give a sh*t about pregnant women if it didn't help them on abortion? We all know why this law was passed.

[Beet]

he's going through one of the standard stages of left-wing denial.

Various stages include: (a) blaming the nominee, (b) blaming the electorate, (c) blaming the oppostion, ad naseum.

Kerry did slightly better than I expected he would because he was largely sucessful in running away from his record.

Example: How many of the voters know how Kerry voted on the Laci Peterson law?  Of those who did know how he voted, how did they vote?

Many saw that as a subtle step towards banning abortions under the guise of an emotional ploy.

Thats because it was. Would Republicans give a sh*t about pregnant women if it didn't help them on abortion? We all know why this law was passed.

I'm sorry, but where to get the idea of terminating a pregency without the pregent woman's consent (or by consent of guardian/next of kin) shouldn't be a criminal offense.  This doesn't exactly sound like a pro-choice position.

The point is that the law would never have been passed if it wasn't for the political gains involved.

[Beet]

The point is that the law would never have been passed if it wasn't for the political gains involved.

this isn't about the pregnent woman making a choice not to carry the potential child to full term.

Actually it is. The difference between your nose-punching example is that there is not a large ideological movement dedicated to recognize noses as human beings.

[Beet]

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So, how many people have been tragically murdered and have had their noses bashed in? Did Congress go and pass a law providing additional damages if the nose was bashed in during the murder? The truth is the Congress exploited the Laci Petersen case. It used her tragic murder to pass this law, which served its own ideological interests.

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Nobody is disputing any of this, obviously.

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The truth is, if this law did not bring society closer to accepting the eventual overturn of Roe, if the status of the fetus was not such a huge ideological magnet, it never would have been passed. I am not saying it "cannot" be subject to legislation. All I am saying is that Congress's goal is to do everything it can to push the ideological pro-life position, and this bill was a product of that aim.

[Beet]

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Carl,

I tend to agree with you. While Roe is not the first or only case where the Court has interpreted questionably, it fits into a broader pattern which was too activist, and also that scares me as well. The Court will inevitably make some law, but it should use its power as conservatively as possible and act as a check on the other branches. However, I do support upholding the case law that has already been decided in the past under most circumstances.

On the matter of restricting abortion rights, neither side is willing to accept many compromises, because they feel it would be "appeasement" and lead to worse things down the road. Hence, Kerry's vote against the Laci Petersen law, which he would have voted for if not for the abortion issue, & conservative opposition to stem cell research. In practice, limited restrictions were held up by the Court and have been enacted in most states. Both sides should focus on policies to reduce abortion, a shared goal, and where there are many policy areas they should both be able to agree on.