Reactions to the Faith forum?

Here comes the media spin.

Some of my final thoughts. The forum was held at a religious university. That probably affected the audience reaction. He wasn't speaking to the voting public, but to the religious voters.

He did another hyperbole. Now, not only is he the one who has done the most for gays and the most against anti-semitism, he's the one who's done the most to reach out to churches.

He didn't answer several questions directly, such as whether life begins at conception and whether he supports people making end of life decisions. On the latter, he restricted his answer to whether people should be able to use painkillers if that might hasten their demise.

Update: Comments now closed.

The second section of our live blog on CNN's Faith Forum is below the fold. Use the regular comments section below if you want others to see your comments. More...

By Big Tent Democrat

Jeralyn is tied up right now, so we will start the Live Blog in the traditional fashion.

Campbell Brown is explaining that the questions will be deeply personal. Grrreat. Sheesh. Anyway, the Live Blog continues on the flip.

Clinton up first.

By Big Tent Democrat

CNN:

The Democrats will discuss faith, politics and policy tonight on CNN at a forum co-sponsored by Faith in Public Life. The event will air beginning at 8 p.m. ET

Campbell Brown will moderate along with Newsweek's Jon Meacham. Jeralyn and I will live blog this event.

Let's make this an Open Thread.

By Big Tent Democrat

Speaking for me only

On MTP the Press, Bob Shrum said:

[Obama's] not running for sociologist in chief, he's running for president. So I think he wishes he hadn't said it quite this way . . .

Indeed. As I wrote:

Personally, I have never seen a pol say what Obama said. Political scientists, bloggers, intellectuals, ME, yes. But pols? Never. See, pols have a different job - get votes. Obama already has trouble getting white working class votes. This statement certainly does not help him.

Fighting for the "truth" of the statement would be simply bad politics. Obama has expressed his regrets and hopefully, will move on. Maybe his online "creative class" supporters will catch up soon.

By Big Tent Democrat

Speaking for me only

Nico Pitney notes a Bill Clinton 1991 statement:

"The reason (George H. W. Bush's tactic) works so well now is that you have all these economically insecure white people who are scared to death," Clinton was quoted saying by the Los Angeles Times in September 1991.

Pitney thinks (Pitney clarifies that he takes no position on whether the statements are equivalent; of course others have taken that position when linking to Pitney) that is equivalent to what Barack Obama said about small town voters being bitter and clinging to their guns and their religion. I do not. Obama said:

So it's not surprising then that they [rural voters] get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.

Bil Clinton was critiquing Republicans, not voters. Obama's statement was construed, and not unfairly, as critiquing voters. But more importantly, this line of defense for Barack Obama is incredibly foolish. Bob Casey got it right. Express regrets and move on. I hope other Obama supporters catch up soon. They are hurting Obama now.

Bump and Update: Hillary took off the restraints in PA today:

She made the argument that Sen. Barack Obama's comments could cost the party the election and that the party has been seen as out of touch by male candidates in the past. Clinton also criticized Obama for not "owning up to his remarks."

Original Post:

Don't miss reading John Harris and Jim Vandehei at Politico and their new article positing that far from trying to throw the proverbial kitchen sink at Barack Obama, Hillary has been exercising great restraint.

According to Politico, Hillary believes that Obama cannot win in November. The article says, if Hillary felt free to really speak her mind, here are the points she'd make:

More...

By Big Tent Democrat

Have I found a candidate to really fight for in this election? Via Kevin Drum, Josh Green writes:

Though his talk of change and building a movement echoes Obama's, Franken's appeal is altogether different. He doesn't seek to unite Republicans and Democrats, as Obama does, but rather to draw sharp contrasts, as Dean did, in a style of chesty confrontation. I watched the speech with a young Navy officer and Iraq veteran named Tim Wellman Jr., who was wearing the military equivalent of a letterman's jacket, embroidered with his dates of service and where he'd deployed, with a couple of Franken stickers slapped on. Though it doesn't get nearly the attention his political activism does, Franken was participating in USO tours long before it was fashionable among Democrats, and has kept it up with trips to Iraq and Afghanistan, despite his opposition to the war (though he did not initially oppose it). I asked Wellman what drew him to Franken. "He brings a clear vision of right and wrong," he said. "He's been very strong about confronting Republicans on their own issues, like strength and war." Other Democrats in the audience said much the same thing.

(Emphasis supplied.) A REAL Dean Democrat? A real Fighting Dem? Then that is the guy for me. Go Al Franken!!

Newsweek spends three online pages discussing Obama's foreign policy experience. Shorter version: Is a multi-cultural upbringing the kind of foreign policy experience that makes one best equipped to be Commander in Chief or President? (More on this here.)

The article focuses on Obama having grown up in Indonesia. Some quotes from the article:

• Obama says he's more experienced than McCain or Hillary:

[L]ast week Obama signaled that he'd had enough of these attacks. Not only did he not lack experience, Obama cockily told a fund-raising crowd in San Francisco, but "foreign policy is the area where I am probably most confident that I know more and understand the world better than Senator Clinton or Senator McCain."

• From a neutral Democrat:

Even some Dems who'd favor him in any contest against McCain also worry that Obama is overplaying his experience. "I don't know whether he's drinking his own Kool-Aid," says a former senior member of the Clinton administration who is not backing either Democratic candidate but would talk only on condition of anonymity because of his private-sector job. "I'm all for talking to the Cubans, or to the Iranians. I'm just not sure he's the guy to do it. The biggest administrative job he ever had was collecting articles for the Harvard Law Review."

More....

By Big Tent Democrat

On CNN Late Edition, Obama supporter and Pennsylvania Senator Bob Casey said that Senator Barack Obama regretted his remarks and that Obama should not be judged solely by those remarks. Casey said that Obama made a poor choice of words, took responsibility for them and expressed his regret for any hurt he had caused.

More . . .

Speaking to ABC News this week, former President Jimmy Carter said he will not endorse a candidate before the Denver National Convention:

"The only thing I know is that, I have not made an endorsement, and don't intend to, until the time of the convention."

He also laid out his view of the superdelegates' role:

Carter said he agreed that superdelegates should not overturn the will of the people but that "any superdelegate who wishes to deviate from that opinion should be perfectly free to do so." He went on to warn that "it would be a very serious mistake for the Democratic Party... if a candidate had the majority of popular votes, the majority of delegates and a majority of states -- all three -- were the superdelegates to vote contrary to that, I think it would be very difficult to explain."

In other words, for Carter, it boils down to a trifecta of:

• majority of popular vote
• majority of delegates
• majority of states

By Big Tent Democrat

Speaking for me only

Oliver Willis writes:

Hillary Clinton and her surrogates sure feel a strong need to echo right-wing attacks versus Sen. Obama. And that’s fine with me. At the end of the day this will teach us that no matter what the Clintons cannot be trusted anywhere near the leadership of the Democratic party in the future.

(Emphasis supplied.) I guess when Obama's camp says Hillary will "say and do anything," that repeating a "Right Wing attacks" is ok to Willis. But let's leave that aside. Willis' post reminded me of what Barack Obama said in 2006 about Dems and religion:

Democrats, for the most part, have taken the bait. At best, we may try to avoid the conversation about religious values altogether, fearful of offending anyone and claiming that - regardless of our personal beliefs - constitutional principles tie our hands. At worst, some liberals dismiss religion in the public square as inherently irrational or intolerant, insisting on a caricature of religious Americans that paints them as fanatical, or thinking that the very word "Christian" describes one's political opponents, not people of faith.

Seems like Barack Obama forgot to heed to his own repetition of "Right Wing attacks." He appears to have "taken the bait" in his San Francisco remarks. Obama 2006 is quite harsh in his criticism of Obama 2008.