I would guess that many of us who are pro-choice (loathe the tired “choice-life” terminology) were nonetheless moved by Sarah Palin’s heartfelt and principled decision not to abort her Down syndrome child, revealed to the world yesterday during her initial campaign appearance. It reminded me of something about which I have been ruminating for some time: The preeminent social issues – gay marriage and abortion – are quite separate.  Lumping them together, as is often done by the media and by ideologues on both sides, is insulting to our intelligence.

For me, same-sex marriage is by far the simpler issue.  I am one hundred percent for it on moral, civil rights and scientific grounds. (Sexual orientation is not elective.) And I am surprised so many of my fellow citizens would want to deny others a chance to experience a life of recognized love and commitment, something I have found, through hard experience, to be easily the most fulfilling and socially useful way to live.  It would seem almost, dare I say it, unchristian.

Abortion is another matter entirely. I have had a personal experience in recent weeks. I became the grandfather of twin girls brought to our family by my son Raphael and his partner Phillip. These beautiful girls were conceived in vitro and carried by a birth mother. They emerged healthy and thriving. Staring at them brings tears to my eyes.

It is also a stark reminder of the obvious.  The pro-life people are certainly right about one thing – life does begin at the moment of conception (when else?). Those of us who are pro-choice must wrestle with that uncomfortable fact even as we assert our political view.  In nearly every abortion, a decision is being made between the life (or convenience) of the mother and an already growing and developing life with unique DNA. As much of a religious agnostic as I am, I am seriously disturbed by that.

Still, I remain pro-choice because I would prefer the government not be involved in these highly personal decisions. Also, as we all must acknowledge, if abortions become illegal, they will continue anyway and, once again, become more or less a privilege of the rich. Pretty repellent.

And yet, as I said, I am moved by Sarah Palin’s decision to have her fifth child. In this regard, her morals and her courage are impeccable.  I wonder if I would have done the same.

Or is it both?  How else to explain the former vice-presidential candidate reemerging as a public speaker at Hofstra University  after only one month of “penance” for his monumentally selfish affair.  Meanwhile, recent print editions of the National Enquirer continue to detail the extent of the cover-up and the extensive hush money paid via Edwards’ legal cronies.  There’s plenty of stuff there for a raft of disbarment proceedings and class actions suits by justifably livid campaign donors.  I wonder how much Hofstra is paying him (lectures by bigtime politician’s often carry fat fees).  Shame on the university for having him. At least Elizabeth, according to the article linked above,  has the good sense not to come.

Well, some people walk the walk and others talk the talk the talk the talk the talk…..

Watching Obama’s display last night I was pretty depressed.  Unlike some commentators (Bill Kristol, Jay Nordlinger) I found it the most conventional imaginable speech, as if the tired ideas of a Walter Mondale were dressed in a production by Zhang Yimou.  Yes, the whole affair put me in mind of the Beijing Olympics - all flash and no substance - except they didn’t have a director of the level of the brilliant Zhang, just a lot of fireworks and a pompous set.  Obama looked angry to me.

Meanwhile, McCain has picked a woman. I don’t know enough about Sarah Palin (of course I know some and will know a lot more, I’m sure) but John McCain has once again shown he is willing to, in fact eager to,  move in a positive and (relatively) unexpected direction. He is his own man.  Obama - the agent of change - picked the most conventional of the conventional.  But then his speech was the same way. The media, of course, swallowed like eager, brainless adherents - another indication that liberalism is not only dead, it’s decomposed.

UPDATE: Speaking of walking the walking, although she opposes same-sex marriage, which they all do, Palin seems to be by far the most advanced of all four candidates on gay rights.  She’s actually put them into law.  Way to go. (see Wikipedia)

People have been asking me all day if PJM has any inside dope about the McCain veepstakes.  Nothing  I would trust, though I have heard rumors.  A few days ago it was Romney, until the “how many houses” dust-up.  (Romney has more than a few manses himself.)  Then there was  Lieberman, the McCain pal, but he’s pro-choice, apparently a no-no. This was followed by the woman whispers, especially with Hillary dissed (or not).  But Sara Palin doesn’t have a whole lot of experience and someone said McCain doesn’t get along with Kay Bailey Hutchinson.  Who knew?  Anyway, Pawlenty has risen to the fore as of this writing…. Oh, I forgot - there was a Colin Powell ripple a few days ago.  Wishful thinking.  In any case, it won’t be long before we all find out.

Is there a greater insult to our intelligence than political “talking points” - those utterances of utter banality uttered endlessly through the udders of utterly uxorious campaign surrogates. [Oh, stop. -ed. Okay.]

Well, they were out in force last night  before and after the Hillary Clinton speech - first telling us what she should say and then what she did (or didn’t.).

Who cares? It doesn’t take a rocket scientist, political genius or even Stanislavsky himself to understand the “subtext”  of Hillary’s speech last night.  She hates Obama’s guts - and undoubtedly his wife even more.  Barack stole from Hillary what she thought was rightfully hers.  Fortunately for her, he may well go down in flames himself, leaving her an opening in 2012. Everything she said was predicated on that - just enough to stay friends with the Democratic Party but not so much as to help get Obama elected (assuming she could). She did a fine job of that.

Now everybody knows that - though almost nobody came out and said it.  American politics is all about all pomp, circumstance and “talking points.” Nevertheless, it is endlessly fascinating as pure spectacle. I got an email from Dutch novelist Leon de Winter, visiting California for a year, who said he was transfixed by the convention as “anthropology.”  Veyr Euro of him, but I see his point.

As for me, it put me in mind of that other great piece of American Tradition - the musical comedy - specifically Rodgers and Hart’s The Boys from Syracuse and its great “Oh, Diogenes”.  Sing along… “Oh, Diogenes/Find a man who’s honest/Oh, Diogenes/ Warm him up for me….” And so it goes.  [I thought you weren't doing any more John Edwards posts.-ed. ]

Otherwise how to explain her prancing around to the brain dead “Bush is Hitler” meme, but this time with McCain as bloodthirsty dictator.  It plays right into the “Obama is a witless celebrity” theme the McCain campaign has been employing so successfully.  More likely Madonna doesn’t know or care… But what if she was a secret pro-McCain person?  Unlikely, of course.  But scuttlebutt in Hollywood… and this time it’s pretty reliable… is that Angelina Jolie and Robert Downey Jr. are. Not that it matters.  I think the public is so bored with the political opinions of entertainment personalities, their eyes are rolling back in their heads.

UPDATE: If I were in the Obama camp, this would make me nervous.

I must confess I had never heard of Deborah Wasserman-Schultz - Democratic Congresswoman from Florida’s 2oth - but it’s a long way from LA to Broward County.  In any case she seems like a nice enough woman.  She’s responsible for safety-oriented swimming pool legislation in Florida.

But she sure seemed like a deer caught in the proverbial headlights on Fox News today when asked to justify  Biden’s views on Iran.  (He was one of four senators to vote against declaring the Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization.  There’s a lot more, some of which we will be revealed on Pajamas Media in days to come.) Wasserman mouthed platitudes about the Jewish vote and how it was outrageous for anyone to doubt Biden on Iran and his loyalty to Israel, etc., etc. I wonder how much Wasserman knows about Iran and about the Pasdaran and its Quds force. Not a great deal, I would hope.  Otherwise she would not be so sanguine about Biden’s vote. Any normal Jewish person would cringe.

Note to Wasserman: Stop being a party hack.  This isn’t about Republicans or Democrats.  This is about forces far more important than mere domestic politics.  Study harder. Don’t let yourself be used.

I was very tired last night when I switched on the USA-Spain gold medal basketball game ten minutes late to find Kobe and Lebron already on the bench in foul trouble. Somehow I had sensed it.  This wasn’t going to be easy.  Spain was filled with good players playing loosey-goosey out of their minds.  They had nothing to lose, after all.  And the USA was weak in the paint - no real enforcers to stop the Spanish guards. (Andrew Bynum next time?)  Pau Gasol was doing much better against the USA bigs than he ever did against the Celts… dammit. Sure enough, fourth quarter Los Espanoles were within four and I was wide-awake.

But then it was just like a Laker game.  Forget Lebron. Forget Jason Kidd and his years of experience.  Bring on the Mamba - the best crunch player since Jordan.  Pretty soon things were in hand.  It was like being at Staples against the Spurs.

More here, including Kidd calling Kobe “best on the planet.”

FADE IN:

INT.  OBAMA BEDROOM - LATE NIGHT

BARACK , just back from a speech, is undressing.  He is about to toss his socks on the floor when he notices MICHELLE, already in bed, raising her eyebrows.  He stops, carefully puts his socks in the hamper.

MICHELLE

(leafing through Vogue, very annoyed)

I told them to shoot me on my left side.

BARACK

(getting into bed)

Let’s try to forget it, honey.  We’re under  a

lot of stress.

He puts his arm around her but she’s in a bad mood and unresponsive.

MICHELLE

Did you see the Gallup tracking?

BARACK

(nuzzling up)

An aberration.

MICHELLE

(pushing him away, one track mind)

It’s been the same for two weeks. You’ve got to do something!

Democrats are supposed to be up by twenty in summer.

Barack sits up, obviously disturbed.  She’s right.

BARACK

( looking tentatively at Michelle)

Well… what about…?

MICHELLE

(alarmed)

No, not The Witch!  I told you a thousand times.  I can’t live

with her or that horn dog in Blair House!

BARACK

Okay, okay…

He shakes his head, flummoxed.

MICHELLE

(gets an idea)

Biden!

BARACK

(frowns)

But he said all those horrible things about me. And you always hated

the hair plugs.

MICHELLE

(gestures to magazine)

He’s not running for the cover of Vogue.

BARACK

And he’s been around for centuries. What about “hope” and “change”?

MICHELLE

You still believe that bullshit?

BARACK

(weakening)

The kids at the Daily Kos are gonna hate it.

MICHELLE

All the better!

BARACK

(smiles)

You are a wise woman.

(wraps his arms around her)

Now I know why I married you.

They disappear under the covers.

I’m opposed to guilt-by-association.  I’d better be, considering at various times in my life I hung out with the California Communist League, the Black Panthers including Eldridge Cleaver and their Minister of Information Elaine Brown, Abbie Hoffman while he was a fugitive on the top ten wanted list, Bill and Emily Harris of the SLA, Timothy Leary and Chairman Deng Xiaoping of the People’s Republic of China. I was also recruited by the KGB. (Don’t worry. I turned them down.)

I’m not going into the details here.  [Blatant self-promotion alert] You can read all about them in my memoir BLACKLISTING MYSELF to be published by Encounter Books in January 2009.  Suffice it to say if there were guilt-by-association, I’d be in deep trouble.

But….

1.    I am not running for President.
2.    I am not trying to hide my past associations. [You’re trying to sell books off them.-ed. Indeed I am.]

I’ve been thinking about the latter point reading the various reports of Barack Obama’s relationship with former Weatherman Bill Ayers.  No, I didn’t know Ayers.  So I have no personal knowledge of this.  But I am troubled by the “cone of silence” around the details of their association, including the “cones” erected by the University of Illinois and the Daley machine  that has, despite moments of reform, made the city of Chicago synonymous with corruption in many people’s eyes.

Still, I have nothing to add to that story, which may reveal itself, as the saying goes, in the fullness of time. But I do have some feelings about past associations and what they mean from personal experience.  Like it or not, to one degree or another, they are part of our fabric, though not in a simple-minded sense.  Knowing communists in the past obviously does not make you one now, or then, for that matter. Nevertheless, the 1972 Roger Simon who gave money to the Black Panthers is a building block of the 2008 Roger Simon who now despises identity politics and thinks it a reactionary betrayal of black people.  That past is part of my emotional and intellectual DNA.  If I hid that from you, you would not understand my present, where it comes from and what it means. You would be missing important context with which to analyze my current views.

The same goes for Obama, only his past is being shrouded by the institutions and cronies above.  No matter what the truth is, this obfuscation makes it worse.  Indeed, the obfuscation is the problem, in itself probably worse than almost any possible fact being hidden. (Obama is far too young to have been a Weatherman himself anyway—and, I suspect, far too great a careerist.)   As usual, the cover-up is apparently more serious than the crime.

And yet, what if… arguendo… there is something significant buried in those unreleased Chicago documents that is finally revealed after Obama is elected President?  The fallout could be highly destructive to our country. (And people thought John Edwards running while having an affair was problematic…) In an era that is at once domestically polarized and internationally dangerous, those Chi-town institutions owe it to us to be as transparent as possible.  If past history is an indication, they won’t.