Producer's Desk — democrats

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From my blog at Casting Stones

“The Palin-Biden face-off also scored an incredible 60 percent higher rating for viewers than the 2004 debate between Dick Cheney and John Edwards. The general idea here is that the tens of millions of Americans watched the debate. What did they see?”

Read the complete column…

My latest post at Casting Stones:

Much has been made of the Democratic Party’s new platform plank on abortion. Jim Wallis has hailed the new language as “an historic step forward.” Is it?

Well, Sen. Obama says that “words matter,” so let’s examine the actual words…

Read the complete post…

My latest post to Casting Stones:

Senator Barack Obama is now the Democratic Party’s candidate for the presidency of the United States. Whether you are going to vote for him or not, this is an incredible moment for the grand experiment that is the United States of America.

Here is a comparatively young man (47), a person of color (his father was a Kenyan), who has risen by virtue of his impressive intelligence and skills to being one step away from the pinnacle of success in American political life.

It is indeed fitting, and even poetic, that Senator Obama will give his acceptance speech on the 45th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech in the shadow of the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

Read the complete column…

Kudos to Jeremy Dys (The Family Policy Council of West Virginia) as he pleads with West Virginians for human rights for babys in the Charleston Gazette. Catch the official FPCWV blog here.

EXCERPT: Deciding which innocent life is of more value is not as difficult as Sen. Obama might suggest. You see, every innocent life is priceless. But, a person’s potential for human rights only matters if he or she is given an opportunity to reach it. If our leaders will not recognize human rights for children in the womb, there’s no reason to trust them to do so when children are outside of it. - Dys

In case you missed Saturday’s show notes, they can be found here and here.

Don’t miss Naomi Schaefer Riley’s WSJ interview with Rick Warren: What Saddleback’s Pastor Really Thinks About Politics:

EXCERPT: Sitting on a small stone patio outside the church’s “green room,” I question him further — has he heard that the Democratic Party is changing its abortion platform? “Window dressing,” he replies. “Too little, too late.” But Rev. Jim Wallis, the self-described progressive evangelical, has been saying that the change is a big victory. “Jim Wallis is a spokesman for the Democratic Party,” Mr. Warren responds dismissively. “His book reads like the party platform.” Read the rest…

Also, this just in from the good folks at Barna Research: Young Adults and Liberals Struggle with Morality:

American society has become more intrigued by moral issues in recent years, as evidenced by the fact that 55% of adults discuss moral issues with others during a typical week. But a nationwide survey by The Barna Group indicates that Americans have also redefined what it means to do the right thing in their own lives.

Researchers asked adults which, if any, of eight behaviors with moral overtones they had engaged in during the past week…

Naomi Schaeffer Riley digs into Democrats on the abortion issue at the Wall Street Journal:

According to Rev. Jim Wallis, the founder of Sojourners (a network of liberal Christians), this is evidence that “there’s a common ground possible here.” He said, in a conference call of religious leaders last week, “It’s never been as explicitly stated that the Democratic Party supports a woman’s decision to have their child, and offers her practical support to have her child. It’s an historic step forward.”

But no one should mistake Rev. Wallis’s views for those of most Catholics or the evangelical community.

If Democrats had wanted to “make room” for pro-lifers, they could have. One proposal for the platform was a statement of “conscience” — that is, language noting that people of good conscience can disagree on abortion. This was rejected by the platform writers.

“It appears that the superdelegates are a symbol of liberal elitism. “Yes, you can vote for the candidate of your choice,” but if the people chose unwisely, the party elders, fulfilling the role of elitist “nanny” state, will decide what is “best for the people.” ”

Read the rest at Casting Stones on Beliefnet.com.