We've come along way since JFK

[question everything]

being the first Catholic candidate.

Kerry was, and now Biden, Dodd, Kucincih - that I am aware of.

Kerry did not handle the abortion question adequately and I hope that if any of these gentlemen is the candidate, that he will be prepared.

When Kerry put his hand on his heart and said that he, personally, was against abortion, he lost all credibility on this subject, and, perhaps, on others.

The way to handle this is to emphasize sex education, and funds for adoption and for health care for babies and infants. And neo-natal care and severe punishment for anyone threatening abortion clinics and doctors.

And perhaps go with Ruth Bader Ginsburg's concept of equality, rather than privacy.

In 1985, Ginsburg, then a federal appeals court judge, argued in a law review article that the court should have emphasized "a woman's autonomous charge of her full life's course." Citing decisions on sex equality, she contended that Roe vs. Wade was "weakened … by the opinion's concentration on a medically approved autonomy idea, to the exclusion of a constitutionally based sex-equality perspective."

In this week's case, Ginsburg, now the only woman on the court, attempted to re-conceive the foundations of the abortion right, basing it on well-established constitutional principles of equality. Borrowing from her 1985 argument, she said that legal challenges to restrictions on abortion procedures "do not seek to vindicate some generalized notion of privacy; rather, they center on a woman's autonomy to determine her life's course, and thus to enjoy equal citizenship stature."

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=217&topic_id=5296

[NewYorkerfromMass]

1. I resent your dismissal of Kerry's honesty

it's no stretch to believe that one is smart enough and has the integrity to separate their personal religious convictions from established law and that you cannot take away the freedom of others to do what they deem best for themselves.

[question everything]

2. Unfortunately, it is not enough to be honest

and I do not doubt Kerry's. But one has to be able to transmit this to the voters. This is why we have TV debates, and YouTube... The reality - whether we like it or not - is that candidates are being measured by appearance, by how they are perceived.

[ShockediSay]

3. Believe what you like; Ron Paul reportedly target of right wing hit

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=7675

Offered is one report; not an opinion as to factuality

"Talk amongst yourselves, I'm all verklempt."

[silverojo]

4. Kucinich is a Croatian name

He's only part Irish. :)