The Senescent Man

To those wishful thinking moderates and conservatives who have been saying rather matter-of-factly that Obama only said what he said during the campaign just to get elected, and that he is really much more moderate than meets the eye, to them I say, take a look at this: (HT: The Corner)

Obama himself has signaled, for example, that he intends to reverse Bush's controversial limit on federal funding of embryonic stem cell research, a decision that scientists say has restrained research into some of the most promising avenues for defeating a wide array of diseases, such as Parkinson's.

Bush's August 2001 decision pleased religious conservatives who have moral objections to the use of cells from days-old human embryos, which are destroyed in the process.
But Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) said that during Obama's final swing through her state in October, she reminded him that because the restrictions were never included in legislation, Obama "can simply reverse them by executive order." Obama, she said, "was very receptive to that." Opponents of the restrictions have already drafted an executive order he could sign.

The new president is also expected to lift a so-called global gag rule barring international family planning groups that receive U.S. aid from counseling women about the availability of abortion, even in countries where the procedure is legal, said Cecile Richards, the president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. When Bill Clinton took office in 1993, he rescinded the Reagan-era regulation, known as the Mexico City policy, but Bush reimposed it.

I don't see why we should believe that Obama is going to be any less liberal; than he was in the US Senate where he held the distinction of being the most liberal Senator.  He is going to shock a lot of people in my view, and for a time, with impunity during a honeymoon.

Labels: 2008 Election

// posted by The Senescent Man @ 5:19 PM