Hudson & Fournier: Catholic Countdown to Election 2012, Day 11. Both Sides of Obama's Campaign Mouth

By Deal W Hudson and Keith A Fournier
10/26/2012
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

The mouth of the campaign is looking incredibly wide, the sides are so far apart

When people speak out of "two sides of their mouths" not only is falsehood spoken but laughable incoherence. The only way such a "stretching" of the truth can be effective is by guaranteeing that one group hears the message from one side, and the message from the other side goes to a different group.

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WASHINGTON, DC (Catholic Online) - Don't talk out of both sides of your mouth; avoid careless banter, white lies, and gossip. (Proverbs 4:24)

The Obama campaign should take a look at Proverbs 4:24, because the mouth of the campaign is looking incredibly wide, the sides are so far apart.

The message coming from the Obama campaign and its Catholic surrogates is that the President is "pro-life" and does "not support abortion."

The other message is that you should vote for Obama because he supports "a woman's right to choose."

We have already reported the Obama campaign call to a Catholic voter that touted the President as "pro-life." If you have trouble believing that any Catholic would publicly stand behind this statement, take a look at this article by Prof. Nicholas Carfardi, the former Dean of the law school at Duquesne University. The first sentence, by the way, is an outright lie:

"Obama's Affordable Care Act does not pay for abortions. In Massachusetts, Romney's health care law does. Obama favors, and included in the Affordable Care Act, $250 million of support for vulnerable pregnant women and alternatives to abortion. This support will make abortions much less likely, since most abortions are economic. Romney, on the other hand, has endorsed Wisconsin Republican Paul Ryan's budget, which will cut hundreds of millions of dollars out of the federal plans that support poor women. The undoubted effect: The number of abortions in the United States will increase. On these facts, Obama is much more pro-life than Romney."

Carfardi's article continues, inevitably, to call Romney "pro-abortion." When people speak out of "two sides of their mouths" not only is falsehood spoken but laughable incoherence. The only way such a "stretching" of the truth can be effective is by guaranteeing that one group hears the message from one side, and the message from the other side goes to a different group.

If groups begin hearing from both sides, then the campaign is in trouble. Truth has become a casualty. Well, in the case of the incredibly elastic Obama message machine, it's already happened. At 2.20 p.m. yesterday, the Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Catholics Network, Ted Meehan, received a phone call. Being a veteran of political campaigns, Meehan got out his pencil and paper to jot down what the caller had to say about Obama and Romney. Here is Ted Meehan's report:

"I got a call at about 2:20 p.m. The caller identified them self as being from some generic sounding polling company, i.e., like the Public Policy Survey Associates, and started asking 'qualifying questions.' Was I over 18? Registered to vote? Married? Ethnicity? Age? City, suburbs, or rural? How likely to vote? Voting for Obama or Romney, Casey or Smith? Favorability towards Obama or Romney?"

Then Meehan was asked, "Which candidate is more trustworthy to handle the following issues -- deficit, taxing the middle class, healthcare, abortion, same sex marriage?"

Please note that two out of the five are settled, non-negotiable issues for Catholic voters, making 40 percent of this call about the handling of intrinsic evils.

Then, Meehan told us, came the "push element" of the Obama campaign phone call. The caller said:

"I have a few statements about Governor Romney, and I want you to tell me whether you think these are true, very true, somewhat true, not sure, somewhat untrue, or definitely not true."

"Romney's entire career has been spent taking over businesses, laying off workers, and becoming rich at the expense of others.
Romney wants to take away women's reproductive healthcare.
Romney's policies favor the wealthy at the expense of the middle class.
Romney wants to eliminate Medicare.
Romney plans to raise taxes on the middle class."

When Meehan's answers convinced the caller that he was not an Obama supporter, the call abruptly ended, and when Meehan checked the line for caller ID there was no imprint.

Of course there was no imprint, because the call contained no reality, no truth; it was a call intended to put the shadow of doubt, or fear, into the mind of an undecided voter.

Like the call from the other side of the campaign's mouth claiming Obama was pro-life, this kind of messaging descends from the netherworld of political sophistry -- or in less polite terms, the underground of "Catholic" political consultants who are willing to sell themselves and their Church for the spoils of a Nov. 6th victory.

- - -

Pope Benedict XVI's Prayer Intentions for January 2013
General Intention: The Faith of Christians. That in this Year of Faith Christians may deepen their knowledge of the mystery of Christ and witness joyfully to the gift of faith in him.
Missionary Intention: Middle Eastern Christians. That the Christian communities of the Middle East, often discriminated against, may receive from the Holy Spirit the strength of fidelity and perseverance.

Keywords: campaign 2012, catholic vote, faithful citizenship, Obama, Biden, Romney, Ryan, Prof. Nicholas Carfardi, Deal W Hudson, Keith A Fournier

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1 - 6 of 6 Comments

DarthJ
6 months ago
Virgil Goode 2012!
DLL
6 months ago
Good article! Obama spin. He is an expert. He spins it so that he can please the faculty at Georgetown University,to sound like He is pro-life and all for woman's healthcare and religious freedom. At a planned parenthood gathering he spins it so that their cause is most important to him and that he will support their cause at all costs,because if he does not then woman's rights are compromised. "A woman should not be punished by her having to have some baby for her have to give birth to"! When finished with the spin he is a darling for both groups. They both love him enormously! He is like an old 45RPM dual sided,top 10 hit recording. The conservatives like one side of the record as that is a big hit for them. The radical left wing element likes the flip side,as their popular greatest hit recording. Either way it is political spin designed for only one real purpose.TO GET YOUR VOTE! Than the guy does whatever he pleases after the election. When someone spins it either way like that it is not surprising to hear the media ask themselves,who is the real Barak Obama? Four years and they do not know him. This is always open to debate. The President accuses his opponent of flip flopping. But when someone dual spins his political rhetoric so that his ultimate point of view is not ever really clear,a mystery all of the time,that is no good either. What does he really think? What is he really going to do? For all of the campaigning and all of the political gesturing and rhetoric as well as the SPIN,your guess is as good as mine.
abey
6 months ago
The irony of these demonic phone calls is to the cause of the devil called "Sorcery" to the fear factor through planting seeds of doubt by the Spirit of the Pseudo Christ.
Eamon Hatley-Smith
6 months ago
Deep inquiry methods assist informed choice. After all, not even God takes away the freedom to choose.

However, it is the informed intelligent choice that sifts the rational individual from the irrational. And, with recent advances in technology, understanding surgical procedures has advanced beyond any bayonet and horse thinking in this area, also. Just like an aircraft carrier analogy, inquiry with technology can give higher definition to any procedure.

Then, there is true choice.
Tom McGuire
6 months ago
If we are concerned with the truth about political tactics, we would look at all political tactics, not just those of one political party. The exclusive emphasis on one party lends it self to identification of Catholic values with, in this case, the Republican Party. Concern for the truth requires a mor universal approach.

Rather than focus on political tactics, the articles on the election would do more good if they focused on a wider range of issues. For example the role of government as understood by Catholic Social Doctrine. I found the statement signed by 100 Catholic Theologians, "On Your Shoulders, A Call to Catholics to Protect the Common Good" to be helpful in defining the role of government.

"Government has an essential role to play in protecting and promoting the common good. The error of individualism leads to a mistaken understanding of the role of government. For too long politicians have echoed Ronald Reagan's misleading mantra "Government is the Problem." The Catholic Church, on the contrary, because of its social understanding of the human person, considers government to be as "necessary" for human nature as the family. The state exists to "defend and promote the common good of civil society, its citizens, and intermediate bodies." Thus, while the Church does not offer a specific blueprint for policy, it does view our government's action on behalf of the common good a positive good in itself. Catholic apologists for small government repeatedly invoke a single paragraph from John Paul II's Centesimus Annus which cautions against the excesses of a "social assistance state" ignoring the decades-long papal consensus supporting social insurance and welfare systems. In the same document, John Paul described the "intervention of governmental authority" on behalf of the defenseless as "an elementary principle of sound political organization" taught by the Church for a century. John Paul later stated "One can only rejoice" that "States set up social welfare systems to assist families…and pension funds for retirees." These express a sense of national "responsibility" and "solidarity." "
SaraPalen
6 months ago
trust? that's a good one

what do the dead embassador and those who were with him think about trust. Will they be polled? Whatabout the family of the border patrol. Trust? we cannot trust the president to keep dangerous weapons out of the hands of the bad guys-just take them from the law abiding, but he wants to track our medical records? Trust? don't worry-your conscience right will be protected with me-trust? Don't worry, we will not condone torture-trust? have you seen the message that Barrack Obama aproves-the killling of a child ripped from its mother by it's feet, with its head sliced open and it's brains sucked out-no, not torture, trust me, and don't listen to those medical experts who said it is never necessary. Trust? Obama care will be used for your own good, and we can afford it-trust? we are not like him-we cling to our God for trust. Trust? Trust? the latest campaign ad makes it sound like if you trust him to do it with him for the first time, you will go behind the curtain a girl, and come out a woman. How many girls are told that in America by boys wanting only one thing from a girl. Trust? Obama, I do not trust you. You sound like a desperatae, sex crased teenage boy looking to score another notch in your belt.

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