2 of 3

Meacham also asked Obama to clarify his earlier remarks that he didn't want his daughters "punished with a baby" if they got pregnant as unmarried teenagers. "Well, keep in mind, on that same day, I said children are miracles," Obama responded. "If, at the age of 12 or 13, they made what I would consider to be a mistake, in having sex or unprotected sex, and ended up getting pregnant, I think that statistically we know 12- or 13-year-olds who are having children are much more likely to be impoverished, are much more likely to have health problems, are much more likely to have trouble raising that child. And so all I meant was we want to prevent teen pregnancies.'

Obama's recent comments about economically depressed small towns were a major theme in the forum, and provided the only real area of disagreement between the two candidates. In a speech last week, Obama had said that residents of the towns "get bitter. They cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."

"It seem[ed] so much in line with what often we are charged with," Clinton said. "Someone goes to a closed-door fundraiser in San Francisco and makes comments that do seem elitist, out of touch and, frankly, patronizing."

Clinton was careful to mention that she was not denying that Obama is a man of faith. "We had two very good men and men of faith run for President in 2000 and 2004," she said. "But large segments of the electorate concluded that they did not really understand or relate to or frankly respect their ways of life."

Obama said his wording "may have been clumsy," but noted, "Scripture talks about clinging to what's good. … Religion is a bulwark, a foundation when other things aren't going well. That's true in my own life, through trials and tribulations. And so what I was referring to was in no way demeaning a faith that I, myself, embrace. What I was saying is that when economic hardship hits in these communities, what people have is they've got family, they've got their faith, they've got the traditions that have been passed onto them from generation to generation. Those aren't bad things. That's what they have left."

The original Obama quote was the subject of much political discussion over the weekend, and observers after the debate wondered if the subject would now turn to whether Obama thinks "antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment." "aren't bad things," either.

Few attendees of the Forum felt there was a clear winner between Obama and Clinton at the event, which makes some sense since it was not a debate, but rather two separate conversations. (The two candidates shared the stage for only a few seconds.)

But most agreed that there was a clear loser: John McCain. Even the president of the Messiah College Republicans said the presumptive Republican nominee hurt himself, particularly with religious conservatives, by declining an invitation to participate. Attendees across the political spectrum seemed to agree that the Compassion Forum was a paragon of Democrats' strong efforts to reach out to religious voters even as McCain has shied away from more overt discussions of faith and how it affects his policies.

next page... |  2 of 3

share this page

April (Web-only) 2008, Vol. 52