Obama's Attack on Conscientious Protection Was Intentional, Everyone Misspeaks
In key respects Obama IS over his head, but Obama's decision to withdraw conscience protection is evil and unAmerican, not good.
Mitt Romney really cares about all of his fellow Americans, including the very poor. He should have said that improving the condition of the great American middle class is key to improving the condition of all Americans, but he misspoke.
Misspeaking is unfortunate, and everyone does it.
For example, presidential candidate Obama obviously misspoke when he referred to 57 other states, but the Obama Administration did not misspeak when it declared war on the freedom of conscience protected by the Free Exercise of Religion Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Presidential candidate Obama won a majority of the so-called "Catholic vote" in 2008, but that was the result of gullibility.
Peggy Noonan is right: The Obama attack on Catholic charities makes Romney's misspeak "look trivial." See "A Battle the President Can’t Win" at http://peggynoonan.com.
The grave danger to the American Republic is not misspeaking by either Obama or Romney.
The grave danger to the American public is that Obama really is determined to "fundamentally transform" it in the most radical, unAmerican ways.
Noonan thinks that "President Obama just may have lost the election" because he "signed off on a Health and Human Services ruling that says under ObamaCare Catholic Institutions—including its charities, hospitals and schools—will be required by law, for the first time ever, to provide and pay for insurance coverage that includes contraceptives, abortion-inducing drugs and sterilization procedures. If they do not, they will face ruinous fines in the millions of dollars. Or they can always go out of business."
Noonan's terse summary: "the Catholic Church was told this week that its institutions can’t be Catholic anymore."
Pastor Niemoller warned:
"First they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.
"Then they came for the Communists and I did not speak out because I was not a Communist.
"Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist.
"Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me."
Secular extremist fanatic Obama is targeting Catholics.
Noonan:
"There was no reason to make this ruling—none. Except ideology.
"The conscience clause, which keeps the church itself from having to bow to such decisions, has always been assumed to cover the church’s institutions."
The good news that Noonan reported is that "the church is fighting back."
Noonan:
"Priests in an estimated 70% of parishes last Sunday came forward to read strongly worded protests from the church’s bishops. The ruling asks the church to abandon Catholic principals and beliefs; it is an abridgement of the First Amendment; it is not acceptable. They say they will not bow to it. They should never bow to it, not only because they are Catholic and cannot be told to take actions that deny their faith, but because they are citizens of the United States.
"If they stay strong and fight, they will win. This is in fact a potentially unifying moment for American Catholics, long split left, right and center. Catholic conservatives will immediately and fully oppose the administration’s decision. But Catholic liberals, who feel embarrassed and undercut, have also come out in opposition."
To be sure, former Speaker Nancy Pelosi is pleased, but she's obviously an ardent radicial politician, not the "ardent Catholic" that she claims to be.
Noonan added that "[t]he smallest part of this story is political."
On that point, Noonan is mistaken.
The political part of the story is huge and critical to America. Obama's decision will open the eyes of many who were blind to what he really is.
In 2008 John McCain said that Obama was a decent fellow.
McCain believed it, but he was wrong.
Romney, on course to become the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, has said that Obama is a good guy over his head.
In key respects Obama IS over his head, but Obama's decision to withdraw conscience protection is evil and unAmerican, not good.
Noonan:
"There was no reason to pick this fight. It reflects political incompetence on a scale so great as to make Mitt Romney’s gaffes a little bitty thing.
"There was nothing for the president to gain, except, perhaps, the pleasure of making a great church bow to him.
"Enjoy it while you can. You have awakened a sleeping giant."
Noona's RIGHT about "awaken[ing] a sleeping giant" and "reflect[ing] political incompetence."
Noonan's WRONG about Obama having "no reason" to do what he did.
Obama is a secular extremist determined to fundamentally transform America and he did precisely what secular extremists wanted him to do.
Thanks be to God, Obama really isn't very bright and approved the despicable action. (If he was, he would have waited until after Election Day 2012.)
Michael J. Gaynor has been practicing law in New York since 1973. A former partner at Fulton, Duncombe & Rowe and Gaynor & Bass, he is a solo practitioner admitted to practice in New York state and federal courts and an Association of the Bar of the City of New York member.
Gaynor graduated magna cum laude, with Honors in Social Science, from Hofstra University's New College, and received his J.D. degree from St. John's Law School, where he won the American Jurisprudence Award in Evidence and served as an editor of the Law Review and the St. Thomas More Institute for Legal Research. He wrote on the Pentagon Papers case for the Review and obscenity law for The Catholic Lawyer and edited the Law Review's commentary on significant developments in New York law.
The day after graduating, Gaynor joined the Fulton firm, where he focused on litigation and corporate law. In 1997 Gaynor and Emily Bass formed Gaynor & Bass and then conducted a general legal practice, emphasizing litigation, and represented corporations, individuals and a New York City labor union. Notably, Gaynor & Bass prevailed in the Second Circuit in a seminal copyright infringement case, Tasini v. New York Times, against newspaper and magazine publishers and Lexis-Nexis. The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed, 7 to 2, holding that the copyrights of freelance writers had been infringed when their work was put online without permission or compensation.
Gaynor currently contributes regularly to www.MichNews.com, www.RenewAmerica.com, www.WebCommentary.com, www.PostChronicle.com and www.therealitycheck.org and has contributed to many other websites. He has written extensively on political and religious issues, notably the Terry Schiavo case, the Duke "no rape" case, ACORN and canon law, and appeared as a guest on television and radio. He was acknowledged in Until Proven Innocent, by Stuart Taylor and KC Johnson, and Culture of Corruption, by Michelle Malkin. He appeared on "Your World With Cavuto" to promote an eBay boycott that he initiated and "The World Over With Raymond Arroyo" (EWTN) to discuss the legal implications of the Schiavo case. On October 22, 2008, Gaynor was the first to report that The New York Times had killed an Obama/ACORN expose on which a Times reporter had been working with ACORN whistleblower Anita MonCrief.