GRANTHAM - Tonight’s Compassion Forum with Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama is about the most curious political event in at least the Pennsylvania primary if not the entire contest since voting started in January. Clinton and Obama aren’t here to necessarily talk about the stumbling economy, propose solutions to the slumping housing market, rail against oil companies and corporate CEOs or push for a withdrawal of troops from Iraq. Nope. The purpose of tonight’s forum is to address what tonight’s sponsor, Faith in Public Life based in Washington D.C., calls “compassion issues.”
According to tonight’s program, those “compassion issues” include: global AIDs, poverty, human rights, torture and (SURPRISE!) abortion.
I’ve talked to some who feel tonight’s forum (not a debate) is a chance for Clinton and Obama to show their more human side, something the public and reporters don’t often see because candidates try to stay on message and deliver well-written but oft-repeated stump speeches. They’re expected to tell stories about how their faith created their platform on the above issues (although, I bet, we’ll hear about other “compassion” issues like the divide between the wealth and the middle and working classes).
There’s a political side to this, of course. And I think Obama has the most to risk tonight. That’s because the word “religion” and the name “Obama” cannot be uttered in the same sentence today without Obama’s Chicago pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, popping into the conversation. With just nine days before Pennsylvania’s primary, it’s curious that Obama would enter troubled waters after many political observers feel that while the Wright controversy may never be fully behind Obama, it certainly has stopped being the focus. This much can be said about Obama, though, and that he confronts these issues head on, whether wisely or foolishly, something John Kerry failed to do in 2004 with the Swift Boat veterans.
For Clinton, raised a Methodist, I don’t doub there’s going to be a lot of references to her upbringing in Scranton as she tries to connect with voters. Clinton has the most to gain, I think, from tonight because it’s been a rough three-week stretch for her campaign. She could benefit from a heartfelt, genuine moment, a sign that she isn’t as scripted as her critics say she is, that underneath the tough-talk and calculating politician is someone who truly is compassionate, not merely hungering for the world’s most powerful executive position. Remember the end of the Texas debate? The tears in New Hampshire? Both of those gave her a bump with voters, most definitely in New Hampshire.
6:40 p.m. There’s a discussion going on about why John McCain turned down the invitation to tonight’s Compassion Forum, and it’s a fair question. Why is the presumptive GOP nominee not in attendance tonight?
For one thing, McCain has sewn the Republican nomination up. He’s made a few appearances and a few speeches, but he is not in full-blown election mode. From that perspective, there’s no need right now to appear at a small Pennsylvania college at a place a majority of Americans cannot name and get in the middle of the Democratic contest.
There’s no urgency here for McCain. He has plenty of time, more than six months, to talk to voters about issues and solutions, including a discussion about his faith. A slip up here would be damaging to his campaign, and at a time when he didn’t need to run too hard.
I would also guess another reason is he doesn’t want to appear publicly next to Clinton or Obama, thus avoiding any comparisons of which one would appear to have more energy or the better ability to debate McCain in the general election. To do so would be to possibly influence the end result of the Democratic primary, and not necessarily in a way favorable to McCain.
7:45 p.m. From CNN.com about a Q&A between Clinton and reporters:
After a weekend spent making direct appeals to gun owners and church goers, Hillary Clinton said Sunday a query about the last time she fired a gun or attended church services “is not a relevant question in this debate” over Barack Obama’s recent comments on small town Americans.
“We can answer that some other time,” Clinton said at a press conference held in a working class neighborhood here. “This is about what people feel is being said about them. I went to church on Easter. I mean, so?”
8:19 p.m.Clint’s performance so far has been a little uneven. I thought she was on target when hitting Obama on the “bitter” comment, but since then she’s been rambling and dodging in her answers about when faith sustained her. In other words, she trying not to utter the names “Clinton” and “Lewinsky” tonight.
She improved though right before the commercial break with her answer on Terry Shiavo and abortion. She was unapologetic about her believe that life does not begin at conception but the “potential for life” does, and she said the government should not intervene during end-of-life decisions for families.
8:41 p.m. Clinton found her cadence and her voice on the question about why God allows innocent people to suffer. She says regardless of the reason, the very existence of suffering is a call to everyone to act and to help.
8:45 p.m. Jon Meacham of Newsweek asks, “Does God want you to be president?” And Clinton’s response is not to presume to know what God wants, then she went on a heartfelt tangent about humans having gone on a shared journey together in this life.
8:47 p.m. Not exactly a warm moment between Clinton and Obama when they cross paths on the stage. I’m hearing he is steamed about how they are bringing out an entire Army division of verbal assaults aimed at his “bitter” comment. They shook hands but he turned his attention to the moderators right away. Anyone remember the California event when they embraced and talked together for a very long time? Those days are long gone.
9:01 p.m. Rerun Obama’s answer on when life begins. You’re going to see that over and over and over again if he becomes the Democratic nominee. He admitted he wasn’t sure. Republican attack machine just found a new source of fuel.
9:17 p.m. I’d give Obama a C for his answers tonight. He struggled at times, and he’s been typically long-winded.
On sex education, Obama’s calling for abstinence and contraceptions to be part of educating people about STDs and HIV/AIDs and pregnancy. His answer on evolution I think is in line with a lot of people in this country who think creationism and evolution are not necessarily incompatible, that it’s not a black-and-white choice between faith and science.
I’m still cringing over his answer on when life begins.
9:29 p.m. The commercial break seems to have helped Obama. He’s back on message, very strong rhetoric, and it helped that the questions thrown at him were one’s he was probably well prepared to answer: Rev. Jeremiah Wright and his attendance at an school in Islamic Indonesia and how to curb poverty.
