Obama vote of present in Il. Senate Okay'd by Planned Parenthood

[illinoisprogressive]

there has been some questions regarding the present that Obama voted while in the State Senate on the Abortion bills.
All that was said is that it was a strategy but, how and why was never disclosed.
The head of Planned Parenthood in illinois tells why the vote was present.


ABC News' Teddy Davis Reports: When Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., voted "present," rather than "yes" or "no" on a handful of controversial abortion votes in the Illinois state senate, he did so with the explicit support of the president and CEO of Illinois Planned Parenthood Council.

"We at Planned Parenthood view those as leadership votes," Pam Sutherland, the president and CEO of the Illinois Planned Parenthood Council, told ABC News. "We worked with him specifically on his strategy. The Republicans were in control of the Illinois Senate at the time. They loved to hold votes on 'partial birth' and 'born alive'. They put these bills out all the time . . . because they wanted to pigeonhole Democrats."

Speaking to ABC News as Obama was preparing to join Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., and the wife of Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., in addressing Planned Parenthood’s national conference in Washington, D.C., Sutherland said Obama approached her in the late 1990s and worked with her and others in crafting the strategy of voting "present." She remembers meeting with Obama outside of the Illinois Senate chambers on the Democratic side of the aisle. She and Obama finished their conversation in his office.

"He came to me and said: 'My members are being attacked. We need to figure out a way to protect members and to protect women,'" said Sutherland in recounting her conversation with Obama. "A 'present' vote was hard to pigeonhole which is exactly what Obama wanted."

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2007/07/obama-abortion-.html

[Kagemusha]

1. So these were constant 'when did you stop beating your wife' votes.

I am expecting giving Obama leeway on this will serve PP a lot better than their support of Holy Joe.

[draft_mario_cuomo]

2. What hypocrisy...Here we have BO changing his votes on a key issue for political gain

This is precisely what many BO supporters claim HRC and JE, especially the former, are guilty of. The difference? There is no credible evidence of the latter doing so. Obama changing his votes on abortion is not disputed.

The strategy was created to protect Democrats representing conservative districts. Obama represented a liberal district, the South Side of Chicago. What was his excuse for not taking a stand? Oh yeah, he wanted to run statewide...

We know if HRC did the same she would be attacked by the same people who are defending Obama doing this as being a slave to polls, not a leader.

[bling bling]

3. Are you powered by Energizer? Because you just keep going....and going.....and going....

and going.....

[draft_mario_cuomo]

4. Is it wrong to change your vote for political gain or not?

Or does it depend on whether the politician in question is Obama or someone else? ;)

[Hekate]

5. Give it a rest.You need someone so pure they walk on water.Obama merely swims faster than the sharks

If you can grasp the analogy, that is.

Hekate