http://www.omaha.com/article/20110713/NEWS01/707139884/13#slavery-comment-stirs-uproarPublished Wednesday July 13, 2011
By Robynn Tysver
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
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Bob Vander Plaats, known to many as kingmaker of the Iowa caucuses, finds himself in a national brouhaha after trying to link the gay marriage debate to the stability of African-American families during slavery.
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http://www.omaha.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=OW&Date=20110713&Category=NEWS01&ArtNo=707139884&Ref=AR&maxw=490&maxh=275Vander Plaats
Vander Plaats and his anti-gay marriage group, the Family Leader, has been condemned by comedienne Whoopi Goldberg and others for raising the spectre of slavery in a pledge circulated among GOP presidential candidates.
Two Republicans signed the pledge — Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum. Both have since distanced themselves from the slavery statement. Bachmann says she did not read the pledge’s preamble, which contained the reference to slavery.
That language has since been removed from the pledge, which also asked presidential candidates to remain faithful to their spouses and recognize that married people enjoy “better health, better sex and longer lives.”
The controversial passage stated that, “sadly,” a black child born into slavery in 1860 was more likely to be raised by a mother and a father in a two-parent household than one born now, after the election of the nation’s first African-American president.
Critics on both sides of the aisle argued that the pledge implied that black families were better off during slavery than under the Obama administration, an accusation the Sioux City Republican on Tuesday called “absurd.”
FULL story at link.
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