McCain can't come close to Obama's ability to raise funds. He knows it. He also knows that the GOP, OTOH, is rolling in money and will finance vicious smears, lies and attacks with impunity just as they did against Kerry (and McCain in 2000). Obama needs to level the playing field.

In case you haven't been following recent polls, Obama looks to have a strong hold on most, although not all, Hillary supporters. Especially women. For being 2 weeks as the Democratic candidate, he's doing very well. But wait until Denver. Wait until gas prices rise yet again. Wait until the fall as parents start writing checks for their children to attend college. Wait until Iraq bites us on the ass yet again by failing to meet benchmarks.

Obama and the DNC will need all of their money to bury McCain in Bush/GOP failed policies. Let the gloves come off.

Just make sure that the criticism you have against Obama is a fair one. I agree that it's fair to criticize his shifting stance on taking public funds. However, if one doesn't also admit readily that this simply had to happen, there was no other choice given the deeply problematic nature of campaign funding, then there's a real lack of honesty occurring.

It sounds like you've been a voter for quite some time. It's been 23 years for me. I've always agreed with campaign finance reform in principle.Boy,did I get a schooling after 2000. There are too many loopholes in the process.

They need better educations, more job opportunities and community support. They clearly aren't getting that support at home. I'd be so ashamed as a parent if a child of mine came home thrilled to be knocked up at 16.

Fighting ideological wars doesn't work. Vietnam showed us that and we seem to have missed that lesson, because we are still mired in Iraq.

Vietnam was fought, wrongly, by the U.S. as a means to block communist incursion into the South. The facts on the ground, such as deep and growing resistance to U.S.-supported dictators and human rights abuses against those who protested, were ignored in favor of sustaining the narrative of eradicating communism. Sounds familiar.

If there is a single reason to doubt McCain's credibility on solving the Iraq problem, it is his apparent lack of understandng of how we failed in Vietnem. Decades later, McCain clearly doesn't see how and why we failed. With this track record, we certainly could be in Iraq for 100 yrs. That would probably be what it would take to "win" this war.

That should be the title, followed by "Are all Voters Pro-choice to the bitter end". The answer is of course NO.

There are many democrats and other voters who want a different approach on abortion-rights. They don't want McCain and his overturn Roe V. Wade approach. To consider alternatves is not backpedaling, it's addressing the concerns of voters.

It's amazing to me reading the litany of complaints on this site. Obama is clearly chipping away at any advantage the GOP seeks to have on "wedge" issues, like guns, faith and abortion. What part of the GOP strategy have some of you been missing over the past several years? They shove these relatively unimportant issues in front of the electorate every time they have a tight race, and the Democrats flounder in response.

Obama isn't floundering, he's making it damned near impossible for McCain and others in the GOP to grab a hold of him and paint him as some wild-eyed baby killing liberal. We know they'll try. But why isn't it better to forward a MODERATE approach on wedge issues like abortion, especially when so many of the voters have more moderate views?

Lastly, I haven't read in this article or in thread comments a cogent attack on Obama's late-term abortion stance. From what I gather, states have varying laws, making an attack on this issue (taken as a whole) quite difficult. Is there a specific state law we are diicussing? A particular procedure?

Contrary to your opinion, most people understand that abortion is a moral issue because it involves ending a life. Women having control over their bodies is simply the legal counterpoint (and a powerful one at that.) But don't dare imply that most democrats or even most women agree with your perspective. You and others who hold that view are very much in the minority in this country.

Abortion is a moral, medical and legal issue which is why it is complicated, far more so than either the authors of this piece or you would like to admit. The issue that relates to Obama's comments, specifically, are the most contraversial abortions: late-term. On this issue, Obama is supported by an OVERWHELMING majority of Americans, including me.

Anyone who has had a baby in recent years knows that viability has scaled down to below 27 weeks. Doctors perform in utero surgeries on fetuses this young and even younger. Abortion is ending a life, period. That is a medical, legal and MORAL fact. As medical science improves, however, it becomes more and more difficult to support ending the life of a viable, late-term baby. Obviously, saving the mother's life is a perfectly good reason. Others, not so much.