McCain's disdain for women's issues has been apparent throughout his career.

Somebody needs to put together a commercial to hammer this point home. That 'air quote' thing bugged me at the time. It seemed was dismissing women's health concerns as being nothing more than a tactic by 'pro-abortion' forces. That moment showed McCain's (and the Republican party's) true colors on this issue. They see no middle ground that want ALL access to abortions blocked.

Obama hit that one out of the park.

that's a really great blog post... thanks Sarah!

He also doesn't know how to pretend he cares about Palin's special needs child. Earth to McCain: The baby has Down syndrome, not autism.

A) McCain is evil on this topic. Unfortunately, even more evil are the people he's appeasing and getting votes from by being that way. That's what's scary- that so many people agree.

2) This post makes me wish I worked for Broadsheet, just to have IM conversations like that, and be able to publish them. Awesome.

caught this "reproductive mental disease" from too much close contact with Moosealini. He should have used protection, like noise-canceling headphones with Blur playing at max volume.

During the debate over legalizing abortions that took place in legislatures before Roe vs. Wade, it was often suggested that an abortion should be justified to spare the life OR HEALTH of the mother. "Health" was often further defined as physical OR mental health. To opponents of legalizing abortion, the "mental health" reference was seen as a sort of catch-all classification that could justify just about anything and thus make "abortion on demand" legal in all but name. Sen. McCain's remarks are probably grounded in this argument.

Thanks for the quick blog about McCain's airquotes. I've been emailing back and forth with all my women friends and that was the moment during the debate when we audibly gasped.

The phrases we're using to describe McCain range from "heartless bastard" to "paternalistic schmuck."

I realize that this was an IM exchange, but really-- a blog post can use capital letters at the beginning of the sentence. Punctuation is nice too. Don't make your posts utterly unreadable, please.

I was amazed when he did that. I mean, all these pro-life types can get up on their high horse and throw statistics at you about how many people people are pro-choice or pro-life and so on and so forth, but pretty much across the board, people on both sides tend to be a lot more lenient about abortion when the life of the mother is in danger.

Just goes to show McCain's campaign is going off the deep end and he's willing to say whatever he thinks the "base" wants him to say.

Speaking of the republican's stance on abortion, this ad that Kos pointed to being run right after the debate in the DC area, really hits home. The girl in the ad says that she was raped and she got pregnant, and that Sarah Palin wants the government to force her to take the pregnancy to full term. I can't do justice to the emotion in this ad obviously, but I thought I should share it.

http://contrarytopopbelief.blogspot.com/2008/10/sum-up-of-last-nights-debate.html

Something about 'health of the mother' being an exaggeration to cover pretty much anything? What did he say after 'look'? I couldn't see the debate, so I'm not sure what his position is. Did he simply claim that the concept of 'health of the mother' had been stretched to cover anything, or was there some other point? Did he give examples of what he meant?

McCain's a bit of a cunt.

Let me just say, for the record, I love vagina, in almost all of it's legal, of age, forms. Although I'm not a fan of a lot of hair, tends to get stuck in my teeth, I totally get that the steps necessary to create such a depilation is a hell of a lot of work. Seriously, shaving my legs for professional swimming; no way I could do that every week (although I did get a little better at it, less blood anyway). Anyway...so it should be noted that my use of the word "cunt" here should not, in any way, be seen as an attack against women, their bodies, or the genitalia in specific. I merely use the word "cunt" as an generic insult intended to convey my utter hatred of the old geezer. And although the history of the word is intended to convey hatred, it's hatred is against women; a more modern usage (allowing for the fact that "cunt" is still used in it's historical sense) is one in which "cunt" has become one of the worst words imaginable, and as such, should be used rarely, if ever. So, my usage of the modern meaning should go to show the extent of my hatred for McCain viz. that there are no other words in the English language that adequately convey my feelings and thus I have to go to a word that's been condemned by society as a whole.

I just realized I'm turning into a lawyer.

There were three moments that revealed how dismissive McCain is of women and issues relating to their well-being:

1. the "health of the woman" moment, which, quite frankly, was truly shocking and stunning -- his tone and comment should tell any woman where he really stands in his attitude about women's health and rights.

2. obviously, and related, his belief on Roe v. Wade and his clear intention of appointing judges to overturn it.

3. and lost in the shuffle was his off-the-cuff remark -- and typical GOP talking point -- that the equal pay case Obama mentioned would have been a victory for trial lawyers. Absolutely no empathy or sympathy showed for women and their plight for equal pay in the work place -- something McCain has shown disdain for before.

Those three moments alone should push any female voter who was undecided or unsure (or who had the mistaken belief that McCain is moderate on women's issues) completely to Obama's camp.

I can't believe in a race where McCain has to win the moderates, and win over moderate women voters big, that he couldn't even hide his contempt for their issues better.