This week, TerriPAC and I are sending questions and invitations to the candidates for President.
The invitation is simple - when you're in Florida, please sit down with me so we can talk about some of the most basic of American issues: the role of families, our privacy and our ability to make our own choices about our lives. We can cover it all in 15 minutes.
The questions, I am sure, the candidates will find a tad harder.
They are, of course, along the same lines - how hard will you fight to protect the rights of partners to make decisions for each other? Where is the line, in your opinion, between personal freedom and public policy?
As the candidates respond, or don't respond, I'll post the relevant portions here and on the TerriPAC website. So we can all know more about the people who want to President. And, we're sending the same questions and invitations to candidates of both parties.
Perhaps, had we asked or known more about the answers of the current President, we may have worked, voted or campaigned differently.
After we done our best to get some answers and have discussions on these issues, TerriPAC and I plan to endorse a candidate for President. In addition to financial support from our PAC, I'll do whatever I can to help them win. Just like I did, with your help, for key Congressional candidates in 2006.
In the meantime, please know that I am watching the campaigns unfold with an ear out for statements (or silence) on freedom, privacy and family. And here's some news on the link between the candidates and those issues from our last TerriPAC newsletter.
If you don't get our newsletter, you can sign-up at the website. And, of course, if you support our mission and want to join TerriPAC by making a contribution, you can do that there too.
From TerriPAC News - May/June 2007
When some politicians decided pandering for votes was more important than respecting law and protecting our rights, it sent shockwaves throughout the nation.
Today those shockwaves are washing in and out of the 2008 campaigns—especially those for President.
The Schiavo case is becoming easy shorthand for voters to learn where candidates stand on basic liberties and personal, family decisions.
And, without much surprise, candidates from both political parties are reacting to the overwhelmingly unpopular political intervention by standing up for liberty. Only the most strident and disconnected candidates still cling to misguided notion that Congress knows best. It’s no coincidence that these same, ideologically entrenched politicians are extreme long-shots to win.
Most of the front-runners for President have recently either affirmed their anti-intervention, pro-family stance on Schiavo or back peddled from their previous support of the illegal intrusion.
Rudy Giuliani, for example, has tied himself in knots recently by first supporting the Bush/DeLay policy of politics over family. Then he backed up by moving in the other direction saying the courts should have made the decision. Then he had his campaign "clarify" his position by saying he was right the first time.
Meanwhile, not to be outdone on Schiavo, Senator Barack Obama has moved from saying he supported the Congressional action to saying it was his "biggest mistake." At least Obama didn’t dispatch his campaign to re-clarify his position. That’s progress.
On balance, the Schiavo intervention continues to be a hot potato for Republicans who must choose between the vast majority of Americans who opposed the Bush/DeLay policy and their President and his religious base.
In the end, it may not matter much whether their these candidates found their sense of responsibility due to serious reflection or fear of losing an election. Watching so many politicians who supported the tragic Schiavo intervention lose their elections in 2006, it’s most likely a little of both.
What matters most—and what we continue to work for — is that a great many leaders will now think twice before trampling the rights of another American family. Or, better yet, perhaps there will be more voices in favor of not intervening at all.
Michael Schiavo
Also from that TerriPAC Newsletter:
Obama Wins Former Bush Backer Over Schiavo— Triggered by the President’s behavior in the Schiavo case, one of George W. Bush’s largest donors has bolted from the GOP and backed Senator Obama for President. "I no longer find myself on the same page," the donor said.
McCain: We Acted to Hastily on Schiavo — (Arizona Senator John) McCain...said he and other lawmakers should have taken more time to look at the issue.