Tuesday, April 01, 2008

Obama: Children are punishment

Speaking about sex education at an event in Pennsylvania Saturday, Obama said, according to the Christian Broadcasting Network, that he will educate his young daughters but “if they make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby. I don’t want them punished with an STD at the age of 16.” (emphasis added)
And this is the man you want to be President??

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

well I don't believe babys or stds are punishments passed out for wrong doing or rewards for virtue.
they are consquences of sexual activity and it's better to have a president that knows teens will have sex even if they tell you they wont.

JM Bell said...

I have kids. They're a punishment for all the grief I gave my parents. I also have daughters: they're punishment for the way I behaved from when I was about 15 until 30.

Do you not have kids?

(I love my kids, this is a fun punishment)

Anonymous said...

This is embarrassing -
the whole presidential campaign is embarrassing.
What ever happened to America's homegrown values?

Alice said...

Sensationalism aside, he meant that young people do stupid things, and make mistakes, raising a baby when you are still a child yourself is nearly impossible to overcome.

People need to realize that there are consequences to their behavior, and for that reason, I don't agree with Obama that abortions ought to be available to avoid the consequences of "mistakes", but I also think that there are going to be things each candidate would do as president that I disagree with, we have to choose the one who we think will overall, be able to accomplish the things that we see as most important.

Ben said...

Pretty stupid thing to say, even if he believes it. Which he probably does.

Jason The said...

Actually, he doesn't say "children" as you suppose in your sensational title, he seems to be referring to having a child at the very young age of 16.

Cameron said...

Obama said what he believes, and unfortunately that view is shared by millions of people. It reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of the issue.

Bradley Ross said...

I agree that the remark was dumb and I strongly disagree with the sentiment that consequences are somehow unjust or unfair. That said, I don't think it is fair to take the one remark in isolation to define Obama or his views on children. We'd need to see a pattern of this thinking before I'd be concerned on this point.

Anonymous said...

That headline is a perfect example of malicious twisting and deliberate misinterpreting an individual's comments so that they mean the diametric opposite of the speaker's intent. Whoever put that trash together has no interest in truth or intelligent discussion. His/Her only intent was to demean Obama. They don't actually care what he said or meant.
I am definitely in favor of Sex Education! How can ANY intelligent person actually believe that KNOWLEDGE is harmful?!?!? If Obama's girls understand sex and their bodies, maybe they will take the steps necessary to prevent unwanted pregnancy or STD's!! And that may very well be ABSTINENCE!!
Hooray for Mr. Obama!!

Bradley Ross said...

Anon asked, "How can ANY intelligent person actually believe that KNOWLEDGE is harmful?"

I suppose I understand what you're going for, but this is an overly simplistic assertion. After all, you're not comfortable with everyone in the world knowing exactly how to make nuclear bombs and how to culture Anthrax, right?

You surely see benefits to shielding young children from some of the brutal things of this world until they are mature enough to comprehend them and emotionally deal with them, right?

Anonymous said...

"I am going to teach them first of all about values and morals. But if they make a mistake, I don't want them punished with a baby," Obama said.

So, if they make a mistake, you want to provide them with the opportunity to kill the child inside them so they can "erase" the mistake of creating one?

What about the option of giving the newborn up for adoption?

I've been a believer in Obama his entire campaign, but this statement has me questioning him much deeper now. I don't agree with it.

Anonymous said...

"I don't want them punished with a baby, I don't want them punished with an STD at 16."

Mistake = sex at 16

Punishment = STD or Having to raise a baby when ill-prepared to do so.

Education = Hedging your bets against mistakes compounding.

Does abortion get rid of an STD? If not maybe some need to consider the whole statement instead of the part they want to dislike.