Opinion: Are the Democrats Dodging Abortion? | Newsweek Politics: Conventions

LETTERS
America Welcomes A New President
11/22/2008 12:00:00 AM
PERISCOPE
Executive Orders: The Limits On Change
Adam B. Kushner 11/15/2008 12:00:00 AM
Allies may be dismayed to learn that President Obama can't turn American foreign policy on a dime when he takes office in January, say executive-power scholars. Only a few components of U.S. policy flow from the Oval Office in the form of revocable "executive orders," the commands that presidents sometimes revoke in the first few days. Obama is expected to reverse a few of these—such as the global gag rule, which keeps U.S. money from family-planning groups that provide (or suggest) abortions. But, says Phillip J. Cooper of Portland State University, President Bush made policy using instruments like classified "national security directives," presidential memoranda and signing statements that aren't all listed in the Federal Register, the daily journal of the U.S. government rules and amendments. Digging up every message Bush sent to executive agencies—on subjects from Gitmo to development aid—could take months. Change, it turns out, takes time.
CHAPTER 7
The Final Days
11/7/2008 12:00:00 AM
VII.The Obama campaign ran the biggest, best-financed get-out-the-vote campaign in the history of American politics. It wanted to turn out minorities and the young, groups that traditionally stay away from the polls. For the cautious, self-consciously virtuous Obamaites, this worthy goal posed some special challenges.
CHAPTER 5
Center Stage
Evan Thomas 11/6/2008 12:00:00 AM
In midsummer, the Obama campaign's computers were attacked by a virus. The campaign's tech experts spotted it and took standard precautions, such as putting in a firewall. At first, the campaign figured it was a routine "phishing" attack, using common methods. Or so it seemed. In fact, the campaign had been the target of sophisticated foreign cyber-espionage.
BeliefWatch
A Post-Evangelical America
Lisa Miller 11/6/2008 12:00:00 AM
Just as "race" has a whole new meaning in America this week, so, too, does "faith." For at least four decades, white evangelicals have been the religion-and-politics story in this country. Their power, their rhetoric, their numbers, their theology—all have been so dominant that many of us in the media had forgotten that religious faith could be expressed any other way. Last summer, a colleague and I wrote a profile of president-elect Barack Obama that described his Christian faith—a journey that started with a deeply spiritual but not religous upbringing, progressed through a considerable amount of reading, searching and ambivalence, and culminated in an emotional homecoming in a socially active, black church in Chicago.
SOCIETY
The Silent Issue
Lisa Miller 11/3/2008 12:00:00 AM
It's abortion, stupid. For conservative Christians in this election the most important religious issue isn't gay marriage, stem-cell research or Christmas trees on courthouse lawns. It is abortion (as it has been for at least the past 35 years, since the Supreme Court ruled on Roe v. Wade). When they walk into the voting booth on Tuesday, can they look beyond their fundamental, conscience-driven opposition to abortion as a moral evil? Do they want to? If yes, they may vote for Sen. Barack Obama. If not, they will, despite any reservations, vote for Sen. John McCain.