It seems everyone agrees that Barack Obama neatly handled Tim Russert's question about whether he believes there is life on other planets.
In last week's Democratic presidential debate, Obama replied: "You know, I don't know, and I don't presume to know. What I know is there is life here on Earth and that we're not attending to life here on Earth. We're not taking care of kids who are alive and, unfortunately, are not getting health care. We're not taking care of senior citizens who are alive and are seeing their heating prices go up."
Of course, his answer was well-received by the Democratic partisans in the audience. But I have to tell you, if I had Barack Obama's glasshouse record on children and old folks - or the record of Hillary Clinton or John Edwards, for that matter - I'm not sure I would be throwing stones.
What do I mean? Well, for all their blustery talk about what they are going to do for kids and the elderly, the fact of the matter is, with Democrats in power, the most dangerous places in America are mothers' wombs and senior citizens homes.
Obama and Clinton and Edwards and the rest of their ilk gladly will tell you all the wonderful things they're going to do for children and older Americans. But the truth is they won't even protect their lives, as the Constitution of the United States demands.
On both ends of the age spectrum, they are, to say the least, squishy about the right to life. They believe an unborn child's life can be taken right up until the child's birth. They also believe the elderly and the infirm can be euthanized like dogs without their consent. And we're supposed to trust them to help children and old folks? Come on!
If they take complete power in 2008, as they plan, your federal tax dollars will be subsidizing abortion deaths and the involuntary deaths of handicapped people and senior citizens. I guarantee it.
That's where they are taking us. That is their agenda. It should be clear for all to see. Yet plenty of Americans are being fooled. They really think they have a right to health insurance. No one has a right to health insurance. We have a right to work hard so we can buy the things we want in life. But no one has a right to health insurance any more than we have a right to food. No one has a right to a house, either. It's up to each of us to exercise responsibility, work hard and set priorities about what is important to each of us.
At this point, Obama or Clinton or Edwards would say: "Well, what about children? They don't have the ability to work for health insurance? Don't they have a right to it?"
There isn't anyone I know who wouldn't help a child in need. There isn't any hospital in America that would deny a child in need. But creating new rights, as the Democrats want to do, actually ensures just the opposite. It doesn't encourage compassion. It doesn't encourage responsibility by parents. It shuffles the responsibility to government - to you, the taxpayer.
And remember, if government bestows a right to you, it can take it away just as easily. After all the incentives toward personal responsibility are broken down, after government has taken over health care and other essential programs formerly within the purview of family, government will be in a position to start determining who will live and who will die. This is so simple, yet many Americans are about to be seduced into taking a bite out of this apple.
Life on other planets? I hope so, because we may need to find an escape from this one soon.
