The Real Story of the Democrats' Abortion Plank

By Steven Waldman - Wall Street Journal, Opinion
Wednesday, August 20, 2008 - Web Link
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August 19, 2008

Barack Obama has cast himself as someone who wants to forge common-ground solutions. Reporters have looked for examples from his time in the Senate and the Illinois legislature.

But one need not look that far back. His latest test was over the abortion plank of the Democratic Party platform, and it’s hard to think of a more challenging political balancing act.

On the one hand, he has become convinced that he has an opportunity to win large numbers of evangelicals. On the other, the abortion-rights groups are important constituencies to the party, and winning independent women will be crucial.

And then there was the Hillary Clinton factor. “There was a sensitivity in the campaign with how the language would play with Hillary supporters,” says Rachel Laser of the Third Way, a progressive group that has helped forge a platform compromise.

The Obama campaign made a crucial decision – not to have the abortion rights and antiabortion forces meet. “It was a cordial harmonious process in which neither side talked directly to each other,” said Michael Yaki, the platform director who worked on crafting the abortion plank. During July he held about a dozen face-to-face meetings with groups in a conference room at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington but always made sure that pro-life and pro-choice sides were not scheduled back-to-back lest they bump into each other.