John McCain’s simple statement at Saddlebrook might open up a can of worms for him in the general election on the issue of abortion. He clearly placated conservatives with his answer, but it also brings up a host of issues regarding brith control and abortion that he may not want to get into.
As I mentioned before, his clear statement will potentially turn off thousands of independent pro-choice women.
But, as Nancy Gibbs points out in Time, McCain will now have to answer very complicated questions about birth control and stem-cell research that are raised by his bright-line definition. As we’ve seen, McCain is terrible on domestic issues when he needs to get into the details. He often contradicts himself, and he’s not very good at nuance in these areas. The abortion mine field could be a huge problem for him in the fall.
Of course, Obama will face his own issues on abortion, which may hurt him with Catholics and Reagan Democrats. He can only hope that McCain creates his own problems with this issue as well.
