No Pain? No Gain for Either Candidate

HAVE YOU NOTICED HOW THE CANDIDATES LOWER THEIR voices, become more thoughtful and almost reasonable when fielding questions about social issues? It happened in the vice-presidential debate when gay marriage was raised, and it may well have saved President Bush from blowing a gasket in the second presidential debate. His last half hour, when stem-cell research and abortion were discussed, was his best. He stopped huffing about, slipped into Man of God mode. He even accused Kerry of being a flip-flopper in a more thoughtful way.

The abortion question, asked by a young woman near the end of the debate, was...

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