While many on the right side of the Republican Party have questioned John McCain’s pro-life commitment — Barack Obama is giving him the benefit of the doubt. At his Farmington Hills, Michigan, town hall, Obama was asked about how the Supreme Court would be affected after the ‘08 election.

“There are some people who focus on what would happen to Roe v Wade,” Obama said in response to the question. “I think it’s fair to say if John McCain wins, that would be overturned. You know during his tenure the Supreme Court, you know, is one vote away from that - I think Roe v Wade is worth preserving,” he continued.

He went on to say that while Roe v. Wade generates a lot of buzz, other issues are at risk under President McCain — not “sexy, high profile issues,” but “bread and butter issues” like Equal Pay, which Obama has said both McCain and his running mate, Sarah Palin, oppose.

He concluded, “I don’t believe that the courts should spend all their time intervening in our daily affairs, but you know what we do expect, what we should expect from our laws and from our courts is that everybody gets a fair shake and that everybody has access to the courts. That everybody gets their day, and that’s what I’m going to be fighting for when I am President of the United States.”

Barack Obama has not yet reacted to this morning’s Supreme Court decision striking down the 36 year ban on handgun ownership in the District of Columbia, focused as he is on an economic competitiveness summit currently in progress in Pittsburgh. But he was asked about his thoughts on the case during a press conference yesterday in Chicago, saying that he sees the Second Amendment as granting an individual right to bear arms, but that local governments should have the right to impose common sense restrictions on gun ownership.

“What I’ve said is that I’m a strong supporter of the second amendment. But I do not think that that precludes local governments being able to provide some common sense gun laws that keep guns out of the hands of gang bangers or children, that local jurisdictions are going to have different sets of problems, and that this is a very fact intensive decision that has to be made,” he said. “But I do think that the second amendment is an individual right. So what I’d like to do is wait and see how the Supreme Court comes down and evaluate the actual reasoning in the case, to see how broad or narrow the decision’s going to be.”

The Obama campaign is already backtracking from last year’s declarative statement supporting the handgun law (”Obama believes the D.C. handgun law is constitutional”), calling it “inartful.”

UPDATE: in an actual REaction, Obama releases a qualified (hopefully more artful) statement of support for the ruling.

“I have always believed that the Second Amendment protects the right of individuals to bear arms, but I also identify with the need for crime-ravaged communities to save their children from the violence that plagues our streets through common-sense, effective safety measures.  The Supreme Court has now endorsed that view, and while it ruled that the D.C. gun ban went too far, Justice Scalia himself acknowledged that this right is not absolute and subject to reasonable regulations enacted by local communities to keep their streets safe.  Today’s ruling, the first clear statement on this issue in 127 years, will provide much-needed guidance to local jurisdictions across the country.

“As President, I will uphold the constitutional rights of law-abiding gun-owners, hunters, and sportsmen.  I know that what works in Chicago may not work in Cheyenne.  We can work together to enact common-sense laws, like closing the gun show loophole and improving our background check system, so that guns do not fall into the hands of terrorists or criminals.  Today’s decision reinforces that if we act responsibly, we can both protect the constitutional right to bear arms and keep our communities and our children safe.

CHICAGO, Ill — Barack Obama said he’s not worried that Bill Clinton hasn’t delivered a splashy endorsement, and that he’s committed to helping Clinton’s wife pay down her substantial campaign debt in a wide-ranging press conference at the Westin Hotel today.

Obama also objected to the characterization that his decision to opt out of the public financing system he once promised to work to preserve was a flip-flop — denying that he’d ever committed to staying within the system in teh first place. “If you recall my original statement, it was prompted by the fact that everybody had said, including John McCain, that they were looking to opt out of the system,” he said. “It was on our own initiative without any prompting that we wrote to the FEC” to preserve the option of remaining within the system. “So the answer is no, I don’t think that it is going to damage my credibility at all.”

John McCain’s called that an “arrogant refusal to concede that he broke his word to the American people.” Spokesman Tucker Bounds writes that “everyone in American knows that Barack Obama refused to keep his commitment to public financing because of the money,” calling it “typical politics.”

On the Clintons, Obama said he’s looking forward to having Bill Clinton campaign for him across the country — and that the former president’s low profile support in the form of a statement from an aide is understandable. “I’m going to be appearing with Senator Clinton, the former president’s wife who was involved in an epic, historic primary with me, and then I’m going to be campaigning with her on Friday,” he said. “The former president wouldn’t want to upstage what is going to be, I think, a terrific unity event.”

“If the question is do I want Bill Clinton campaigning for us, for the ticket, leading into November, the answer is absolutely yes. I want him involved. He is a brilliant politician. He was a outstanding president. And so I want his help not only in campaigning but also in governing. And I’m confident that I’ll get that help.”

(more…)

done

PEMBERTON, NJ — Sen. John McCain ripped the Supreme Court’s decision on Guantanamo Bay detainees Friday, calling the ruling “one of the worst decisions in history.”

“I think that it is it opens up a whole new chapter in interpretation of our constitution, that says that people who are not citizens of this country and are enemy combatants–some of them still ardently seeking to destroy the United States of America and all that we stand for and believe in–are now granted habeus corpus rights,” McCain said, refering to the 5-4 decision that found that foreign detainees have rights under the constitution to sue in civilian courts. “We will regret very much in the days and months and years ahead this decision by the United States Supreme Court.”

The presumptive GOP nominee, joined by Senators Joe Lieberman and Lindsey Graham at a press conference, said he plans to “exhaust” all legislative options to narrow the impact of the decision and will first take aim at “eliminating the frivolous suits, the complaints about diet or whatever, reading material, or whatever it is, and try to more narrowly define it.”

Sens. Lieberman and Graham also trashed the decision at the press conference.

McCain initially said he had “concerns” about the decision an hour after the ruling was released Thursday, but after a day to digest the ruling he took his language up a notch.

“Our first obligation is the safety and security of our nation and the men and women who defend it. This decision will harm our ability to do that,” McCain said at a town hall meeting prior to press conference, where he also took the opportunity to blast Obama’s judicial appointment philosophy.

“Senator Obama applauds this decision and he supports it…I strongly supported Justice Roberts and Justice Alito, Senator Obama opposed them and voted against them on ideological grounds, something which is precedent breaking from the past,” McCain said, noting that he had previously voted in Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer, who both supported the Court decision, even though he didn’t share their judicial philosophy.