Weighing in (again) on the presidential race, James Dobson had an op-ed yesterday in the New York Times under the headline, “The Values Test.” The “values” by which Dobson and some co-pro-family advocates have decided to test presidential candidates concerns (no surprise here) abortion. A candidate must pledge “himself or herself to the sanctity of human life,” writes Dobson, or else “we will join others in voting for a minor party candidate.” I wonder which “herself” is in the race who might so pledge herself. Maybe the Times’s Politically Correct Guide to Writing (a.k.a., its current style book) imposed on Dobson the awkward “himself or herself” formulation. And who, by the way, actually talks that way? Surely Dobson doesn’t. In any case, Hillary isn’t going to make the pledge. Nor is anyone else who might win the Democratic nomination (all of them himselves). As for the Republicans, no candidate is female, but all of them, save for Giuliani, would make the pledge or pass some equivalent test. So if Giuliani is the nominee . . . will Dobson and company actually bolt the party? And who would the “minor party candidate” be that could win their support? Which bullpen is he or she warming up in? Dobson didn’t address the impact of third-party candidacies on the outcomes of presidential races, but Ross Perot did help give us eight years of Bill Clinton, and thus could be said to have assisted the rise of Hillary Rodham Clinton. Perhaps Dobson will reconsider his implicitly anti-Rudy position.
