After [Tuesday] night’s vice presidential debate, there has to be at least one person who’s relieved there isn’t a second: Hillary Clinton. From start to finish, Governor Mike Pence (R-Ind.), long considered the stable, thoughtful anchor of the GOP ticket, was in command — calmly beating back a worked-up, over-rehearsed Senator Tim Kaine (D-Va.). For 90 minutes, the duo sparred on everything from the failed Iran deal to tax reform and even the role of faith in each man’s life.

Through it all, Governor Pence was steady and relatable — easily winning the night, according to even the most liberal of media. The Washington Post, New York Times, and Politico — hardly part of the Donald Trump cheering committee — were brutal on Kaine, whose constant interruptions (70 times, counted pundits) did more to turn off voters than rebut the answers his opponent was offering. Each time the discussion took a substantive turn, Clinton’s running-mate responded with personal criticism of Trump, instead of the policy answers voters were hoping for. “Kaine started the debate talking so quickly and trying to load so many Trump attacks into every answer that it made it virtually impossible to grasp any one attack… When he wasn’t trying to stuff 10 pounds of attack in a five-pound bag in his answers, he was relentlessly interrupting Pence,” the Post’s Chris Cillizza writes. “Every single time Pence started to level an attack against Hillary Clinton, Kaine immediately began to talk over him. I’m not sure if that was on purpose or not, but it didn’t come across well — at all.”

Of course, Senator Kaine must have been desperate to change the subject, as Pence effectively went where Trump did not: to the corruption of the Clinton Foundation, Hillary’s private email scandal, and the Democrats’ abortion extremism. For Governor Pence, whose record on life speaks for itself, this was a comfortable topic. Not so for Senator Kaine, whose personal views seem to be in direct conflict with the radical abortion alliance Hillary Clinton demands. Pence skillfully handled both, diving deeper into the culture of death Trump’s opponent so rabidly supports.

“[W]hat I can’t understand is with Hillary Clinton and now Senator Kaine at her side is to support a practice like partial-birth abortion. I mean, to hold to the view — and I know Senator Kaine, you hold pro-life views personally — but the very idea that a child that is almost born into the world could still have their life taken from them is just anathema to me. And I cannot — I can’t conscience about — about a party that supports that. Or that — I know you’ve historically opposed taxpayer funding of abortion. But Hillary Clinton wants to — wants to repeal the longstanding provision in the law where we said we wouldn’t use taxpayer dollars to fund abortion. [F]or me, my faith informs my life… But it all for me begins with cherishing the dignity, the worth, the value of every human life.”

Kaine did his best to escape the extreme abortion label — something made virtually impossible by Clinton’s own record on the subject. The woman who once called for the procedure to be “safe, legal, and rare,” spent her Senate career voting against the unborn 100 percent of the time. There was, as Carol Tobias points out in a great summary of Clinton’s political legacy, “no limit on abortion that she would accept.” And that includes partial-birth abortion — the gruesome, inhumane practice of killing a baby who is seconds away from being born. Trump-Pence, on the contrary, has openly expressed support for the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act — a bill that would outlaw abortion after 20 weeks (when, not-so-coincidentally, eight in 10 Americans would limit it).

In his desperate attempt to connect with a country that overwhelmingly supports the abortion restrictions his party does not, Kaine tried to recover saying, “We really feel like you should live fully and with enthusiasm the commands of your faith. But it is not the role of the public servant to mandate that for everybody else.” That’s interesting, since he and Clinton are more than willing to do just that by forcing taxpayers into a financial partnership with the abortion industry through their pledge to repeal the Hyde Amendment.

Unfortunately for the Democrats, this kind of double standard is to be expected in an ideology untethered from morality. At one point, Senator Kaine seemed to hint at this, saying, “I don’t believe in this nation… where we don’t raise any religion over the other, and we allow people to worship as they please, that the doctrines of any one religion should be mandated for everyone.” If that’s so, whose views will you impose? All laws are a reflection of someone’s moral standard. […] In the meantime, Governor Pence hit the nail on the head when he said: “A society is judged by how it takes care of the most vulnerable.” That’s why we must have a pro-life president.

Originally published here.

U.S. Vets Dying for Obama’s Attention

Nothing says “thanks for your service to our country” like serial abandonment. But that’s the most some veterans can hope for under this administration, which has been at the heart of one of the worst cases of medical neglect America has ever seen. “We need a new sense of urgency,” Barack Obama insisted in 2007 on the hundreds of thousands of veterans waiting for health care. Turns out, it’s actually the man who campaigned on the issue who needed the urgency more.

Two years after the crises in America’s Veterans Administration (VA) was exposed, not much has changed for the nation’s heroes. In a damning report released Tuesday by the VA Inspector General’s office, the health care tragedy continues for at least 200 veterans who died awaiting treatment at the government’s Phoenix facility (the same one that came under fire in 2014 for delaying doctors’ appointments by up to a year). Despite 24 months of “reform,” the fatal incompetence continues, as families grieve the loss of men and women who served this nation that may have been spared had the administration been willing to serve them. In one instance, the investigation found one veteran never received an appointment for a cardiology exam “that could have prompted further definitive testing and interventions that could have forestalled his death.” (I’m sure if the veteran had requested sex-reassignment surgery, he’d have shot to the top of the list!) What’s worse, “nearly a quarter of all the specialist consultations in 2015 were canceled, in part due to employee confusion stemming from outdated scheduling procedures that were not updated until this past August.”

Of course, these scheduling issues were exactly what President Obama said the government would fix. In his town hall with active military last week, Obama told the widow of a veteran who died waiting for a colonoscopy at a VA clinic, “We’re having to rebuild information systems, intake systems… Across the board, we’re working on these issues… And I want zero errors in all that process.” But as 200 families can attest, he’s a long way from that goal. Their loved ones died, not in the line of duty, but waiting for the kind of care their sacrifice should have afforded them.

After more than a decade of war, America’s veterans have all kinds of needs. And how does their country express its appreciation? By ignoring them. None of this should come as a surprise, especially not from an administration that’s spent the last seven and a half years using the military as a mule for its social agenda. It’s a tragic legacy for a commander-in-chief whose only use for America’s troops is fighting one war: the culture’s.

Originally published here.

The Pentagon’s Latest Trans Action

When the Pentagon released a new handbook last week, one thing was clear: the administration’s priorities are as confused as some people’s gender! While the world tries to contain threats from ISIS, and rogue nations like Iran, North Korea, and others, you’ll be relieved to know that the Obama administration is hard at work on its most important mission: making people who identify as transgender more at home in America’s military.

Now that the “grace period” has ended and open transgenderism is a reality in our Armed Forces, Defense Secretary Ash Carter is sending out 72 pages of guidelines on how to best deal with one of the most devastating attacks on military readiness in the modern age. “The handbook,” the Pentagon’s spokespeople say, “is designed to assist our transgender service members in their gender transitions, help commanders with their duties and responsibilities, and help all service members understand new policies enabling the open service of transgender service members.”

How about a manual on how to beat ISIS? Or improve unit cohesion? Or reduce military suicide? While we agree that everyone is deserving of respect, the military is wasting countless hours and resources (neither of which it has) to affirm a behavior that has destructive consequences — not just for the person engaging in it — but for the military at large. As Donald Trump said in his own town hall with retired officers, which Lt. General Jerry Boykin (U.S. Army-Ret.) and I moderated, the only way to salvage our military is by “getting away from political correctness.”

The only question our leaders should ask before every Pentagon policy is made is this: How does this help the military fight and win wars? Profoundly damaging decisions like this one should not be done in the final scene of a failed administration. Before the National Defense Authorization Act is passed, the House and Senate needs to put the brakes on Obama’s latest chapter of social engineering. Congress must stop the administration from putting the final nail in the coffin of military readiness. You can help. Contact your congressman and senators and urge them to fight this dangerous agenda in the lame-duck session.

Originally published here.

This is a publication of the Family Research Council. Mr. Perkins is president of FRC.