OBAMA A "MODERATE DEMOCRAT?" That's how Planned Parenthood understood him during his time in the Illinois legislature, according to reporting from ABC News. With the organization's blessing, Obama voted "present" rather than "no" when it came time to oppose a "partial birth abortion" ban and parental notification requirements for minors seeking abortion. Thanks to Lynn Harris at Salon's Broadsheet for pointing this out. Harris uses my reporting of the Planned Parenthood speeches yesterday as a jumping off point for her own assessment of the campaigns' reproductive justice platforms, and comes away liking Elizabeth Edwards, who, she writes, "really threw down." UPDATE: TAP's own Garance Franke-Ruta was actually all over Obama's reproductive rights voting record in this March piece on Hillary Clinton. Garance is pretty tough, writing, "Barack Obama, by contrast, has not been willing to stake out strong opinions in this arena." --Dana Goldstein
