John McCain, he of the 0% NARAL rating, just declared his support for overturning Roe. As Scott and Lindsay point out, McCain's federalism justification for this is contradicted by many of his other positions, including his support for a Constitutional amendment to ban most abortions. In addition to McCain's support for teaching intelligent design creationism in the schools, it's another thing to tell your friends about when they start getting all googly-eyed about this supposed moderate.
This reminded me of something in Ramesh Ponnuru's The Party of Death. For a long time, conservatives loudly supported large-scale measures like Constitutional amendments and overturning Roe. But lately, focus on late-term abortions and parental consent laws have become the things that conservatives speak more vocally about. Ponnuru thought this was strategically the right move for Republicans. It's a matter of playing the wedge issue game, raising the profile of issues on which more people are on your side, and slowly chipping away at abortion rights. Let's hope that McCain's opposition to Roe, and his support for amending the Constitution, raises the profile of the the broader issues on which Democrats have the advantage.
