By Jonquil Frankham

Wednesday, October 22, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) –”I am now supportive of Senator John McCain and his bid for the Presidency,” says Dr. James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, in a newly released letter.

Dobson’s letter addresses the “stark differences between the two presidential candidates” and the “critical issues that are hanging in the balance.” Of primary importance, says Dr. Dobson, is the “need to elect a pro-family, pro-life President.”

Dr. Dobson, while feeling that the Republican platform does not perfectly mirror traditional values, says that it “comes closest to embracing” them.

The famous family psychologist highlighted the gravity of what he believes is at stake in the upcoming election:

“Between 2009 and 2012, there will likely be two or more opportunities for the President to nominate new justices to the Supreme Court. … The highest court in the land could become stacked – even more than it already is – with justices who will âEUR¦ impose a liberal agenda on the nation. It will likely affect the definition of marriage, religious freedom, and the protection (or lack thereof) of life in the womb.”

Dobson lists four specific reasons for his readers to vote for John McCain rather than Barack Obama, beginning with Senator Obama’s performance during the “Saddleback Forum.”

When asked when a baby gets human rights, the Democratic candidate infamously said, “Answering that question with specificity, you know, is, uh, is, above my pay grade.”

“With all due respect, Senator, if this question is above your pay grade, then so is the job attached to it,” writes Dr. Dobson. Dr. Dobson says Senator McCain gave “very solid and encouraging answers” to questions about both abortion and marriage.

The Republican Party’s platform this year, he tells us, “is the strongest pro-life platform in the history of the party, surpassing even the pro-life advances of the Reagan years.”

Then, observes Dobson, Senator McCain showed his allegiance to pro-life, pro-family positions by appointing Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska as his Vice-Presidential candidate. He could have “embraced a liberal âEUR¦ nominee, such as Senator Joe Lieberman or Tom Ridge.” Governor Palin, he claims, is far more capable of stepping into the presidency than Senator Obama, whose days in the U.S. Senate prior to his candidacy numbered only 143, and who “authored no significant legislation” in that time.

Reflecting on Senator Obama’s charisma, Dr. Dobson relates that as the campaign goes on, he gets more “concerned” about his “liberal views.””Senator Obama’s record is more liberal than that of any other Democrat in the Senate – and that’s saying something!”

“For example, when he was a state senator in Illinois, he voted four times in three years against legislation that would have saved the lives of babies that managed to survive the abortion process.”

Dobson also cites the occasion when the Senator promised Planned Parenthood that he would sign the Freedom of Choice Act first thing in his presidency. FOCA would “overturn nearly every local, state, and federal anti-abortion law passed in the last 40 years,” even those abortion restrictions put in place by the 1973 ruling Roe vs. Wade.

“I cannot support his candidacy because the positions he holds on moral, social and family issues place him at the extreme left of the political spectrum. What the Senator believes and the policies he would seek to implement are on a collision course with the biblical principles and beliefs I have fought to defend for more than 35 years,” the Christian psychologist writes.

The full text of the letter may be found at:
https://www.citizenlink.org/pdfs/2008-10-c4newsletter.pdf