Whoa, this is impressive.

I am doing a quick scan of yesterday’s email and read Bill Saletan’s take on Hillary Clinton’s speech on abortion. I don’t like Hillary. I respect her; I think she’s brilliant, but arrogant and divisive - and just her name gets the Right steamed.

But I digress. Here are a few gems from Saletan’s article, titled “Safe, Legal, and Never,” which you should read. She has some terrific ideas, ideas that could literally save the Democrats. Read this. I’m going off to get a transcript of the speech. I’ll post it tomorrow.

”Clinton isn't trying to end the abortion war. She's repositioning her party to win it.”

“… Abortion is "a sad, even tragic choice to many, many women," said Clinton. Then she went further: "There is no reason why government cannot do more to educate and inform and provide assistance so that the choice guaranteed under our constitution either does not ever have to be exercised or only in very rare circumstances."
“Does not ever have to be exercised. I searched Google and Nexis for parts of that sentence tonight and got no hits. Is the press corps asleep? Hillary Clinton just endorsed a goal I've never heard a pro-choice leader endorse. Not safe, legal, and rare. Safe, legal, and never.”
“Once you embrace that truth--that the ideal number of abortions is zero--voters open their ears. …”

“… "Seven percent of American women who do not use contraception account for 53 percent of all unintended pregnancies," Clinton said. That number drew gasps from her pro-choice audience. I bet if she translated it to abortions, it would knock folks in Ohio out of their chairs. How many abortions are you willing to endure for the sake of avoiding the word "condom"? Clinton says we can cut the abortion rate through sex education, money for family planning, and requiring health insurers to cover contraceptives. What's your plan? Ban abortion and monitor everyone's womb like Romania did? Or ban it and look the other way while the pregnancies go on and the quacks take over? … ”

“… [Clinton] blasted the Food and Drug Administration for dragging its feet on approving Plan B, a morning-after pill. Then she demanded that the Justice Department add discussion of such pills to its treatment protocol for rape survivors who "may have had an unwanted pregnancy physically forced upon them.” Aiming at cultural conservatives as well as liberals, she asked, "How is it possible that women who have been so victimized by violence can be victimized again by ideology?"

“… An average woman who wants two children will spend five years pregnant or trying to get pregnant and roughly 30 years trying to prevent pregnancy," she observed. You don't have to be against motherhood to line up behind birth control as the best anti-abortion strategy. You just have to be for it.”