Posted on 10/19/2010 11:47:46 AM PDT by MarkLevinFan
That’s right. Delaware Democratic Senate candidate Chris Coons can’t name the five freedoms in the First Amendment.
But all you’ll hear from the MSM today is that Christine O’Donnell — correctly — questioned Coons’ claim that the phrase “the separation of church and state” appears in the First Amendment.
Delaware GOP Senate nominee Christine O’Donnell questioned on Tuesday whether the Constitution provides for the separation of church and state.The comment came during a debate on WDEL radio with Democratic opponent Chris Coons, who argued that local schools should teach science rather than religion, at which point O’Donnell jumped in. “Where in the Constitution is the separation of church and state?” she asked.
The audience at Widener Law School was taken aback, with shouts of “whoa” and laughter coming from the crowd.
Coons then pointed to the First Amendment, which states: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
“You’re telling me the First Amendment does?” O’Donnell interrupted to ask.
Following the next question, Coons revisited the remark — likely thinking he had caught O’Donnell in a flub — saying, “I think you’ve just heard from my opponent in her asking ‘where is the separation of church and state’ show that she has a fundamental misunderstanding.”
“That’s in the First Amendment?” O’Donnell again asked.
“Yes,” Coons responded.
O’Donnell was later able to score some points of her own off the remark, revisiting the issue to ask Coons if he could identify the “five freedoms guaranteed in the First Amendment.”
Coons named the separation of church and state, but could not identify the others — the freedoms of speech, press, to assemble and petition — and asked that O’Donnell allow the moderators ask the questions.
“I guess he can’t,” O’Donnell said.
(Excerpt) Read more at michellemalkin.com ...
Michelle Malkin smartly picked up on what should be the most damaging gaffe in the WDEL debate this morning. Christine apparently did not give Chris Coons advance warning of her question asking him to name the “five freedoms guaranteed in the First Amendment.” Predictably, Coons dodged the question.
“The audience at Widener Law School was taken aback, with shouts of “whoa” and laughter coming from the crowd.”
This shows the students at the Widener Law School don’t know the Constitution. That was a poor display of knowledge by them and does not reflect well on the school.
Hmmm, I’ll give him partial credit, since we don’t have five left.
What Constitution? We haven’t had one for about two years now.
ML/NJ
What Is the Separation of Church and State?
http://townhall.com/columnists/ChristopherMerola/2008/11/27/what_is_the_separation_of_church_and_state/page/full/
bump, the MSM is saying she gaffed when it was the other way around
Coons then pointed to the First Amendment, which states: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
Just another case of liberals putting more into the Constitution than is there. The Constitution says what it means, and means what it says without reading between the lines.
Question though...Did Coons actually quote the First Amendment or did he just say the First Amendment and Andy Barr (the original author at Politico quoted by Malkin) filled in the blanks.
I keep a copy of the US constitution in my pocket. I used to carry the pocket sized copy sent out by the Cato Institute. Now I have a copy on my smart phone. It usually shuts liberals up. One refused to sit next to me (My gain) after I had used my copy of the Constitution to win an argument that he thought he had in the bag. O’Donnell should have pulled out and read the First Amendment.
He actually misquoted the First Amendment.
Widener is a Tier 4 law school per USN&WR. Now probably dropped even lower.
The dean should come out with a statement to try to salvage what reputation the school has and is aspiring to. But its students by whooping it up with O’Donnell’s statement have probably wrecked its reputation forever.
http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-law-schools/items/03028
But ,But But President Barack Hussein Obama went to Harvard Law School He was administered a solemn oath or affirmation to support the Constitution didn’t he?
WHY —WHY will he not say definitively that he is a Natural born citizen and qualified for the office under the Constitution he is sworn to defend? Why doesn’t our current
Colorado Senators—or Representative say definitively that Obama is a “natural born citizen”? I get tired of their crap
about him being born in Hawaii -and having been vetted long before the campaign.WHY did not vote for a single DemocRat on th eballot I sent in.
I don’t know if it was smart of her to challenge him in semantics, because most Americans are too uninformed to know the exact wording either.
This was presented on WLS-AM Chicago local news just before Rush’s show as “Christine O’Donnell raised eyebrows today when she challenged...”
WLS news coverage is pretty straight down the middle, with a slight tilt to the right if anything. Definitely no MSM nonsense, yet they fell for the slant of their source (AP, ABC, or whoever)
Being right won’t help ODonnell. For decades schools have miseducated students to interpret “an establishment of religion” as meaning separation of church and state. To them its an established fact, like the sun rising in the east. It will be repeated endlessly as proof she is unqualified and will likely hurt her badly. Coons not knowing the other freedoms will be ignored or attributed to shock at ODonnell’s stupidity.
This may backfire on the Libs.
I think you’re right. Here is and excerpt from the exact AP story from the WLS website. I think one would have to hear the entire debate in context to know what her remark was specifically in response to.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Republican Senate nominee Christine O’Donnell of Delaware on Tuesday questioned whether the U.S. Constitution calls for a separation of church and state, appearing to disagree or not know that the First Amendment bars the government from establishing religion.
The exchange came in a debate before an audience of legal scholars and law students at Widener University Law School, as O’Donnell criticized Democratic nominee Chris Coons’ position that teaching creationism in public school would violate the First Amendment by promoting religious doctrine.
Coons said private and parochial schools are free to teach creationism but that “religious doctrine doesn’t belong in our public schools.”
“Where in the Constitution is the separation of church and state?” O’Donnell asked him.
When Coons responded that the First Amendment bars Congress from making laws respecting the establishment of religion, O’Donnell asked: “You’re telling me that’s in the First Amendment?”
Her comments, in a debate aired on radio station WDEL, generated a buzz in the audience.
“You actually audibly heard the crowd gasp,” Widener University political scientist Wesley Leckrone said after the debate, adding that it raised questions about O’Donnell’s grasp of the Constitution.
Erin Daly, a Widener professor who specializes in constitutional law, said that while there are questions about what counts as government promotion of religion, there is little debate over whether the First Amendment prohibits the federal government from making laws establishing religion.
“She seemed genuinely surprised that the principle of separation of church and state derives from the First Amendment, and I think to many of us in the law school that was a surprise,” Daly said. “It’s one thing to not know the 17th Amendment or some of the others, but most Americans do know the basics of the First Amendment.”
O’Donnell didn’t respond to reporters who asked her to clarify her views after the debate. Her campaign manager, Matt Moran, later issued a statement saying that O’Donnell wasn’t questioning the concept of separation of church and state.
“She simply made the point that the phrase appears nowhere in the Constitution,” Moran said.
“Government shall make no establishment of religion,” Coons responded,
But it still shows a lawyer from Harvard doesn’t know our 5 basic rights in the 1st Amendment what a doofus.
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