[ninenot]

Maybe there would be a "backlash;", maybe not.

The '60's liberals are no longer the majority--and are, in fact, a shrinking minority.

Younger voters are NOT abortion-happy as they once were.

Finally, since Mass. will NEVER be in the (R) column, who cares? O'Malley could slap Kerry real hard and it would make NO difference to Bush on the downside. It might, however, actually make an upside difference.

[Desdemona]

Maybe there would be a "backlash;", maybe not.

You have a point.

There is also something called currying favor before lowering the boom. It makes people more open to the rougher things a bishop has to say. Not only that, O'Malley had quite a mess to clean up and he just may not have gotten to this.

As for the younger poeple, who knows, there might be public pressure in terms of defending life in the near future.