The second-most anticipated debate of the 2022 Senate midterm cycle (Pennsylvania’s upcoming Oz-Fetterman debacle being first), Raphael Warnock against Herschel Walker in Georgia, took place Friday night, and delivered a much different result than the conventional wisdom predicted.
There were several Republican pundits advising Walker not to debate, thinking that the smooth-talking Pastor Warnock would easily carve up Walker, whose accent and delivery style were too problematic to overcome. Lefties thought Walker was too dumb to be on the same stage with Warnock and couldn’t wait to carve him up. And then a funny thing happened. Walker more than held his own.
Now don’t get me wrong. The left still thinks Walker is dumb. Bill Maher launched an expletive-laced tirade against him on his HBO show later that evening. That part of the narrative has not, nor will it change, even when Walker is elected in November, which I think is now a lock.
Walker played to his strength all night by tying Warnock to Biden, which is a great strategy being that Biden is mired at 38% approval in the Peach State. As for the personal morality foibles, that was really a non-issue in this debate because both candidates have enough baggage in that department that the principle of mutually assured destruction came into play. Neither candidate, nor the moderators, really broached the subject.
But it was Walker’s perceived weakness, the abortion question which Democrats think is their salvation issue to keep them in power next year, that was the moment where Walker beat Warnock, and beat him soundly.
Since the Dobbs decision was handed down, both sides of the abortion argument have missed the mark on where the majority of the country is. Hard core pro-abortion types want no limits. Abortion on demand, even up to the point of delivery. That may sound like overheated spin, but that’s exactly what every Democrat, including Raphael Warnock, voted for thanks to Chuck Schumer doing pro-lifers a favor by overplaying his hand and holding a vote to codify Roe. The proposed bill had nothing to do with Roe’s original limits on abortion, and was a no-limits pander vote for the Planned Parenthood wing of the Democratic base.
Pro-life purists, on the other hand, want abortion banned outright. However, they are much more open to being pragmatic in their rhetoric and accepting that the tide is turning their direction. The consensus in the country is to have a deadline somewhere in the first trimester where abortions are legal, then much less so in the second trimester, and then only in the third trimester for extreme life of the mother exceptions. Pragmatic Pro-lifers are increasingly good with that for now, believing that to be a good step in the right direction.
Walker in Friday’s debate backed the Georgia fetal heartbeat law, which does include exceptions for the life of the mother and/or rape and incest. It’s passed Constitutional muster thus far, and seems to be where most Georgians are. Warnock has thrown in with the radical left on the issue and can’t accept the law, and dodged when he was pressed on it. If that’s going to be The issue, according to the Democrats, Walker beat him, hands down. How do I know? Watch this.
Alisyn Camerota on CNN “moderated” a panel discussion on the debate, and turned to GOP strategist Scott Jennings, who noted the obvious that Walker staked out the common-sense approach favored by most Georgians in the fetal heartbeat bill, and that Warnock still is for abortion on demand, including up to birth. Camerota is beside herself. She can’t take it anymore. She knows Warnock lost on it, so she instantly took on the role of Warnock surrogate and pushed back, trying to define what Warnock’s position really is.
“It’s about saving mothers’ lives,” Camerota pleaded, in trying to deny the upper hand Jennings has in the argument, based on, well, the fact that Warnock voted to support abortion with no limits, up to the point of birth. Camerota’s premise doesn’t even hold water in the Georgia fetal heartbeat bill, because again, the bill contains exception provisions for when the life of the mother is in jeopardy.
Even Warnock’s own campaign site does not list any limits on abortion.
Reverend Warnock believes the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade is a departure from our American ideals, and a failure to recognize and protect a core protection for women in this country to make their own health care decisions. Warnock believes it cannot stand, and is fighting to restore the right of Georgia women to make their own health care decisions.
Reverend Warnock has been an advocate for women’s health and reproductive justice his entire life and is proud to have been endorsed by NARAL and Planned Parenthood Action Fund. Since his time as a teen peer counselor in high school and his work with the Georgia Department of Health during college, Warnock has fought to increase safe and affordable access to contraceptives and achieve reproductive justice for women and families.
As a pro-choice pastor, Warnock has both a profound reverence for life and an abiding respect for choice. He fundamentally believes that health care is a human right, and that health care decisions should be left between a patient and their doctor.
Do you read anything in there that comports with where the majority of voters in Georgia are? I don’t. If that patient’s water breaks, and she tells her Planned Parenthood doctor she’s had enough of this, her doctor is going to say, “Put your feet in the stirrups, this won’t hurt very much,” and then grab the power tools and the vacuum. Camerota is left trying to defend the indefensible, and she literally turns her back on Jennings and verbally asks for help from one of two other lefties on the panel.
Don’t let the Beltway media types smoke screening you about Herschel’s sheriff badge prop stunt as why Walker lost. He didn’t lose at all. He showed any potential vote-splitting Georgian, one that will easily vote for Brian Kemp but had reservations about Walker, that Walker will get the job done just fine.
Game over.
