Kerry on abortion
In today's Boston Globe, columnist Eileen McNamara wonders, not unreasonably, how someone with such a view could have had, for the last 20 years, a strongly pro-choice voting record. McNamara notes that she had assumed that, on this issue, Kerry dissented from the Church's position that life began at conception.
William Saletan has what I consider the best book on the politics of abortion (Bearing Right); he argues that conservatives have largely won the war over abortion rights, at least politically. Comments such as Kerry's reinforce the point.