Punished?

I've followed politics closely for about fifteen years, and I've heard politicians say things that caused a wide range of emotions, things that made me laugh, shout, scream, cry, groan, growl, and even roar. When I heard this weekend's speech by Barack Obama in which he said if his daughters made a mistake, he wouldn't want them "punished with a baby," for the first time I was literally made nauseous. I've been digging on the web for clarification, some restatement, something where he acknowledges what a disgusting statement that was, but I haven't found it yet.

Maybe it's the fact that I spent the weekend with my five-year-old nephew; maybe it's the fact that four of my dearest friends have had their first child in the past three months; maybe it's the fact that I have witnessed close friends' unplanned pregnancies grow into amazing, gifted, brilliant, compassionate, giving, wonderful human beings, but those words gave me the shakes.

Punished? Punished by whom? Make no mistake, a child is never, never, never, never, never a punishment.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbZJYWjkAPo

(It has been brought to my attention that the poster of this video has made some rather harsh statements with which I would not want to be associated. The link is merely a reference for those who haven't seen the video. That's not where I originally saw it.)