Cokie Roberts: 'This Democratic Convention Was Really Over the Top in Terms of Abortion'

"I think this Democratic Convention was really over the top in terms of abortion. Every single speaker talked about abortion. And you know at some point you start to alienate people."

So astonishingly said ABC's Cokie Roberts on Sunday's This Week (video follows with transcript and commentary):

COREY BOOKER, DEMOCRATIC MAYOR FROM NEWARK NEW JERSEY: The reality is that the real differences between the two platforms: one believes in abortion under no circumstances -- rape, incest, the life of the mother. The other one says, hey, a woman has a right to choose, especially in those circumstances.

COKIE ROBERTS: Except you took out, on the issue of abortion, you took out language from previous platforms that said it should be safe, legal and rare. And I think this Democratic Convention was really over the top in terms of abortion. Every single speaker talked about abortion. And you know at some point you start to alienate people. 30 percent of Democrats are pro-Life. And this becomes…

BOOKER: Hold on. Stop for a second. We had leaders of the Catholic Church, leaders in the Catholic faith, in our convention. I'm every single speaker, I was one of them, I didn't mention abortion at all. What we didn't mention was that we don't think we should be gutting Family Planning. We don't think we should be attacking Planned Parenthood. If you want to make abortion safe, legal, and rare, support women's rights.

ROBERTS: But you took that out of the platform.

I'm frankly shocked and even more pleased to hear Roberts say this.

For almost three straight days, the Democrats bludgeoned Americans with talk of unrestricted abortions and free birth control.

This might play well in Manhattan, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, but in the vast percentage of this country between the coasts with unemployment stubbornly above eight percent - and really far higher if measured more accurately than the Labor Department currently does - the average American doesn't see these issues as being anywhere near a top priority.

As such, I quite agree with Roberts that this was "over the top" and that Democrats did indeed "alienate people."

Brava, Cokie! Brava!

(HT @BrentHBaker)