Well, he did put himself out there and he did use his platform to express controversial opinions, leaving himself open to criticism by those who neither shared his views nor had the same opportunities to publicly put the counter-arguments. He was brave enough to accept the risk of being discredited from that point of view. I neither shared his views on abortion nor had a platform to disagree with him in front of audiences, but please note my first, measured post to this thread. He was an upbeat, cheery, friendly and funny man, he sang anti-abortionist lyrics and there's nothing distasteful about bringing up both those sides of his character. I'm an ardent supporter of women's right to choose, I think he was completely wrong about that and I think he took advantage of his public position to make his case. But that was a small part of him to my mind, and it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that I loved him to bits on each of the numerous occasions I went to his gigs and enjoyed the banter.