President Obama is always best when on the ropes. And when the pro-life right wanted to use Obama’s Notre Dame commencement yesterday to highlight the president’s pro-choice position, Obama responded the way he always does.
He delivers a speech that goes beyond the protest and attempts to bring us to common ground.
That’s what Obama, our ” man of the scrupulous middle,” does best. He showed his finesse again by delivering what I think is as good a speech as there can be on abortion today. It doesn’t solve the problem, but tries to frame the issue so at least we can talk about it.
More than a “we agree to disagree,” it was a speech that boldly suggests we need to work toward finding a solution: Common ground. How do we get there? As Obama said, with “Open hearts.Open minds. Fair-minded words.”
That’s why he’s president.
Go beyond the soundbites you may have heard.Here’s the excerpt from Obama’s speech that impressed me: Continue reading Who made Alan Keyes pope? President Obama puts abortion debate in its place at Notre Dame