Posted on 05/21/2009 10:11:09 AM PDT by presidio9
When Notre Dame, the nation's best-known Catholic university, asked resolutely pro-choice President Barack Obama to receive an honorary degree and deliver the commencement address this year, it caused intense controversy in Catholic circles. About 50 U.S. bishops publicly opposed the president's planned appearance, which violated their 2004 directive that Catholic universities "should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles."
On Sunday, graduation day came to Notre Dame, and so did Obama - who was overwhelmingly welcomed. In a warm, conciliatory speech, he didn't shy away from abortion, saying that the two sides' views are fundamentally "irreconcilable." Yet he also said that both sides must respect each other and should work together to reduce the number of abortions.
Once again, this president displayed his gift for making his most strident opponents marginalize themselves. He comes across as the kind of politician who genuinely sees those who disagree with him as opponents, not enemies. When a strong abortion-rights supporter like Obama is not only honored at the nation's most important Catholic university (in terms of cultural symbolism), but enthusiastically embraced, times are changing.
In his Sunday speech, Obama implicitly recognized that most Americans - including American Catholics, a majority of whom voted for him - do not place abortion at the center of their political identities. It may defy logic and irritate activists on both sides, but on abortion, a broad majority of Americans are in the mushy middle.
Americans are weary of this fight, which is no doubt partly why Senate Republicans signaled over the weekend that they would not stage a fierce abortion battle over Obama's forthcoming Supreme Court nominee. But Americans are more uncomfortable with abortion. A new Gallup poll finds that for the first time, a majority (51 percent) describes itself as "pro-life." Other polls show that young Americans, in particular, are not only increasingly pro-gay but also increasingly anti-abortion.
Abortion is not the defining political issue it once was. Religious Right old-guard stalwart James Dobson told his followers last week to forget dealing with this White House. By contrast, younger religious conservative leaders, like Pastor Rick Warren, remain opposed to abortion but work with Obama and other liberals on issues of mutual concern - and the White House is planning a more formal outreach effort to abortion opponents this summer.
These are positive developments. As a newspaper that supports a woman's right to choose, we are pleased that America has a president committed to preserving that right. We also are pleased that America has a president who sees abortion opponents as fellow citizens worth approaching with "open hearts, open minds (and) fair-minded words."
No matter which side of the issue you're on, that's change we can all believe in.
BWAHAHAHAHAHA. Yeah, sure.
He also states “We are going to change how Americans live in the 21st Century.” God has spoken.
“We also are pleased that America has a president who sees abortion opponents as fellow citizens worth approaching with “open hearts, open minds (and) fair-minded words.”
Of course, the paper printed the number of pro-life people the o has appointed to his cabinet just to demonstrate he is really serious about “approaching” abortion apponents”.
Obama calmed nothing. He roiled the waters with arrogant and disrespectful presumptions and used rhetorical tricks to deflect from the real issue of the humanity of the unborn child.
Obama’s past policy was to support the slaughter of any child that happened to accidentally survive an abortion. He may still hold that opinion. I have no reason to believe he doesn’t.
So when we’re talking about respectful treatment of him at a religious institution, and him deftly deflecting criticisms, I just have to state that if this doesn’t cause one to feel like puking, not much will.
“About 50 U.S. bishops publicly opposed the president’s planned appearance,”
They can not even get their facts straight. About 50. How about 75 + nothing like being over 50% off the mark. No wonder that these lame jerks are going out of business.
“About 50 U.S. bishops publicly opposed the president’s planned appearance,”
They can not even get their facts straight. About 50. How about 75 + nothing like being over 50% off the mark. No wonder that these lame jerks are going out of business.
“As a newspaper that supports a woman’s right to choose” ... they will say or do anything, no matter how phony or fake to justify their grandstanding position.
Odumbo is all words and emotions. That is what appeals to the libtards.
The Genius of Barack Obama is that he is a half-crazy leftist who talks the talk of a moderate. Obama can get away with it because he has the MSM doing the heavy lifting of bashing the right.
Consequently, when his opponents screech that he is a baby-killing proabort socialist, while he talks about 'fair-minded opponents', they look like crazies and he looks like a bridge-builder.
We have to make people realize that his teleprompter'd words mean nothing. It's his actions (and past votes) that are extreme, dangerous, intemperate, and radical. And wrong.
I agree. And I would add, the public needs to be educated about our media, so that they will recognize it for what it is.
The poll actually says that for the first time a MAJORITY of Americans want to see Roe Vs. Wade overturned, not that they want it "safe, legal and even more rare," as the President and his liberal friends are suggesting.
In his Notre Dame speech, Obama endorsed "sensible conscience clauses"--- yet his HHS has abandoned their enforcement of the conscience clauses already passed by Congress (the Church Amendments, Coats Amendment, and the Hyde/Weldon Amendment). Isn't it "sensible" to enforce the conscience measures our elected representatives have approved over the past 35 years? What's wrong here?
In his Notre Dame speech, Obama said we must respect others' convictions, whether they are for or against abortion: yet he will compel pro-life citizens to become accomplices to abortion, by requiring to to finance, through our tax dollars, the very thing we find morally intolerable.
We respect Obama, and he kills babies. He respects us, and he makes us pay for it. What's wrong here?
Again in his Notre Dame speech, Obama said opponents of embryonic stem cell research may be upholding the sacredness of life, "but so are the parents of a child with juvenile diabetes who are convinced that their son's or daughter's hardships can be relieved."
He didn't mention that adult stem cells have shown repeated success, in laboratory trials involving animals, at reversing diabetes, and have even produced functioning, insulin-producing islet cells in humans, while embryonic stem cells have shown no such success.
And at Notre Dame, he gets one of the world's most prestigious Catholic podiums to broadcast his self-serving, factually deficient arguments, and nobody can even challenge him on this. This is "dialog"? This is "exposure to challenging ideas"?
What's wrong here?
He wants to sit down with the Iranian Nutjob and yet sees Dick Cheney as an enemy of America.
The charade is up on his passive-aggressive Liberalism.
If a person believes abortions should be legal for ANY reason, they list them as "pro-choice." This means under their definitions, if you believe abortion should only be legal in cases of rape and to save the life of the mother, you are "pro-choice." The second thing they do is list any politician who believes in ANY restrictions on abortion as being "anti-choice." So, a politician who thinks abortion should be illegal in the third trimester is "anti-choice." The third trick is to imply a medical reason in the question, by phrasing it as "between a woman and her doctor." There is an implication that there's a medical reason for the abortion.
Oh, and if they want to justify letting girls get abortions during school hours and not notifying the parents, pollsters ask, "Should high school students have access to off-campus health services?"
Too bad their rhetoric doesn’t match up to the reality. The people are going to come around to these games soon enough. The most radical man who is attempting to push abortion on so many levels never experienced before while the media plays along with his ‘deft’ handling of things. They are all jokers about to be exposed.
How many people still place American slavery at the center of their political identities?
It is a basic human rights issue.
There is a 2% population who put their sexual preference at the center of their political identity. And we hear about them and their political goals every day. Their numbers are significantly more than 2% of the mainstream media mouthpieces...
Abortion opponents wouldn't be placed as a group in total on a National Security Watch List circulated to local police agencies if they were truly viewed as "fellow citizens" (with legal rights of dissent) by this administration.
I get such a warm, fuzzy feeling every time I read about the incredible abilities of our great, dear leader. Just the fact that he is so good at being President, that he can solve problems with a single signature, that he can postone the rapture because America is raptured with him and Michelle, all of these make me so intensly proud that I just want to go apologize to some European for being an American.
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