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Conciliatory Fighting Words
Washington Post ^ | E. J. Dionne

Posted on 05/18/2009 6:36:38 AM PDT by steve-b

Facing down protesters who didn't want him at Notre Dame, President Obama fought back not with harsh words but with the most devastating weapons in his political arsenal: a call for "open hearts," "open minds," "fair-minded words" and a search for "common ground."

There were many messages sent from South Bend. Obama's opponents seek to reignite the culture wars. He doesn't. They would reduce religious faith to a narrow set of issues. He refused to join them. They often see theological arguments as leading to certainty. He opted for humility.

He did all this without skirting the abortion question and without flinching from the "controversy surrounding my visit here." The thunderous and repeated applause that greeted Obama and the Rev. John I. Jenkins, Notre Dame's president who took enormous grief for asking him to appear, stood as a rebuke to those who said the president should not have been invited....

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Politics/Elections; US: Indiana
KEYWORDS: abortion; babykilling; bo; murder; notredame; obama; prodeath; prolife
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To: steve-b

As I have noted before, Cardinal George met with Obama a couple of weeks ago - and Obama blandly insisted that they shared the “same views” on abortion! The Cardinal had to tell him several times that their views were NOT the same at all.

Obama is oily and slick, and his words have no intrinsic meaning but mean whatever he says they mean at a given moment. He also lies even more easily than Bill Clinton.


21 posted on 05/18/2009 6:58:43 AM PDT by livius
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To: ClearCase_guy

nope


22 posted on 05/18/2009 7:00:11 AM PDT by GOP Poet
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To: steve-b

Where is the BARF alert?


23 posted on 05/18/2009 7:05:35 AM PDT by Don Corleone ("Oil the gun..eat the cannolis. Take it to the Mattress.")
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To: steve-b

Rushing out the door for more Pepto Bismol. Meantime, I wonder if this was offered as “news” or political opinion? Being the WaPo, one must ask.


24 posted on 05/18/2009 7:05:48 AM PDT by Oldpuppymax (AGENDA OF THE LEFT EXPOSED)
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To: steve-b

“Cry ‘Havoc!’ and let slip the dogs of war”


25 posted on 05/18/2009 7:10:30 AM PDT by Recce0311
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To: steve-b; All

They always have it bass akwards.

Roe v wade “ignited the culture” war, and IT should be laid to rest.

Before Roe v Wade, abortion was not a nation-splitting issue; each state had it’s own abortion laws, some more restrictive than others.

New York state had the most liberal laws.

But that did not satisfy northeastern liberals.

They wanted, and demanded, that THE NATION have abortion laws as liberal as theirs.

Knowing they could not obtain that right from the people, they sought, and found judges who would dictate that mandate on everyone.

Were liberals, like Obama, not trying to keep the “culture war” alive, they’d agree that Roe v Wade should be put to rest and states again make their own decisions on abortion.

As usual, Obama has framed the question in a manner that avoids the issue, instead of confronting it.

The issue is not really abortion - the issue is the courts.


26 posted on 05/18/2009 7:16:36 AM PDT by Wuli
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To: steve-b

What’s next? “Common ground” on child molestation? Abortion is murder. You are either for infanticide or against it.


27 posted on 05/18/2009 7:20:01 AM PDT by Jaxter (Si Vis Pacem Para Bellum.)
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To: Noumenon
Who lives, who dies. That's the power they seek.

Yes it is, as noted in this line from yesterday's show:

Those who speak out against stem cell research may be rooted in an admirable conviction about 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.

Note: He left out the word "embryonic" before stem cell research.

28 posted on 05/18/2009 7:21:25 AM PDT by Just A Nobody (Better Dead than RED! NEVER AGAIN...Support our Troops! Beware the ENEMEDIA)
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To: steve-b

If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance...baffle them with bull$***


29 posted on 05/18/2009 7:22:39 AM PDT by sniper63 (Silent and stealthy - one shot - one kill)
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To: madameguinot

GD leftists are using the government to force their worldview on everyone, replacing faith with government, replacing family with government, criminalizing speech based on religious views,

AND _WE_ are the ones reigniting the culture wars?


30 posted on 05/18/2009 7:22:45 AM PDT by MrB (Go Galt now, Bowman later)
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To: steve-b
The thunderous and repeated applause that greeted Obama

Does E.J. Dionne work for the First Thug? He doesn't? Could have fooled me.

31 posted on 05/18/2009 7:23:18 AM PDT by kromike
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To: steve-b

question for Freepers: an ardent pro-life Catholic told me recently that Obama is on record as saying he believes that birth certificates for newborn babies should not be formalized until the child is 5 years old. For example, the medical team might see that a newborn, or even an older child, has serious defects requiring expensive medical interventions. Can this be documented? His position on the unsanctity of preborn life is bad enough, but I had never heard this.


32 posted on 05/18/2009 7:24:14 AM PDT by Cookie123
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To: Wuli

That’s the way with liberals -

they aren’t satisfied with having their ideology apply to themselves,

they MUST have everyone, everywhere comply with their ideology.


33 posted on 05/18/2009 7:24:31 AM PDT by MrB (Go Galt now, Bowman later)
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To: steve-b

I’m very glad I decided to skip breakfast.


34 posted on 05/18/2009 7:25:19 AM PDT by Julia H. (Remember when dissent was patriotic?)
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To: steve-b

To liberals, “common ground” on anything means “our way or the highway”. Barry assumes the sheeple will simply follow.


35 posted on 05/18/2009 7:25:27 AM PDT by TonyInOhio (The Second Amendment is the guarantor of the First Amendment.)
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To: Noumenon

Margaret Sanger was EVIL.

Planned Parenthood, founded by Margaret Sanger, gave 0bama the Margaret Sanger award.

That’s all we need to know to make an informed decision about him.


36 posted on 05/18/2009 7:27:31 AM PDT by zipper
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To: steve-b
O's idea of compromise is for everyone to agree w/ him.

That's neither compromise nor reconciliation; its plain BS.

As expected the msm will play up O's appearance as bravery/humility/compassion/genius and ridicule those who took a principled stand.

O is none of the above.

37 posted on 05/18/2009 7:27:53 AM PDT by Pietro
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To: Cookie123
Obama's just buying into the 'philosophy' promoted by Dr. Peter Singer. Singer is the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics(!) at Princeton University, and laureate professor at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics(!) (CAPPE), University of Melbourne. Not a crackpot in an attic somewhere, but a man of ideas, a man of influence.

Singer's ideas are all the Left needs to justify the most monstrous crimes against humanity. To hear the same stuff coming out Zero's mouth is chilling - because it means that the ideas that have animated history's worst mass murders now have a happy home in the White House. That distant thunder you hear is war. War is coming...

38 posted on 05/18/2009 2:19:29 PM PDT by Noumenon (As long as I have a rifle, I STILL have a vote...)
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To: Noumenon

Again, I have seen no documented evidence that Obama himself has actually advocated this. Am merely passing on what was told to me by someone else. It does, however, fit with some of his other policy positions.


39 posted on 05/18/2009 6:42:44 PM PDT by Cookie123
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